tihvavy  of trhe  t:heolo0ical  ^eminarjp 

PRINCETON    .   NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Joel  Schevers 

BX  945  .P3  1886  v. 6 
Parsons,  Reuben,  1841-1906. 
Studies  in  church  history 


/ 


STUDIES 


IN 


CHURCH  HISTORY 


BY 


REV.  REUBEN  PARSONS,  D.  D. 


VOL.    VI 
CENTURY    XIX.  (Part  II). 


THIRD    EDITION 


' '  That  a  theologian  should  be  well  versed  in 
history,  is  shown  by  the  fate  of  those  who, 
through  ignorance  of  history,  have  fallen  into 

error Whenever  we  theologians  preach, 

argue,    or    explain    Holy    Writ,  we  enter  the 
domain  of  history."  — 
Melchior  Canus,  Loc.  TheoL,  B.  XL,  c.  ii. 


JOHN  JOSEPH   McVEY 
PHILADELPHIA 


imprimatur: 


^  MICHAEL  AUGUSTINUS, 

Archieplscopui,  Neo-Eboracensis. 


Copyright,    1900, 

JOHN  JOSEPH  McVEY 


STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 


CHAPTEE   I. 

THE    BISMARCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAR  FOR  CIVILIZATION." 

After  the  persecution  of  Mgr.  Duniu,  archbishop  of  Gne- 
sen  and  Posen,  and  of  Mgr.  Droste-Vischering,  archbishop 
of  Cologne  (1),  the  Prussian  government  accorded  a  period 
of  rest  to  its  CathoHc  subjects  ;  and  when  the  Constitution  of 
1850  had  been  wrung  from  Frederick  WiUiaip  IV. ,  the  situation 
of  the  Catholics  became  at  least  tolerable,  principally  because 
of  tiie  creation  of  a  "  Catholic  Department "  in  the  Ministry 
of  Worship  and  of  Public  Instruction — an  institution,  the 
benefit  of  which  has  been  persistently  exaggerated  by  German 
enemies  of  the  Church,  but  which  certainly  enabled  the- 
Prussian  Catholics  to  lay  their  complaints  before  their  govern- 
ment. The  Catholics  of  Prussia  were  grateful  for  this  andl 
other  petty  instalments  of  justice  ;  and  the  Catholics  of  other 
German  states  so  far  forgot  the  almost  constant  history  of 
the  northern  kingdom  as  to  believe  that  it  could  desire  to 
treat  their  religion  with  something  approaching  to  equity. 
When  the  Franco-Prussian  war  of  1870  had  been  declared, 
and  the  Bavarian  Diet  was  hesitating  as  to  the  conrse  to  be 
pursued  by  the  Cabinet  of  Munich,  one  of  the  most  influential 
leaders  of  the  Catholic  party,  Peter  Reichensperger,  per- 
suaded his  colleagues  to  vote  for  tJie  Prussian  alliance.  No 
more  convincing  proof  than  this  tact  can  be  needed  to  de- 
monstrate tliat  the  Catholics  of  Germany  trusted  the  govern- 
ment of  Prussia  at  that  time.  But  they  did  not  know  the  spir- 
it of  that  government,  remarks  one  of  its  victims  (2),  as  it  was 

(1)  See  our  Vol.  v.,  p;  254  and  p.  257. 

(••J)  HMury  of  the  Persrcutinn  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Prusifia  (1870-1876),  tiij  Mgr. 
Janiszewski,  Auxiliarfi  Bishop  of  Post^n  and  Gnesen,  Formerly  Member  of  the  Dietni 
Berlin.    Paris,  1879. 


Z  STUDIES    m   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

known  bj  the  Polish  subjects  of  the  Hohenzollern — by  those 
heroic  Poles,  whose  complaints  against  the  government  of 
Berlin  the  deluded  German  Catholics  were  then  wont  to  de- 
ride. The  Catholics  of  Germany  seemed  not  to  realize  that 
their  co-religionists  of  the  Rhenish  Provinces  were  treated 
with  comparative  gentleness,  simply  because  of  their  geo- 
graphical position  ;  because  of  their  proximity  to  the  French 
frontier.  "It  was  a  great  fault  on  our  part,"  said  another 
victim,  Mgr.  Ketteler,  bishop  of  Mayence,  in  the  preface  to 
one  of  his  writings,  "  to  have  believed  in  the  stability  of  the 
Prussian  Constitution,  in  the  rights  which  it  plainly  allowed 
us.  We  were  blamable  for  having  believed  that  in  Prussia 
justice  could  triumph  over  the  inveterate  prejudice  against 
Catholics,  and  over  party  passion.  We  were  deceived  ;  but 
the  fault  is  not  one  which  should  cause  us  to  blush."  As 
for  William  I.,  the  Catholics  had  indeed  felt  some  anxiety 
when  he  mounted  the  throne  in  1861,  and  precisely  because 
of  his  Masonic  affiliations  ;  but  like  his  chancellor,  William 
I.  was  apt  at  dissimulation.  At  as  late  a  period  as  1870,  just 
after  the  new  German  Empire  had  been  proclaimed  at  Ver- 
sailles, and  when  the  dogs  of  persecution  were  about  to  be 
unleashed  against  his  too  faithful  Catholic  subjects,  the 
"  pious  and  loyal "  emperor-king  feigned  an  affectionate  inter- 
est in  the  independence  of  the  Holy  See  which  no  Catholic 
monarch  of  the  time  manifested.  Replying  to  an  address 
from  the  Knights  of  Malta  of  the  Rhenish  Provinces  and  of 
Westphalia,  he  said  :  "  I  regard  the  occupation  of  Rome  by 
the  Italians  as  an  act  of  violence  ;  and  when  this  war  is  end- 
ed, I  shall  not  fail  to  take  it  into  consideration,  in  concert 
with  other  sovereigns."  But  the  reverberations  of  the  last 
cannonades  of  the  Franco-German  war  had  scarcely  died 
away,  when  the  blindly  loyal  Prussian  Catholics  found  them- 
selves denounced,  threatened,  and  finally  crushed  ;  and  many 
of  the  priests  and  Sisters  of  Charity,  who  were  brutally  thrust 
out  of  the  empire,  had  just  been  decorated  by  the  persecutor 
in  testimony  to  their  heroic  care  for  the  German  wounded, 
both  Protestant  and  Catholic,  during  the  recent  struggle. 

At  that  time  Catholics  wondered,  and  ever  since  those 
days  they  have  wondered,  as  to  the  earthly  reason  for  this 


THE  BISltARCKIAX  SO-CALLED  "  WAU  FOR  CIVILIZATION."         3 

persecution.     Of  course,  the  prime  racjtive  was  to  be  sought 
in   the  iinphicable  hatred  of    the  powers   of   hell   for   the 
Church  of  God ;  but  by  what  argumeuts  had  Satau  induced 
"  German  intelliger.ee  "  to  become  his  instrument  in  the  at- 
tempt to  render  the  Hohenzollern  successful  in  a  task  which 
had  been  impossible  to  the  Hohenstaufen  ?     Some  discerned 
the  cause  of  the  persecution  in  the  revolutionary  principles 
adopted  by  Prussia  before  1866,  and  which  were  then  ap- 
plied— principles  which  logically  implied  the  direst  conse- 
quences (1).     Others  ascribed   the  madness   of   the  "  Iron 
Chancellor  "  and  of  his  imperial  tool  to  the  arrogance  which 
had  resulted  from  the  war  in  which  Germany,  aided  by  the 
anger  of  God  against  France,    had   been   so   unexpectedly 
successful— an  arrogance  which  seemed  to  ask :    "  Who  is 
our  God?  "     These  latter  speculativists  deemed  it  not  un- 
natural that  Prussia,   born   of  sacrilege,  should   have   con- 
ceived the  idea   that   to   her   was   reserved   the  "  historical 
mission "  to  complete  the   work  of  Luther.     However,  the 
Prussian  government  itself,  its  official  and   its  "  officious  " 
press,  and  its  agents  among  the  deputies  of  parliament,  en- 
deavored to  justify  the  barbarous  "  War  for  Civilization," 
firstly,  because  the  Vatican  Council  had  defined  the  dogma 
of  Papal  Infallibility  ;  secondly,  because  the  Catholic  Church 
had  "  assumed  an  attitude  of  aggression  against  the  laws 
of  the  State  ";  and  thirdly,  because  the  Catholics  had  con- 
tributed to  the  formation  of  the  parliamentary  party  which 
was  styled  the  Centre,  and  which  Bismarck  stigmatized  as  a 
"mobilization  against  the  State,"      In  regard  to  the  first 
excuse,  first  formulated  by  Bismarck  in  a   despatch  dated 
May  14,  1872,  and  which  was  acclaimed  by  "  German  intel- 
ligence "  as  though  it  believed  that  the  Roman  Pontiff  was 
about  to  lead  several  millions  of   soldiers  who  would  force 
all  heretics  and  Jews  to  obey  his  behests,  we  need  only  say 
that  less  than  four   months  before  he  wrote  this  despatch, 
that  is,  on  Jan.  30,  the  cliancellor  had  declared  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  State  to  abstain  from  all  interference  in  the 
dogmatic  teachings  of  the  Church.      On  this  occasion,  dur- 
ing a  parliamentary  discussion   as  to   whether  the  "  Lutz 

(1)  Jaxiszewski;  loc.  ci(.,  p.  11. 


STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 


Law,"  subjecting  the   pulpit   to  police  supervision,  should 
be  applied  also  to  primary   schools,  Bismarck   said  :    "  The 
Prussian  government  is  very  far  from  wishing  to  enter  on 
any  dogmatic  disputations  concerning  the  changes  (sic)  in  the 
teachings  of  the  Catholic   Church  ;  for  ever}-  one  of  those 
teachings,  which  are  received  by  so  many  German  citizens, 
ought  to  be  sacred  for  both  the  nation  and  the  government." 
As  for  the  second  excuse,  the  pretense  that  the  Church  was 
guilty  of  "  aggressions  "  on  the  authority  of  the  State,  the 
chancellor  never  pretended  to  substantiate  his  charge ;  when 
summoned  in  parliament  to  produce  his    proofs,   he  simply 
replied  :  "  Search  in  your  hearts,  gentlemen !  "  and  the  Lib- 
erals exploded  with  laughter,  because  of  what  they  deemed 
a  side-splitting  joke.      The  most  bitter  reproaches,  on  the 
part  of  the  Catholic  deputies,  never  induced  the  persecutor 
to  (lefend  his  course  with  anything  else  than  bare  assertion  ; 
hence  it  was  that  in  the  session  of  Feb.  4, 1874,  Mallinckrodt 
tliiis  reproved  the   Minister   of   Public   Instruction  :  "  The 
deputy,  Keichensperger,  in  his  last  discourse  on  this  matter, 
frequently  asked  the  Minister  for  proofs  of  his  allegations,  but 
the  Minister  thought  proper  to  remain  silent.     As  for  me,  I 
must  regard  this  course  as    worthy  of  an  intelligent    man  ; 
but  only  in  the  supposition  that  the  Minister  could  give  no 
satisfactory  reply.     But  in  spite  of  this  silence,  the  govern- 
ment, realizing  that  it  ought  to    show    the  world   that  it   is 
obliged  to  defend  itself,  and  knowing  that  it  cannot  justify 
its  conduct,  continually  advances,  in  all  of  its  arguments  for 
new   laws,    innumerable    assertions    which    it   presents    as 
axioms.    Thus  to-day,  in  the  first  paragraph  which  treats  of 
its  motives,  it  tells  us  of  '  proceedings  which  are  hostile  to 
the  State,'  of  a  war  '  which  is  forced  on  the  government,' 
and  of  '  means  which  the  State  must  adopt  in  its  own  defence.' 
There  is  as  much  truth  in  all   these  axioms  as  there  was  in 
the  famous  announcement  of  the  wolf  to  the  lamb  in  the 
ancient  fable."      The  third  excuse,  the  pretended  crime  of 
the  Catholics  in  helping  to  form  the  party  of  the  Centre,  a 
party  which  was  composed  of  Protestants  as  well  as  of  Cath- 
olics ;  every  man  of  sense  in  Germany  knew  well  that  the 
object  of  the  Centre  was  not  to  curtail  the   prerogatives  of 


THE  BISMARCKIAN  SO-C.\LLED  "  WAU  FOR  CIVIUZATION."  5 

the  new  empire,  but  solely  to  uphold  the  principles  which 
are  preservative  of  true  liberty  and  real  civilization,  princi- 
ples which  Bismarck  had  threatened  from  the  moment  of  the 
triumph  of  Germany  over  France.  After  the  war  with  Aus- 
tria in  18()(),  it  became  evident  to  all  the  conservatives  of 
Prussia  that  the  royal  chancellor  had  taken  Cavour  for  his 
model ;  and  after  the  Franco-German  war,  when  a  false  Lib- 
eralism began  to  dominate  all  Germany,  the  fears  of  the 
conservatives  were  augmented,  although  many  still  retained 
some  confidence  in  that  \Yilliam  I.  who  had  so  persistently 
talked  about  God  in  all  his  telegrams  from  the  battle-fields  of 
France,  and  in  that  Bismarck  whose  conservatism  had  been 
so  absurdly  extravagant  since  1848.  But  the  mask  soon  fell 
from  the  faces  of  both  emperor  and  chancellor ;  and  then, 
in  the  spring  of  1871,  a  few  of  the  principal  conservatives  (1) 
met  in  Berlin,  and  drew  up  the  following  programme  of 
political  action  :  "  I.  To  defend  as  a  fundamental  principle, 
the  federal  character  of  the  German  Empire  {Justitia  funda- 
menium  regnorum),  and  consequently  to  prevent,  by  every 
possible  means,  any  change  in  the  federal  character  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  empire,  and  to  yield  not  one  particle  of 
the  independence  of  the  several  states,  unless  such  conces- 
sion should  be  absolutely  necessary  for  the  integrity  of  the 
said  empire.  11.  To  uphold,  as  far  as  possible,  the  moral 
and  material  welfare  of  all  classes  of  the  population  ;  and 
to  endeavor  to  procure  Constitutional  guarantees  for  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  and  above  all  for  the  rights  of  religious 
associations,  against  the  violence  of  the  legislature.  III. 
Guided  by  these  principles,  the  party  (of  the  Centre)  will  de- 
liberate on  all  subjects  presented  in  the  imperial  jjarlia- 
ment ;  but  its  members  will  always  be  free  to  vote  in  a  sense 
contrary  to  that  of  the  majority."  Certainly  there  was 
nothing  in  this  programme  which  could  justify  the  Bis- 
marckian  assertion  that  the  Centre  was  a  "  mobilization 
against  the  State.'.' 

What  were   the  true   causes  of  the   pretended  "  War  for 
Civilization  "  ?     The  prime  author  of  the  persecution  was 

il)  Sayigny,  Windhorst  (of  Meppeti),  Mallinckrodt.  Probst,  Reichensperger(OIpe).  Lov- 
vensteiu,  and  Vrajtag. 


6  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

Bismarck ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  idea  of  such  a  move- 
ment would  not  have  been  conceived  even  by  that  self-con- 
fident personage,  had  he  not  found  the  way  for  it  already 
prepared — had  he  not  found  in  nearly  every  German  Prot- 
estant, Jewish,  and  infidel  mind,  a  number  of  notions  which 
had  attained  the  dignity  of  axioms,  and  whicli  had  only 
waited  for  Prussian  development  in  order  to  actuate  them- 
selves in  a  persecution  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  first  of 
these  notions  was  that  of  the  omnipotence  of  the  State,  the 
Caesarism  of  ancient  Paganism,  which  regarded  the  people 
as  existing  for  the  State  or  emperor,  ignoring  the  rational 
conception  that  the  State  or  emperor  should  be  for  the  peo- 
ple. "  These  instinctive  ideas  which  dominated  in  Prussia 
after  the  Reformation,"  says  Janiszewski,  "  were  soon  sys- 
tematized by  German  philosophy  ;  Fichte  eflfected  much  in 
this  regard,  but  the  Pantheism  of  Hegel,  with  its  theory  of 
an  absolute  State,  perfected  the  system.  That  which  the 
French  Revolution  actuated  in  a  moment  of  delirium,  Ger- 
man philosophy  reduced  to  precision,  recognizing  as  a  su- 
preme being  a  certain  absolute  which,  according  to  the  var- 
ious systems,  is  sometimes  ideal,  and  sometimes  material. 
This  absolute  idea,  this  supreme  something  with  various 
names,  is  by  its  own  nature  without  reason  and  without 
consciousness.  Thus  Hartmann,  one  of  the  latest  philoso- 
phers of  that  school,  called  its  teaching  '  the  philosophy  of 
that  which  has  no  consciousness  of  itself.'  That  which 
the  Christian  world  has  always  termed  '  God '  is,  according 
to  that  school,  an  ideal  unity,  a  Universal  All  which  has  an 
existence  only  in  the  imagination  of  its  adherents.  This 
creation  of  the  unregulated  mind  of  man  is,  to  speak  clearly, 
a  complete  deification  of  man  ;  and  since,  according  to  this 
system,  the  State  is  collective  individualism  endowed  with 
power,  it  follows  that  the  system  is  the  deification  of  the 
State.  The  relation  of  man  to  the  State  is  that  of  a  drop  to 
the  ocean  in  which  it  is  lost.  ...  No  wonder  that  with  such 
theories  for  a  foundation  of  philosophy,  we  hear  men  de- 
manding a  National  Church  !  If  God  is  confined  within  the 
limits  of  a  nation,  of  a  State,  how  can  the  Church,  estab- 
lished for  His  glorification,  be  universal  ?     On  theories  like 


THE  BISMARCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAll  FOE  CIVILIZATION.  7 

these  rests  all  science  in  Protestant  Germany,  and  especially 
in  Prussia.  On  these  principles  are  based  history,  the 
natural  sciences,  political  economy,  and  above  all,  Public 
Law.  From  the  chairs  of  the  Universities  these  ideas  si)read 
into  the  gi/nDicisia,  where  professors  and  students,  often  in 
good  faith,  advocate  principles  and  opinions  whose  baneful 
nature  they  do  not  perceive,  believing  that  through  them 
they  will  attain  the  light  of  true  civilization.  This  doctrine 
has  penetrated  all  Prussian  intelligence,  especially  in  the 
bureaucracy,  from  the  Ministers  down  to  the  ushers ;  and 
the  journalists  propagate  it  among  the  people,  without  under- 
standing it  themselves.  The  enlightened  men  of  Prussia 
have  been  trained  in  these  ideas  (1).  I  know  not  whether 
the  authors  of  the  persecution  really  proposed  to  annihilate 
Christianity  ;  but  it  is  indubitable  that,  starting  from  such 
principles,  and  holding  such  opinions  concerning  the  State, 
they  struck  at  the  heart  of  Christianity."  Based  as  it  was 
on  the  principles  just  described,  it  is  not  strange  that  "  Ger- 
man science "  should  have  entertained  an  extravagant  idea 
of  "  the  historical  mission  of  Prussia,"  that  mystical  thing 
which  was  known  as  "  Borrussianism,"  and  which  was  in- 
terpreted according  to  his  own  whims  by  every  heterodox 
politician,  Protestant  theologaster,  and  socialistic  dreamer 
in  Prussia,  although  all  of  these  united  in  denying  the  right 
of  existence  to  any  school  of  thought  which  opposed  their 
fantastic  doctriuarianism.  It  was  this  "  Borrussianism  " 
that  threw  Austria  out  of  Germany  in  1866  (2)  ;  and  under 
the  guidance  of  Bismarck  it  became  the  chief  instrument  in 
the  latest  German  persecution  of  the  Church.  And  it  may 
be  well  to  note  here  that  in  Bismarck,  the  chief  among  the 

(!)  In  his  famous  hook  entitled  The  Reptile  Fund,  Henry  Wiittke.  professor  in  tlie  Uni- 
versity of  Leipsic,  cites  a  remark  made  in  the  public  court  at  Mayence,  on  Dec.  19, 1873,  by 
the  imperial  procurator,  Schcen  :  "  The  emperor  Is  a  sacred  person,  whose  majesty  is 
superior  to  all  the  laws  of  the  State." 

(2)  *'  During  many  years,  the  Prussian  journals,  and  those  which  were  sold  to  Prussia, 
used  the  phrase,  *  The  Mission  of  Prussia  in  Germany,'  to  hide  the  greed  of  conquest  which 
tormented  the  Cabinet  of  Berlin.  After  the  victory  of  Prussia  (over  Austria)  in  1866,  most 
of  these  journals  went  into  transports  of  joy  because  Prussia  hart  happily  realized  ihe 
'  unity  ot  Germany.'  But  a  third  of  the  (iermans  had  been  excluded  from  Germany,  and 
these  gentry  prated  about  the  unity  of  Germany.  This  unity  of  Germany,  as  it  really  ex- 
ists, means  that  the  lesser  sovereigns  have  become  Prussian  prefects."  WrtTKK;  Tfie 
Reptile  Fund,  French  Transl.,  p.  158. 


O  STUDIES     IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

latest  apostles  of  "  Borrussianism,"  such  a  thing  as  German 
patriotism  was  an  unknown  quantity  during  the  greater  part 
of  his  active  political  career.  After  1848,  he  belonged  to 
the  Prussian  party  which  was  known  as  the  "  Junkers,"  a 
party  which  was  so  exclusively  Prussian,  that  it  hated  the 
mention  of  German  unity,  and  was  wont  to  distinguish  it- 
self by  fastening  the  German  cockades  to  the  tails  of  dogs. 
Alluding  to  this  "  Borrussianism  "  of  the  "  Junkers,"  Mgr. 
Janiszewski  declared  in  the  Diet  of  Berlin,  and  not  one 
voice  contradicted  him,  that  Bismarck,  the  vaunted  German 
patriot,  had  hitherto  been  one  of  those  who  lamented  : 
"  What  a  pity  it  is  that  no  one  has  yet  invented  a  Prussian 
language,  so  that  we  may  not  be  obliged  to  speak  in  tliat 
beggarly  German  tongue  !  "  (1).  Unless  one  remembers  the 
deej)  significance  of  this  "  Borrussianism,"  he  will  be  un- 
able to  account  for  the  wicked  absurdities  of  the  "  War  for 
Civilization"  ;  with  its  meaning  well  fixed  in  his  mind,  he 
will  be  surprised  by  none  of  the  extravagancies  which  it 
originated. 

(1)  "  Bismarck  was  generally  known  as  an  ardent  Prussian  patriot,  as  a  votary  of  the 
House  of  Hohenzolleru  ;  but  never  as  a  Grcj-jnao  patriot.  He  wisheil  to  see  Prussia,  and 
its  reiffning  family,  great  and  powerful;  as  for  Germany,  he  regarded  it  as  a  neighbor 
which  might  be  easily  conquered,  and  thus  become  a  means  for  the  aggrandizement  of 
Prussia.  Because  Bismarck,  at  a  convenient  moment,  raised  the  standard  of  German 
nationality,  are  we  to  consider  him  a  German  patriot "?  Did  he  not  act  similarly  in  Bohe- 
mia and  Hungary,  during  his  war  against  Austria?  His  love  for  a  nationality  lasted  as 
long  as  his  interests  demanded  such  affection.  'Vhe  Memnircs  of  General  La  Marmora 
demonstrate  the  Prussian  patriotism  of  Bismarck  ;  he  always  placed  Germany  in  the  rear. 
If  Germany  wastohfive  been  governed  by  the  House  of  Hapsburg  or  by  that  of  Wittelsbach 
(Bavaria),  would  the  patriotism  of  Bismarck  have  upheld  German  unity  ?  Would  he  not 
rattier  have  used  every  means  to  prevent  that  unity,  as  he  did  in  1848  and  the  ensuing 
years  ?  A  true  patriot  considers  only  the  unity  of  the  nation  ;  he  places  provincial  or 
dynastic  interests  in  a  secondary  position.  If  we  Poles  were  to-day  so  happy  as  to  be  able 
to  unite  the  fragments  of  our  dismembered  country,  would  we  dispute  as  to  what  family 
should  wear  the  crown  of  Poland  ?  Would  we,  merely  for  a  matter  of  minor  in  porta  nee, 
rep^l  from  the  unity  of  Poland  seven  or  ei.'ht  millions  of  our  brethren,  as  Bismarck  did  in 
the  affair  of  the  Austrian -Germans?  The  sole  object  of  Bismarck  was  to  clothe  all  Ger- 
mans in  the  Prussian  uniform,  and  to  put  a  Prussian  helmet  on  every  German  head.  It 
was  no  patriotic  enthusiasm  for  Germany  that  impelled  the  chancellor  to  war  on  the 
Catholic  Church  ;  he  was  impelled  by  the  d^■ep^y-rooted  ideas  of  Prussia  concerning  its 
■  historical  mission,'  and  by  the  Prussian  greed  of  glory,  which  had  been  excited  by  its 
recent  and  unexpected  successes.  This  intellectual  and  psychological  di^■position,  raised 
to  the  superlative  by  success,  so  blinded  Bismarck,  that  he  persuaded  himself  that  the 
'historical  mission' of  Prussia—or,  as  it  would  be  termed  in  Christian  language,  the 
*  providential  mission  '—reposed  entirely  on  his  shoulders  ;  that  he  alone  was  called  to 
conquer  the  ene.ny  of  the  State-Absolute,  an  enemy  which  no  power  of  earth  had  yet 
been  able  to  subdue.  Qmin  Dem  punij-e  vult,  dementat.''''  Janiszewski  ;  Joe.  cit., 
Ch.3. 


THE  BISMARCKIAN  SO-CVLLED  "  WAIl  FOK  CIVILIZATION."        \) 

Besides  the  theory  so  goueiully  received  in  Pnissi.i  ooii- 
<ceruiug  the  State-Absohite,  jiiid  the  fantastic  notion  of  ;i 
"historical  mission"  on  the  i)art  of  the  ]iran(h3nl)ur<.,'ers, 
there  were  other  causes  of  the  "  War  for  Civilization.  "  One 
of  these  was  Protestant  hatred  of  Koine ;  but  that  senti- 
ment externates  itself  so  naturally,  whenever  oj)portunity 
is  offered,  that  we  are  absolved  from  any  necessity  of  show- 
ing, at  any  great  length,  how  it  influenced  the  chancellor 
•during  the  prosecution  of  the  most  tremendous  of  his  en- 
terprises. Of  course  there  are  not  Avanting  publicists  who 
would  have  us  believe  that  the  prime  motive  of  Bismarck, 
when  he  entered  on  the  "War  for  Civilization,"  was  not  the 
destruction  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Germany  ;  that  his 
•great  object  was  the  annihilation  of  the  Centre,  the  i)arliamen- 
tary  party  which  formed  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  success  of  his 
policy  of  centralization.  And  it  is  true  that  he  once  remarked 
to  Ketteler,  bishop  of  Mayeuce  :  "  You  and  your  i)arty 
desire  to  undo  the  work  of  my  polic}-.  You  compel  me  to 
war  on  the  Church  ;  but  we  shall  see  who  will  prove  to  he. 
the  stronger  "  (1).  But  we  cannot  forget  that  as  far  l)ack 
as  1859,  Bennigsen,  one  of  the  accomplices  of  Bismarck, 
wrote  :  "  All  goes  well ;  now  we  have  but  one  citadel  to 
storm — that  of  Ultrainontanism "  (2).  And  in  the  sup- 
position that  the  persecution  of  the  Church  was  undertaken 
merely  as  a  means  for  crushing  the  Centre,  how  can  sve  ac- 
count for  the  fact  that  six  months  before  the  formation  of 
the  Centre,  that  is,  on  Oct.  24,  1870,  the  crown-prince,  the 
future  Frederick  III.,  wrote  in  that  private  diary  which  was 
afterward  published  by  Geffken :  "  Bismarck  tells  my 
brother-in-law  that  after  this  war  we  shall  enter  on  a  cam- 
paign against  Infallibility  ?  "  A  few  days  before  the  crown- 
prince  made  this  entry,  that  is,  on  Sept.  13,  the  chancellor, 
talking  to  the  mayor  of  Reims  on  the  influence  of  the  Latin 
peoples  whom  he  hated  so  virulently,  exclaimed  :  "  Once 
that  we  have  settled  with  Catholicism,  they  will  all  dis- 
appear." But  not  to  multiply  proofs  that  Bismarck's  per- 
secuting spirit  antedated  the  birth  of  the  Centre,  we  note  that 

(M  The  Paris  Univrrx,  Nov.  R  1878. 

(:i)  Bazis  :  Winilthorst,  Hv<  Allies,  ami  //is  Aihrrsarics,  p.  41.    Paris.  is9t>. 


10  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

the  Polish  Jew,  Lasker,  the  founder  of  the  "  National 
Liberal "  party,  avowed  in  the  Keichstag,  in  Nov.,  1873, 
that  he  and  his  friends  had  arranged  with  Bismarck  in  1869 
for  an  immediate  war  on  the  Catholic  Church  ;  and  that 
hostilities  had  been  deferred,  merely  because  German  unity 
was  not  yet  completed.  These  testimonies  lead  us  to  reject 
the  belief  that  hatred  of  the  Catholic  Church  was  not  the 
j^rimary  motive  for  the  "  War  for  Civilization  ";  but  we  do- 
not  deny  that  Bismarck  regarded  a  religious  war  as  a  dis- 
traction for  his  political  enemies — one  that  would  enable 
him  to  avoid  many  parliamentary  quarrels.  And  for  the 
purpose  of  attracting  to  himself  the  dog  of  Liberalism,, 
what  bone  could  he  throw  into  its  gaping  jaws,  which  would 
be  more  toothsome  than  Catholicism  ?  Again,  a  war  on  the 
Church  would  afford  the  absolutistic  chancellor  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  destruction  of  the  comparatively  liberal 
Prussian  Constitution  of  1850,  which  contravened  his 
projects  in  many  instances.  And  now,  before  we  dismiss 
this  subject  of  the  causes  of  the  "  War  for  Civilization,"  we 
must  not  fail  to  notice  the  close  alliance  which  then,  as  ever, 
subsisted  between  the  Prussian  government  and  Free- 
masonry. General  Selazinski  spoke  the  exact  truth  when,  in 
his  Freemasonry  and  Christendom,  which  was  printed  in 
Berlin  with  the  authorization  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Ger- 
many, he  said  :  "  Among  all  the  European  powers  which 
have  concerned  themselves  with  Masonry,  only  two  have 
been  consistent  :  Prussia,  which  has  always  protected  our 
order ;  and  the  Papacy,  which  has  ever  opposed  it."  William 
I.  had  been  an  ardent  Mason  since  1840.  On  Nov.  5,  1853, 
while  he  was  still  heir-apparent,  he  officiated,  in  his  ca- 
pacity of  Protector  of  all  the  German  Lodges,  at  the  in- 
itiation of  his  son,  the  future  Frederick  III.  ;  and  in  his 
salutatory  discourse,  he  said  to  the  young  adept :  "  Be 
a  firm  support  to  this  order !  If  you  are  such,  you  will 
not  only  assure  your  future,  luit  you  will  have  the  grand  satis- 
faction of  having  propagated  around  yourself  that  which  is 
beautiful  and  true  "  (1).  When  the  "  War  for  Civilization  " 
had  been  well  inaugurated,  the  organs  of  Masonry  deemed 

(1)  The  Masonic  BtrVuicr  Taoehlatt  for  Oct.,  1882. 


THE  BISMAllCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAR  FOli  CIVILIZATION."        11 

it  wise   to  forego  their  customary  policy  of  reticeuce  cou- 
cerniug    the    campaigns  aud  victories  of  the  order;  they 
coukl  not   restrain   their  joy    as   they  pictured   to   them- 
selves a  speedy  "  destruction  of  the  tii/amous  one,'"  and  they 
called  on  the  earth  to  witness  that  the  adepts  of  the  Square 
and  Triangle  had  taken  the  chief  part  in  the  foundation  of 
the  new  German  Empire,  and  in  the  "  glorious  "  war  then 
being  waged  against  the  Papacy.     Thus  the  B/icnish  Herald 
of  Oct.  25, 1873,  proclaimed  :  "  We  are  justified  in  asserting 
that  it  was  the  spirit  of  Freemasonry  which,  in  the  last  ar- 
raignment of  Ultramontanism,  pronounced  sentence  through 
the   ever-memorable  letter   of   His   Majesty   to   the    Pope. 
The  ideas   of   the   Emperor  William,    who,    as   every   one 
knows,  is  a    Freemason,  do  not  date  from  yesterday  ;  nor 
have  tiiose  ideas  been  inspired  only  by  his  actual  counsel- 
lors, as  certain  parties  would  have  men  believe.     Long  ago, 
when  the  emperor  was  in  the  flower  of  his  age,  he  announced 
those  ideas  in  a  session  of  our  order,    at  a  time   when  the 
world  held  a  very  different  opinion  in  regard  to  him.     On 
that  occasion,  he  gave  utterance  to  sentiments  which  befitted 
a  prince   and  a  man ;  and  he  has    proved    himself  faith- 
ful to  them.     If  he  now  fulfils  his  promises,  future  ages  will 
praise  him."     A  few  days  after  this  interesting  efi'usion  was 
published,   the   Freemasons   Journal  of   Leipsic  perorated 
as  follows  :  "  When  Freemasonry  is  thus  brought  into  the 
presence  of  two  antagonists,  that  is,  in  presence  of  the  emperor 
who,  in  his  fraternal  capacity,  protects  our  order,  and  in  the 
presence  of  the  Pope,  who  curses  it  and  would  sink  it  into  hell, 
it  can  and  ought  take  but  one  side.     It  must  range  itself  on 
the  side  where  it  is  loved.  . . .  Together  Nvith  the  emperor, 
we  are  progressing  toward  freedom  of  mind  without  sub- 
jection, toward  a  pacification  of  society  without   any   dis- 
tinction of  creeds,  and  toward  an  abolition   of  all  egoistic 
prejudices That    venerable  hero  is  our  Brother   (Will- 
iam I.  )  ;  he  is  bound  to  us  by  an  indestructible  chain.     The 
ideal  pursued  by  our  order  associates  him  witli  us;  with  us 
and  for  us,  he  handles  the  Mallet  of  force,  the  Square  of  wis- 
dom, and  the  Compass  of  a  common  inspiration  which  serves 
to  regulate,  according  to  an  ideal  type,  acts  which  are  worthy 


X2  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

of  man We  arc  confident  that  all  our  Brethren  are  ani- 
mated by  these  sentiments,  and  that  they  will  not  forget,  in 
the  banquets  which  are  given  on  stated  occasions,  to  kindle 
three  Hresin  honor  of,  and  for  the  love  of,  the  noble  old  man 
who  knows  how  to  combat  the  powers  of  darkness  which 
would  destroy  our  projects." 

The  first  information  concerning  the  hostile  intentions  of 
the  Prussian  government  in  their  regard  was  conveyed  to  the 
Catholics  by  a  sequence  of  articles  in  the  Gazette  of  the  Cross,. 
a  journal  which  was  practically  owned  by  Bismarck  ;  and  very 
soon,  that  is,  during  the  first  months  of  1871,  all  the  subsi- 
dized press — those  journals  which  now  came  to  be  known  as 
the  "  reptile  press  " — began  to  ring  the  changes  on  the  impu- 
dent lies  of  the  chancellor.  The  world  was  informed  that,  hav- 
ing vanquished  "  her  external  enemies,"  Germany  had  now  de- 
termined to  conquer  "  her  internal  foes  "  ;  namely,  the  Ultra- 
montanes  who,  by  their  acceptance  of  the  decrees  of  the  Vati- 
can Council,  had  "  caused  a  lamentable  division  in  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  were  thus  endangering  the  peace  of  the  empire." 
It  was  not  the  intention  of  His  Majesty,  the  world  was 
assured,  to  disturb  the  "  real  Catholics  "  (so  the  chancellor 
styled  the  handful  of  Dollingerites)  ;  the  enemy  was  that 
"  Jesuitism  "  which  had  become  insupportable,  since  the  de- 
claration of  Papal  Infallibility.  The  first  attack  on  the 
Catholics,  or  on  Jesuitism,  as  the  lying  Minister  described 
it,  was  the  suppression  of  the  Catholic  Department  in  the 
Ministry  of  Worship  on  July  8,  1871 — a  measure  \\  Inch  was 
equivalent  to  a  declaration  that  thereafter  the  government 
would  pay  no  attention  to  any  grievances  which  the  Catholics 
mio-lit  suffer.  Tlie  next  blow  was  directed  against  a  dogma 
of  Catholic  faith,  and  against  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  A 
priest  named  Wolmann,  professor  of  religion  in  the  Catholic 
College  of  Braunsberg,  having  persisted  in  rejecting  the  Vat- 
ican decrees,  his  ordinary,  the  bishop  of  Ermland,  had  ex- 
communicated him.  In  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  parents 
of  the  students,  the  Minister  of  Worship  threatened  with  ex- 
pulsion all  the  lads  who  would  not  take  their  lessons  in  the 
Catholic  faith  from  an  excommunicated  man.  The  third  en- 
terprise was  directed  against  "  the  abuses  of  the  pulpit."     A 


THE  BISMARCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAlt  Foil  CIVILIZATION.'"         13 

law  was  proi)()se(l  in  the  German  Reii'lista^  by  tlie  Bavarian 
Minister,  Lutz,  an  avowed  patron  of  the  "  Old  Catholics,"  ac- 
cording to  which  imprisonment  for  perhaps  two  jc^ars  was 
to  be  tlie  punishment  of  any  priest  who,  in  a  clmrcli  or  else- 
wliere,  in  a  sermon  or  in  any  kind  of  speecli,  shouhl  "  dis- 
turb public  tranquillity."  This  law,  sacrificing  to  "  Ijor- 
russianism"  the  liberty  and  honor  of  all  the  German  clergy, 
was  rushed  through  the  Reichstag  on  Nov.  28.  In  Feb.,,  1872, 
the  same  Reichstag  was  asked  to  consider  a  law  which  would 
deprive  the  clergy  of  their  right  of  surveillance  over  primary 
schools  ;  the  law  was  passed,  and  the  consequences  were  terri- 
ble. In  some  places,  the  new  government  inspectm's  forbade 
the  children  to  use  the  "  superstitious  "  salutation,  "  Praised 
be  Jesus  Christ !  "  universally  given  by  German  Catholics 
where  we  are  satisfied  with  a  "  How  d'y  do?  "  In  many  dis- 
tricts the  crucifixes  and  hoh*  pictures  were  thrown  out  of  the 
schools,  and  were  replaced  by  portraits  of  their  Sacred  Majes- 
ties, the  emj)eror  and  empress.  In  nearly  all  schools  the 
little  pupils  were  taught  that  the  Biblical  stories  with  which 
their  Catholic  teachers  had  loaded  their  memories,  were  mere 
fables.  Some  inspectors  gave  to  young  girls  themes  for 
composition,  which  were  more  "  patriotic  "  than  moral ;  thus,  a 
favorite  subject  was  :  "What  are  the  sentiments  which  ought 
to  agitate  the  heart  of  a  young  woman,  when  she  sees  an  officer 
of  hussars  ?  "  (1).  From  the  middle  of  May  until  the  end  of 
June,  the  imperial  government  occupied  itself  with  measures 
for  the  expulsion  of  all  Jesuits  and  their  "  affiliated  orders  " 
from  the  empire.  The  impudence  of  the  design  was  so  pat- 
ent, however,  that  it  became  necessary  to  show  that  the  gov- 
ernmental action  was  caused  by  the  "  pressure  of  public  opin- 
ion." On  Sept.  22, 1871,  the  "  Old  Catholics  "  had  proclaimed, 
in  their  Congress  of  Munich,  that  the  good  of  the  State  deman- 
ded the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits.  "It  is  notorious,"  said  the 
Dijllingerites  in  the  sixth  article  of  their  programme,  "  that  the 
said  Society  of  Jesus  is  the  cause  of  the  dissensions  at  present 
troubling  the  Catholic  Church.  This  Society  uses  its  power- 
ful influence  in  order  to  propagate  in  the  hierarchy,  among  the 
clergy,  and  among  the  people,  tendencies  which  are  contrary 

(!)  Jaxiszkwski  ;  loc.  cit.,  p.  115. 


14  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

to  civilization,  dangerous  to  the  State,  aud  anti-national.  It 
preaches  a  false  morality,  and  it  strives  for  power.  Therefore 
we  are  of  opinion  that  peace,  happiness,  and  unity  in  the 
Church,  as  well  as  amicable  relations  between  the  Church  and 
civil  society,  are  impossible,  if  an  end  is  not  put  to  the  bane- 
ful proceedings  of  this  Society."  It  was  to  this  declaration  of 
a  few  excommunicated  recalcitrants  that  Bismarck  pointed, 
when  he  asserted  that  even  among  Catholics,  "  public  opinion  " 
called  for  the  banishment  of  the  Jesuits.  That  the  same  ac- 
tion was  demanded  by  "  public  opinion  "  among  Protestants, 
was  said  to  be  evident  from  the  fact  that  a  representative  body 
of  Protestants,  who  had  met  at  Darmstadt  eight  days  after  the 
"  Old  Catholic  "  pronouncement,  had  adopted  a  resolution  con- 
demning the  Jesuits  in  the  strongest  terms.  In  the  parliamen- 
tary debates  to  which  this  "  public  opinion  "  gave  rise,  it  was 
evident  that  the  ministerial  orators  were  attacking  the  Catholic 
Church,  although  the  Jesuits  alone  were  mentioned  ;  one  of 
these  declaimers,  Windthorst  of  Berlin  (never  to  be  con- 
founded with  his  uncle,  Windthorst  of  Meppen),  in  a  moment 
of  passion,  exclaimed  :  "  There  is  no  other  way.  '  Ecrasez 
V  infume  !  '  "  By  a  vote  of  181  against  63,  the  German  par- 
liament banished  from  the  empire  "  the  Society  of  Jesus,  as 
well  as  all  the  orders  or  congregations  affiliated  to  it."  In  vain 
the  Catholics  of  Westphalia  and  of  the  Rhenish  Provinces 
appealed  for  relief  to  the  much-vaunted  justice  of  the  emper- 
or ;  the  "  pious  and  loyal "  William  I.  refused  to  receive  their 
deputation,  and  on  July  4, 1872,  he  signed  the  infamous  de- 
cree. The  reader  will  note  that  this  ordinance  was  framed  so 
as  to  affect  not  only  the  Society  of  Jesus,  but  also  "  all  the 
orders  or  congregations  affiliated  to  it."  This  provision 
accentuated  the  malice  of  the  chancellor  and  his  worshippers. 
There  never  have  been,  and  are  not  now,  any  orders  or  congre- 
gations in  "  affiliation  "  with  the  Jesuits  ;  the  sole  connection 
between  the  sons  of  Loyola  and  the  members  of  any  other 
society  is  that  which  must  subsist  among  all  the  children  of 
the  Church.  But  Bismarck  chose  to  affect  the  crass  ignor- 
ance which  is  frequently  found  among  Protestants,  as  they 
unwittingly  compliment  the  celebrated  Society  by  an  appli- 
cation of  the  term  "  Jesuit "  to  every  uncompromising  Catli- 


THE  li.iSJVlAilCKlAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAK  FOK  CIVILIZATION.  lo 

olic ;  aud  the  eveut  proved  that  when  the  chancellor  pro- 
claimed tile  same  punishment  for  the  Jesuits  and  their  "  affili- 
ated orders  or  congregations,"  he  prepared  the  way  for  the 
banishment,  at  his  convenience,  of  any  religious  who  might 
incur  his  displeasure. 

The  incidents  which  we  have  just  narrated  were  mere  pre- 
ludes to  the  "  AVar  for  Civilizatiou,"  on  which  the  German 
enemies  of  the  Church  had  already  resolved,  and  which  was 
solemnly  declared  in  May,  1873,  by  the  promulgation  of 
those  enactments  which  have  rendered  the  name  of  Falk 
infamous,  but  which  are  often  designated  as  the  "  May 
Laws."  Some  time  before  Bismarck  entered  on  his  great- 
est enterprise,  Friedeberg,  a  professor  of  law  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Leipsic,  who  was  afterward  made  a  privy-councillor 
to  Falk,  had  published  a  work  entitled  The  German  Empire 
and  the  Catholic  Church,  in  which  he  had  detailed,  with  an 
effrontery  which  was  almost  Satanic,  a  plan  for  the  complete 
extirpation  of  Catholicism  in  Germany,  for  the  greater  glory 
of  Prussia,  and  of  free  thought.  Friedeberg  disagreed  with 
the  doctrinarians  who  thought  that  thepower  of  Catholicism 
could  be  diminished  by  a  separation  of  Church  and  State. 
On  the  contrary,  said  Friedeberg,  such  a  separation  would 
be  of  great  profit  to  the  Church  ;  since  in  our  day  Catholicism 
is  in  perfect  accord  with  the  people.  Were  the  Church  of 
Rome,  he  added,  as  free  from  governmental  surveillance  in 
Prussia  as  she  is  in  the  United  States  of  America,  her  power 
in  Prussia  would  be  more  than  doubled.  Again,  observed 
the  professor,  Protestantism  in  Prussia  would  suffer  greatly, 
if  Church  and  State  were  separated  ;  indeed,  without  the  aid 
of  the  State,  Protestantism  would  perish  in  Prussia.  Let  the 
State  continue,  therefore,  to  aid  its  most  valuable  ally  in  its 
struggle  with  Catholicism.  Finally,  insisted  Friedeberg,  a 
separation  of  Church  aud  State  in  Germany  would  injure  the 
"  Old  Catholics,"  the  men  whom  Prussia  had  encouraged  to 
revolt  with  her  promises  of  pecuniary  and  other  aid.  Tlien 
Friedeberg  thus  resumed  his  plan  :  "  AVe  have  indicated  our 
reasons  for  not  wishing,  at  the  present,  for  a  separation  of 
Church  and  State  ;  and  we  have  also  pointed  out  the  path,  on 
which  the  State  should  enter.     If,  as  we  think,  the  Church 


16  STUDIES   IN    CHUltCH    HISTOKY. 

must  one  day  be  cut  away  from  the  social  body,  we  should 
begin  now  to  prepare  for  that  operation,  so  that  it  will  in- 
jure or  weaken  the  State  as  little  as  possible.  In  the  mean- 
time, let  us  put  a  ligature  on  the  artery  through  which  runs  . 
the  blood  of  the  Church— that  artery  which  communicates  to 
the  Church  the  strength  and  life  of  the  State.  AVe  should 
isolate  the  ecclesiastical  limb  gradually,  accustoming  the 
State  to  do  without  it,  so  that  when  the  amputation  is  finally 
made,  the  loss  of  the  limb  will  not  be  perceived.  There  will 
not  be  much  blood  lost,  and  the  wound  ^^  ill  cicatrize  quick- 
ly." Such  was  the  plan  adopted  by  Bismarck  ;  the  Church 
was  to  be  cut  away  from  the  social  body  ;  but  the  operation 
was  to  be  performed  so  dexterously,  that  the  patient  should 
not  screech  too  fearfully,  and  the  State  should  not  receive  too 
serious  a  shock.  Had  the  Catholic  Church  been  an  insti- 
tution of  the  State,  like  Prussian  Evangelical  Protestantism, 
with  the  sovereign  for  its  supreme  pontiff,  then  Friedeberg, 
Bismarck,  and  Falk  would  have  been  numbered  among  the 
"  great  men  "  of  the  world.  Very  little  study  of  the  "  May 
Laws  "  is  required  for  the  conclusion  that  they  were  well 
designed  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  intention  of  Friede- 
berg — "  to  asj^hyxiate  the  Church,  and  to  dry  up  her  vital 
source."  The  first  of  these  laws,  enacted  by  the  Diet  of 
Berlin  on  May  11,  1873,  concerned  the  education  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  nomination  to  ecclesiastical  offices.  It  or- 
dered that  no  person  could  exercise  ecclesiastical  functions 
in  Prussia,  unless  he  was  a  German  ;  unless  he  had  been  ed- 
ucated according  to  the  terms  of  the  law  ;  and  unless  he  was 
perfectly  acceptable  to  the  government.  The  education  of 
all  prospective  priests  was  to  be  conducted  by  the  State. 
The  aspirant  was  to  take  his  bachelor's  degree  in  a  govern- 
ment gymnasium  :  during  three  years  he  was  to  study  what 
the  State  designated  as  theology  in  a  German  University  ;  and 
an  examiDation  by  officers  of  the  Stnte  was  to  finally  pro- 
nounce on  liis  fitness  for  tlie  priesthood.  Every  ecclesiastic- 
al educational  establishment  was  to  besuiiject,  at  all  hours 
and  in  every  matter,  to  governmental  surveillance.  No  nom- 
ination to  a  parish  or  to  any  care  of  souls  could  be  made  by 
a  bishop  without  the  approbation    of  the  civil   authority 


THE  BISMARCKUN  SO-CALLED  "  WAll  FOR  CIVILIZA'HON."        17 

The  secoud  law,  enacted  on  May  12,  concerned  ecclesiastic- 
al discipline ;  and  its  spirit  was  that  of  the  preceding  or- 
ilinance.  The  Roman  Pontill"  could  have  no  voice  in  any 
matter  concerning  discii)liue  in  any  diocese  or  parish  of 
Prussia ;  for  all  disciplinary  ecclesiastical  matters  were  de- 
clared to  pertain  exclusively  to  German  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity, exercised  with  the  permission  of  the  government.  And 
the  last  appeal  in  all  cases  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  was  to 
be  made  to  a  royal  tribunal,  sitting  in  Berlin ;  this  court  was 
to  dismiss  bishops  and  priests,  as  though  they  were  so  many 
sub-prefects  of  the  State.  The  third  law,  enacted  on  May 
13,  prohibited  any  ecclesiastical  censure  of  any  act  command- 
ed by  the  State.  All  public  excommunication  was  absolute- 
ly forbidden.  The  fourth  law,  enacted  on  May  14,  ordered 
that  when  any  person  wished  to  change  his  religion,  he 
should  signify  that  desire  to  the  Minister  of  Public  Worship, 
who  would  charge  him  one  march  for  a  permissive  license. 
Our  limited  space  forbids  citations  from  the  protests  issued 
by  the  Prussian  bishops  against  these  laws,  or  from  the 
many  eloquent  speeches  condemning  them  which  were  pro- 
nounced in  the  Prussian  parliament  by  Mallinckrodt,  Wind- 
thorst  (of  Meppen),  and  other  valiant  members  of  the  Centre. 
The  efforts  of  these  champions  were  of  no  avail ;  the  united 
forces  of  Protestantism,  Freemasonry,  "  Borrussianism," 
Judaism,  and  "  German  intelligence,"  had  decided  "to  crush 
the  infamous  one,"  even  though  their  weapons  constituted 
a  serious  danger  for  public  liberty.  In  a  cynical  discourse 
which  was  worthy  of  his  school,  Wirchow,  one  of  the  most 
prominent  representatives  of  materialistic  "  German  science," 
admitted  quite  cheerfully  that  tlie  May  Laws  were  "  ar- 
bitrary in  the  extreme,  and  dangerous  to  liberty  "  ;  but, 
he  added:  "Since  we  need  not  fear  that  the  Centre  will 
soon  attain  power,  and  since  these  arbitrary  laws  injure  tlie 
Catholic  Church  alone,  we  ought  to  adopt  them."  This  ad- 
mission that  the  May  Laws  Avould  injure "  the  Catholic 
Church  alone  "  is  very  significant ;  for  the  reader  must  know 
that  those  ordinances  ostensibly  affected  the  Protestants  as 
well  as  the  Catholics.  Falk  had  announced,  liowever,  that 
the  enactments  had  been  made  to  a])ply  to  Protestants  "for 


18  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

the  sake  of  symmetry  "  ;  that  is,  that  the  government  wished 
to  present  the  appearance  of  impartiality,  knowing  full 
well  that  the  Protestants  of  Prussia  had  been  accustomed  so 
long  to  State-slavery,  that  it  was  a  matter  of  small  conse- . 
quence  to  them  when  they  were  loaded  with  a  few  more 
chains.  And  two  other  facts  must  be  considered.  Nothing 
in  the  Falk  Laws  afiected  the  conscience  of  a  Protestant, 
even  of  a  sincere  one  ;  and  even  though  the  sectarian  con- 
science had  been  affected,  it  would  have  regarded  as  too 
Jjeavy  no  sacrifice  which  might  purchase  the  degradation  of 
tht  Catholic  Church.  Some  curious  persons  asked  Falk  why 
it  WHS  that  the  Jev/s  were  not  included  among  those  affected 
by  his  Laws  ;  the  reply  was  that  "  the  government  did  not 
perceive  j,ny  practical  necessity  "  of  including  the  children 
of  Abrahanv.  Had  he  dared,  the  Minister  would  have  as- 
signed the  true  reason  for  the  Jewish  exemption — the  pleth- 
oric purses  of  ihe  Jewish  magnates,  without  whose  aid  the 
power  even  of  Bismarck  would  have  vanished  into  thin  air. 

We  need  not  insult  the  intelligence  of  the  reader  by  any 
lengthy  disquisitum  on  the  absurd  lie  uttered  by  Bismarck, 
when  he  termed  his  war  on  Catholicism  a  "  War  for  Civili- 
zation." Even  a  tyro,  in  the  study  of  history  knows  that  m 
the  combat  against  truth  and  virtue,  error  and  sin  never  wage 
war  under  their  own  names  ;  that  from  the  time  of  Lucifer's 
rebellion  down  to  the  exploits  of  the  Commune  of  Paris, 
evil  has  always  clothed  itself  in  the  mantle  of  enlightenment 
and  progress.  Even  "  German  science,"  in  which  Bismarck 
was  an  adept,  is  forced  to  admit  that  to  the  Catholic  Church 
alone  is  due  the  fact  that  the  modern  Germans  are  not  now 
barbarians;  and  that  to  the  Catholic  Church  alone  did  the 
original  Prussians — a  Slavic,  not  a  Germanic  tribe — owe 
their  liberation  from  the  degrading  idolatry  to  which  they  had 
been  victims  for  centuries  after  the  other  European  bar- 
barians had  become  civilized  under  the  shadow  of  the  Cross. 
And  truly  phenomenal  impudence  was  requisite  for  the  asser- 
tion that  a  state  of  war  existed  between  parties,  only  one  of 
whom  was  armed,  and  with  the  weapons  of  confiscations,  im- 
prisonment, and  exile,  while  the  resistance  of  the  other  con- 
sisted only  of  fidelity  to  God's  law,  and  of  invincible  patience 


THE   lUS.MAliCKI.VN  S'J-CALLED  "  WAR  FoR  CIVILIZATION."       19 

under  persecution.     Some  iiublicists  luive  qualified  the  plirase 
"  War  for  Civilization"  as  a  convenient  euphemism  ;  but  that 
which  it  meant  was  a  downright  lie      "  In  the  entire  course 
of  this  afVair,"  observes  Mgr.    Janiszewski,  "the  government 
and  the  pseudo-liberal  i)artj  cared  nothing  for  law,  truth,  or 
justice  ;  thej  thought  of  nothing  but  the  attainment  of  their 
object.     The  means  could  be  of  any  nature,  since  it  was  the 
Catholic  Church  that  was  to  suffer.     At  different  periods,  dif- 
ferent passions  and  vices  have  dominated  other  passions  and 
vices  ;  the  inheritance  of  our  time  is  falsehood.     It   was  on 
falsehood  that  the  plan  of  the  war  of  Prussia  against  Austria 
(1806),  and  that  of  the  Avar  against  France  (1870),  were  based  ; 
it   was   falsehood  that   characterized  the  entire  conspiracy 
against  the  Church.     Falsehood,    systematically   developed 
and    abundantly    rewarded,    took    possession    of   the  press, 
and   not   a  ray   of   truth    was  allowed  to  reach  the  people. 
The  German  language  itself  was  travestied.     Such  words  as 
'culture,'    'instruction,'     'civilization,'    'liberty,'    'science,' 
'  LiberaJsm,'  '  Ultramontanism,'  '  progress,'    and   other   ex- 
pressions which  often  seduce  simple  minds,  received,  in  this 
chaos,  meanings  which  sound  reason  and  logic  never  dreamed 
of  attributing  to  them."     It  was  but  natural  that  such  should 
be  the  course  of  a  party   which  brazenly  avowed  that  it  de- 
spised mere  principles.     Thus  that  most  "  intelligent "  Pro- 
gressist, Wirchow,  when  told  in  the  parliament  that  the  May 
Laws  violated  the  Prussian  Constitution,  brutally  retorted:  "  I 
care  not  to  bother  my  brains  in  an  effort  to  save  mere  principles, 
since  the  government  now  abandons  such  things  in  order  to 
act  in  accordance  with  the  desires  of  its  party."     Mere  trutli 
was  a  matter  of  no  value  to  the    "man  of  blood  and  iron" 
who  affected  to  scorn  everything  that  savored  of  the  Middle 
Age ;  to  the  Minister  who  dared,  on  June  16, 1873,  to  inform  the 
Reichstag  that  he  "wished  to  be  excused  from  listening  to  any 
more  talk  about  the  pretended  rights  of  the  people— mere 
reminiscences  of  days  long  vanished,  and  which  merit  no  other 
designation  than  that  of  declamatory  phrases." 

On  Jan.  19,  1874,  Falk  asked  the 'Prussian  Diet  to  pass 
tliree  achlitional  draconian  enactments.  It  had  become  evi- 
dent that  the  imprisonment  or  exile  of  all  the  Catholic  bish- 


20  STUDIES   IN    CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

ops  would  soon  render  the  Catholic  dioceses  vacant  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Prussian  government ;  and  that  only  the  apostate, 
Reinkens,  would  be  recognized  by  His  Imperial  and  Koy  al  Ma- 
jesty as  a  Catholic  bishop.     It  was  necessary,  therefore,  to  • 
provide  for  the  administration  of  the  prospectivel}-  vacant 
sees.     The  second  law  was  a  complement  of  that  of  May  11, 
1873,  which  prescribed  the  method  and  nature  of  the  education 
of  the  clergy,  and  also  regulated  all  appointments  to  the  care 
of  souls.     The  third  law  concerned  the  banishment  of  the  re- 
calcitrant clergy  ;  and  this  measure  was  to  be  voted  not  only 
by  the  Prussian  Chambers,  but  also  by  the  German  parliament 
— a  proceeding  which  would   make  it  a  law  of  the  German 
Empire.    The  representative  of  Bismarck  informed  the  Cham- 
bers that  the  object  of  this  third  law  was  to  crush  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  Catholic  clergy  to  the  May  Laws  ;  to  "  prevent  auy 
illegal  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  functions  "  ;  that  is,  to  prevent 
any  bishops  from  performing  any  duties  pertaining  peculiarly 
to  their  office,  and  to  prevent  all  priests  from  saying  Mass,  hear- 
ing confessions,  or  preaching,  without  the  express  permis- 
sion of  His  Sacred  Majesty's  officers.     This  law  was  passed  on 
May  4th.     Every  ecclesiastic  who  had  already  been  "  dis- 
missed "   because  of  a  violation    of  the  May  Laws,  or  who 
would  thereafter  be  "  dismissed,"   would  be  punished,  by 
"  internment,"  or  by  "  externment,"  or  by  banishment,  if  he 
dared  to   officiate  in   any  manner.     The    "interned"    were 
transported  to   some   place  which   the   police   designated ; 
frequently  to  some  fortress,  as   in   the   case  of   the  bishop 
of  Paderborn,  who  was  "  interned"  in  the  fortress  of  Wesel. 
"  Externment "  signified  expulsion  from  certain  provinces. 
Thus,  the  valiant  Polander,  Mgr.  Ledochowski,  archbishop 
of   Posen    and    Gnesen,  besides  two  years  of  imprisonment, 
suffered  exclusion  from    Posen   and   Silesia.      Banishment 
entailed  the  loss  of  all  civic  rights.     Mgr.  Melchers,  arch- 
bishop   of    Cologne,  was    imprisoned    with  a  horde  of  rob- 
bers   and    cut-throats    for  six    months,    and    then   he    was 
exiled    (1).      Mgr.    Eberhardt,   bishop   of   Treves,   died  in 

(1)  When  M;rr.  Melchers,  on  his  eutranre  into  his  prison,  was  askrd  to  give  his  name 
and  ocenpation,  he  naturally  replied  :  "  Paul  Melchers.  archbishop  of  Cologne."  The 
governor  retorted  :  "  You  were  an  archbishop  at  one  time  ;  but  the  governtnent  has  de- 
prived vou  of  that  title."    Then  the  prelate  replied :  "  The  government  cannot  take  from 


THE  BISMAItCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAR  FOU  CIVILIZATION."       21 

jail.     The  Polish  prelate,  Mgr.  Janiszewski,  auxiliary-bishop 
of   Poseii    aud    Gnesen,  was    successively    fined,    interued, 
imprisoned,  and  exiled.     Another  Pole,  Mgr.  C^'bichowski, 
auxiliary  of  Gnesen,  merely  for  having  presumed  to  conse- 
crate the  Holy  Oils  without  the  permission  of  the  govern- 
ment, was  imprisoned  for  nine  months,  and  then  he  was  de- 
ported to  Silesia.     On  May  20th,  the  parliament  passed  the 
law   which    Bismarck    and    his    imperial  master  (or  pupil) 
deemed  capable  of  checking  the  audacity  of  those  who  re- 
garded the  "  dismissed  "  bishops  and  pastors  as  still  endowed 
with  spiritual  jurisdiction.     The  Cathedral  Chapters  were 
ordered,  in  case  "  dismissal "  had  left  their  dioceses  with- 
out bishops,  to  name  administrators  within  ten  days  ;  if  the 
Chapters  refused  to  name  such  administrators,  tlie  govern- 
ment would  appoint  commissioners  who  would  take  the  place 
of  the  bishops.     Where  parishes  were  vacant,  the  parishioners 
were   to   elect   their  new  pastors.     It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  while  very  many  of  the  so-called  "  conservative  "  Protest- 
ants openly  disapproved  of  the  laws  of  Maj^  4th  aud  May  20tli, 
1874,  they  nevertheless  voted  for  them.     One  of  their  leaders, 
Minnigerode,  did  not  hesitate  to  avow  :  "  In  spite  of  grave 
doubts   and   grave   scruples,    I   cannot  allow  the  Prussian 
government   to   be    defeated   by    the   Ultramontanes.       In 
spite  of  the  perplexities  of  my  conscience,  I  shall  vote  for 
the  law,  in  order  to  help  the  government."     Another  prom- 
inent   "  conservative  "   Protestant,  Miquel,  said  :  "  We  can- 
not   leave    the    Prussian   government    in   an   embarrassed 
condition ;   we   are   obliged  to  aid  it."      These   avowals    of 
the   least   rampant    of   the    German    Protestant   represen- 
tatives are   certainly   eloquent ;   but  if   there  was  any  need 
of   demonstrating   more   forcibly   that    in    the    "  AVar    for 
Civilization,"  justice    counted    for    nothing,    and    that    ser- 
vility to  the  State  was  the  dominant  trait  of  such  of  the 
German  Protestants  as   still  retained  some  faith  in  Chris- 
tianity,  the   following  words  of  Wellel  Vehlingsdorf  should 

me  a  power  which  it  did  not  give  to  me  ;  but  if  my  title  of  archbishan  does  not  satisfy  you,  I 
have  another  profession."—"  What  is  it  ?  "  aisked  the  olHcer.  '*  I  am  good  at  plaiting 
straw,"  was  the  answer.  The  name  of  '*  Paul  Melchers.  straw-plaiter."  was  then  entered 
on  the  register ;  and  while  he  was  incarcerated,  the,  plaiting  of  straw  was  the  arch- 
bishop's task.    Bazin  ;  Inc.  ci(.,  p.  110. 


22  STUDIES  IN  CHUKCH  HISTORY. 

have  sufficed :  "  Those  who  voted  for  the  May  Laws  must 
now  bear  the  humiliating  consequences.  They  must  recon- 
cile themselves  to  this  double-edged  sword,  with  which  the 
government  is  armed ;  they  must  even  try  to  sharpen  it,  in 
order  to  save  the  honor  of  the  State.  It  is  now  too  late  to 
discuss  as  to  what  will  be  the  denouement  of  this  combat ; 
but  one  thing  remains — to  uphold  the  government.  ...  I 
feel  the  sorrowful  conviction  that,  as  things  are  now,  the 
most  direct  path  toward  domestic  peace  is  a  determination 
of  all  parties  to  rally  around  the  State,  and  to  support  it, 
independently  of  their  convictions.'"  Then  addressing  the 
Centre,  the  champion  of  inconsistency  said :  "  We  assure  you 
that  we  have  firmly  resolved  never  to  go  to  Canossa  (1) ;  and 
that  we  shall  continue  the  battle  with  more  energy,  in  order 
to  end  it  more  quickly." 

In  1875  five  new  laws  were  enacted  for  the  further  en- 
slavement of  the  Church  :  one  regulating  the  administra- 
tion of  ecclesiastical  revenues  ;  one  suppressing  all  the  allow- 
ances made  by  the  State  to  bishops  ;  one  assigning  a  part 
of  the  revenues  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  the  "  Old  Cath- 
olics "  ;  one  against  convents  and  religious  congregations  ; 
and  one  suppressing  .the  paragraphs  m  the  Prussian  Con- 
stitution which  guaranteed  religious  liberty  to  Catholics. 
Truly,  the  time  seemed  to  have  arrived  for  the  performance 
of  the  operation  foreseen  by  Friedeberg — the  "  amputation 
of  the  Church  from  the  social  body."  By  the  first  law  it 
was  enacted  that  the  revenues  of  each  parish  were  to  be  ad- 
ministered by  a  body  of  laymen  who  were  to  be  chosen  by 
the  parishioners.  The  pastor  Avas  to  have  no  voice,  either 
in  the  election  of  the  administrators,  or  in  their  debates.  In 
the  case  of  Catholic  parishes,  the  bishop  was  to  have  a  nom- 
inal direction  ;  but  he  was  always  to  refer  his  decisions  to 
the  prefect  of  the  province,  and  that  officer  could  reverse 
those  decisions  without  appeal.  A  radical  difference  was 
established  between  the  Catholic  method  of  election  of  ad- 
ministrators, and  that  of  the  Protestants.  No  Protestant 
could  vote  until  he  was  twenty-four  years  old  ;  a  Catholic 
could  vote  when  he  was  twenty-one.     Again,  care  was  taken 

(1)  For  the  raeanlnj?  of  this  phrase,  see  our  Vol.  li.,  p.  150. 


THE  BISMAItCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAU  FOR  CIVILIZATION."      23 

that  only  the  better  elements  iu  a  Protestant  jKirish  should 
control  the  i'unils  ;  no  one  c'f)nl(l  be  an  elector  who  led  an 
irregular  life,  who  did  not  fulfil  his  religious  duties,  or  who 
gave  auy  scandal  to  his  fellows.  The  contrary  provision 
was  made  for  the  Catholic  parishes  ;  every  aibdt  male,  even 
the  most  dissolute  and  irreligious,  providing  that  he  bore 
the  name  of  Catholic,  was  to  be  an  elector.  This  fact  alone 
showed  that  the  Prussian  government  had  determined  to  ex- 
cite discord  between  the  Catholic  clergy  and  their  flocks — 
"  Ininiicus  homo  /toc/ecit.''  When  the  time  arrived  for  the 
signing  of  the  second  Law,  the  one  withdrawing  the  subven- 
tions hitherto  accorded  to  the  clergy  and  religious  corpoi'- 
atious  by  the  State,  the  emperor  hesitated  ;  but  the  insist- 
ence of  the  chancellor  prevailed.  The  iniquity  of  this  en- 
actment will  be  comprehended  only  by  him  who  reflects  that 
the  abolished  subvention  had  never  been  a  donation  from 
the  State  to  the  Church  ;  it  was  simply  a  miserable  apology 
for  a  partial  restitution,  by  means  of  a  petty  interest  (less 
than  one  per  cent.),  of  the  property  which  the  Protestants 
had  stolen  from  the  Church — a  method  like  that  adopted 
for  the  same  reason  in  France,  Spain,  and  certain  Latin- 
American  countries  where  the  Brethren  of  the  Three  Points 
have  robbed  the  Church  of  all  her  immovable  property,  and 
of  all  the  movable  that  was  attainable  (1).     Let  the  reader, 


(1)  When  Archbishop  Ledochowski  was  notified,  four  months  after  the  adoption  of  the 
May  Laws,  that  his  usual  revenue  from  the  State  would  not  be  paid  to  hira  until  he  had 
appointed  to  the  parish  of  Vielen  a  pastor  whom  tlie  government  would  tlnd  acceptable,  the 
prelate  sent  this  protest  to  the  president  of  the  province  :  "  I  prottst  against  the  aforesaid 
ordinance,  for  the  reason  that  the  endowment  of  the  archbishopric  of  Gnesen-Posen  is 
based  on  a  treaty  concluded  with  the  State,  and  is  merely  a  paititd  coiniiensatinnfor  the 
Churrh  property  which  the  .Shtd;  has  apprn)iriatc'l.  In  proof  of  this  it  may  suffice  lo 
refer  you  to  the  declaration  made  by  Ladenherg,  then  Minister  of  Public  Worship,  in  his 
explanations  of  the  Prussian  Constitution  of  Dec.  15,  1848.  All  the  provinces  acquired  by 
the  State  in  later  times  (during  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries)  received  solemn 
jfuarantees  regarding  the  support  of  their  ecclesiastical  establishments;  as  you  may  see  in 
the  proclamation  addressed,  on  May  13,  18.57,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Posen  (CdUcctiim  nf  Laws.  p.  45).  Hence  it  was  that  during  the  negotiations  with  the  Apos- 
tolic See  for  a  new  arrangement  of  the  relations  between  Church  and  State,  these  endow- 
ments were  not  regarded  as  favors,  but  us  obligatory  paymeiiti<  of  fully  acknowlrdged 
debts.  It  was  because  of  this  indebtedness  that  no  State  took  upon  itself  the  duty  of  endow- 
ing the  bishoprics  ;  and  it  declared  that  such  was  the  Church's  title,  not  only  during  the 
aforesaid  negotiations,  hut  afterward,  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the  Concordat  of 
1821  [Official  Priisttian  Gazette.  Aug.  11,1831).  The  State  is  obliged  to  pay  this  debt, 
and  promptly  ;  for  such  payment  is  (leman<led  by  the  dictates  of  st-lct  justice,  and  by  the 
respect  due  to  the  State's  own  honor.    Therefore  I  reserve  to  myself  the  rlRht  of  taking 


24  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

however,  note  carefully  that  this  law,  by  which  the  Ger- 
man emperor  sanctioned  a  robbery  as  contemptible  as  it 
was  imprudent,  was  enforced  with  one  exception.  Any 
ecclesiastic  who  would  record  a  written  oath  to  the  effect 
that  he  would  obey  all  the  laws  of  tlie  State,  and  who 
would  thus  avow  implicitly  that  he  was  ready  to  form 
part  of  a  German  National  Church,  was  to  receive  the 
subvention  hitherto  accruing  to  the  holder  of  his  bene- 
fice. Fortunately  there  were  very  few  of  the  German  clergy, 
and  none  among  the  bishops,  who  bartered  their  ecclesias- 
tical independence,  and  pronounced  themselves  willing  to 
plunge  into  schism,  for  the  sake  of  the  mess  of  pottage 
tendered  by  the  "  loyal  and  pious  "  emperor.  In  Silesia  es- 
pecially the  clergy  spurned  the  governmental  bribe  ;  out  of 
1,200  priests,  only  five  accepted  it.  But  faithful  above  all 
others  were  the  priests  of  the  Polish  provinces  of  Prussia ; 
out  of  800  clergymen  in  the  archdiocese  of  Posen,  only  two 
were  derelict.  The  third  law  ordained  that  when  there  were 
any  "  Old  Catholics  "  in  a  parish,  they  should  enjoy  all  the 
ecclesiastical  revenues,  and  should  have  the  same  rights  as 
the  Catholics  to  the  churches,  sacred  vessels,  cemeteries,  etc. 
If  there  were  two  churches  in  a  parish,  the  omnipotent  pre- 
fect was  to  leave  one  to  the  Catholic  pastor,  and  give  the 
other  to  the  schismatics  ;  if  there  was  only  one  church,  the 
royal  officer  was  to  determine  the  hours  for  the  "  Old  Cath- 
olic "  services.  In  case  there  should  prove  to  be  "  a  large 
number  "  of  schismatics  in  a  parish,  the  prefect  was  to  give 
fco  them  the  entire  control  of  religious  matters ;  and  of  course 
the  same  prefect  was  to  determine  the  meaning  of  "  a  large 
number. "  The  police  were  instructed  to  enforce  all  decisions 
of  the  prefect  without  delay.  The  fourth  law  declared  that 
"  all  Catholic  convents  and  religious  congregations  were  pro- 
hibited in  all  the  dominions  of  the  Prussian  monarchy." 
Six  months  were  accorded  to  all  monks,  friars,  nuns,  etc., 
for  their  dispersion  ;  but  in  the  case  of  teaching  orders,  the 
Minister  of  Public  Worship  was  allowed  to  defer  their  expul- 
sion from  their  institutions  for  four  years,  if  he  could  not  im- 

tlie  proper  measurps.  at  the  proper  time,  for  the  recovery  of  the  sums  that  are  due  to  me, 
IS  archbishop  of  Gnesen-Posen." 


THE  BISMARCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAR  FOU  CIVIUZATION."        'Li 

mediately  find  proper  substitutes  iov  them.  Au  cxceptiou  \v;is 
made  for  the  Sisters  of  Charity  who  were  engaged  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  sick.  They  were  allowed  to  remain  in  their  hos- 
pitals ;  but  it  was  stated  that  at  any  time  a  simple  royal  decree 
might  expel  them  also,  and  that  in  the  meantime  they  were  to 
be  constantly  under  police  surveillance — a  measure  which  in- 
dicated that  Bismarck  placed  these  devoted  religious  on  the 
same  level  with  the  women  of  the  street.  These  four  laws 
of  1875  should  have  contented  the  most  ardent  defenders 
of  "  German  civilization"  ;  certainly  such  enactments  ought 
to  have  promised  what  Friedeberg  termed  "  the  asphyxiation 
of  the  Church."  But  there  remained  the  task  of  crowning 
the  edifice  which  "  German  intelligence  "  had  so  cunningly 
erected.  The  Articles  XV.,  XVI.,  and  XVIII.  of  the  Prussian 
Constitution  of  1850,  which  guaranteed  a  just  autonomy'  to 
both  Protestants  and  to  Catholics,  were  to  be  suppressed.  In 
reality,  this  action  of  the  persecutors  signified  but  little  ;  al- 
ready, at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  May  Laws,  the  Articles 
in  question  had  been  so  modified,  that  they  were  rendered  ab- 
solutely nugatory  (1) — so  nugatory,  that  Prof.  Gueist,  one  of 
the  most  fanatical  admirers  of  Bismarck,  exclaimed  :  "  These 
new  Laws  ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  Decalogue  of  the 
Prussians. "  It  was  thought  to  be  prudent,  however,  to  leave 
to  the  Catholics  no  possibility  of  an  interpretation  of  tlie  writ- 
ten law  of  Prussia  in  their  favor  ;  and  the  conciliatory  Ar- 
ticles disappeared  from  the  Constitution.  Religious  liberty 
had  been  unknown  in  Prussia  since  the  promulgation  of  the 
May  Laws;  and  by  their  abolition  of  the  Articles  which 
proclaimed  it,  the  members  of  the  parliamentary  majority 
showed  that  they  were  not  yet  lost  to  every  sense  of  shame. 
At  the  opening  of  the  parliamentary  session  of  1874,  the 
"  pious  and  loyal  "  William  I.  gave  utterance  to  this  sage 
observation :  "  The  May  Laws  have  not  at  all  j)aralyzed  re- 
ligious sentiment ;  therefore  the  resistance  of  the  bishops  is 

(1)  As  accepted,  under  oath,  by  Frederick  William  HI.  in  IHhO,  Article  XVUI.  wiis  ii'*  fol- 
lows: "The  right  of  nomination,  of  presentation,  of  choice,  andof  coiiflniiaiion  foreccle.-ias- 
tical  offices,  so  far  as  they  are  made  to  belonjr  to  the  State,  and  to  be  liased  on  patronage  or 
other  legal  titles,  is  suppiessed.''''  The  tinkering  of  1873  preserved  these  words  intact ;  but 
these  were  added  :  "  Ncvrrthetesx,  the  ImvK  of  thr  Sltatr  rr(inlntf,  the  course  to  he  ptir- 
i»(ed  in  regard  to  ediieatiim,  ttie  nomination  to  offices,  rijiil dixmisaalnf  ecclesianticxand 
of  pastorn ;  and  they  fix  the  limits  of  disciplinary  arithority." 


26  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HI8T0EY. 

unjustifiable."  Reicliensperger  thus  replied  to  the  imperial 
sophist  :  "  In  order  to  save  the  honor  of  the  government,  I 
am  willing  to  believe  that  it  is  convinced  on  this  point. 
But  such  a  justification  of  these  laws  is  dangerous,  nay,  it  is 
monstrous  ;  for  the  government  thereby  arrogates  to  itself 
the  rights  of  a  supreme  judge  in  matters  of  religion.  It  de- 
cides as  to  what  constitutes  a  religious  life,  and  as  to  what 
menaces  that  life ;  and  by  its  decision  it  finds  itself  contradict- 
ed by  all  the  bishops  and  by  all  the  members  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  . . .  Do  you  not  perceive  that  Christianity  is  deprived 
of  the  right  of  existence,  when  the  laws  say  that  the  Gospel 
cannot  be  preached  without  the  permission  of  the  civil  au- 
thority ;  that  no  Sacraments  can  be  administered  without 
the  consent  of  the  president  (of  the  province)  ?  If  the  law 
says  that  no  religious  function  can  be  performed  without 
the  permission  of  the  president,  I  fail  to  understand  how 
you  can  doubt  that  the  law  denies  the  existence  of  the 
Church,  and  places  the  secular  power  in  her  place.  No  Chris- 
tian doubts  that  the  Catholic  Church  received  her  mission 
from  her  Divine  Founder;  from  Him  who  brought  Chris- 
tianity into  the  world  without  the  consent,  and  even  in  spite 
of  the  prohibition  of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin,  of  King  Herod, 
and  of  Pilate  ;  from  Him  who  commanded  His  Apostles  to 
preach  the  Gospel  throughout  the  world,  without  regard  to 
the  threats  of  men,  even  amid  persecutions  and  even  unto 
martyrdom,  and  to  preach  it  until  the  end  of  time  {Cries  of 
"  Oh !  oh  !  "  from  the  Left).  Reflect,  gentlemen,  if  only 
for  a  moment,  on  this  idea  which  seems  so  extraordin- 
ary to  you.  As  for  me,  I  am  firmly  convinced  that  these 
laws  can  receive  the  votes  of  only  those  who  deny  the  di- 
vine mission  of  the  Church,  and  of  Christianity  in  general. 
They  Avho  recognize  this  mission  must  respect  it,  and  not  aid 
the  usurpations  of  the  secular  power  in  preventing  its  ac- 
complishment ;  but  if  the  contrary  be  the  case,  let  them 
avow  openly  :  '  We  are  no  longer  Christians.'  "  The  reader 
will  not  expect  us  to  cite  at  length  any  of  the  powerful  dis- 
courses with  which  the  Catholic  orators  of  the  Centre  de- 
fended the  Catholic  cause  in  the  parliament,  although  some 
of  those  discourses,  especially  those  of  Mallinckrodt,  some- 


THE  BISMAllCKI.y^  SO-CALLED    "  WAll  FOU  CIVILIZATION."       '27 

times  remiiid  us  of  those  of  Berryer,  Montiileiiibpit,  Fiilloux, 
;uk1  Dupjinloup.  We  shall  give  merely  nil  extract  from  oue 
of  the  speeches  of  Mallinckrodt,  aud  one  from  a  discourse  by 
Wimlthorst,  During  the  discussion  of  the  law  on  the  l)anisli- 
ment  of  the  clergy,  Mallinckrodt  thus  addressed  the  lloichs- 
tag:  "  If  it  is  true  that  we  betray  our  country  because  we 
cling  firmly  to  the  centre  of  Catholic  unity,  tlit^n  it  must  be 
said  tliat  our  ancestors,  and  yours  also,  denied  their  country, 
even  from  the  days  of  St.  Boniface.  You  say  that  the  May 
Laws  ought  to  be  enforced,  because  they  exist ;  but  I  insist 
that  the  May  Laws  ought  to  be  abrogated,  because  they  are 
useless.  Which  argument  is  the  more  conclusive  ?  I  hold 
that  the  existence  of  these  laws  proves  nothing ;  their  mean- 
ing should  be  investigated. . . .  You  believed  that  your  combat 
would  be  waged  merely  against  the  bishops,  and  against 
aged  and  feeble  men ;  you  thought  that  the  priests  would 
rush,  e)i  masse,  into  your  camp.  Yoiir  calculations  deceived 
you  ;  experience  has  shown  that  the  clergy  are  firmly  united 
with  their  superiors.  You  thought  that  it  was  only  with 
ecclesiastics  that  you  would  be  obliged  to  contend ;  but 
whoever  has  eyes,  and  is  willing  to  use  them,  sees  that  you 
must  deal  also  with  the  laity.  In  our  Western  provinces 
you  behold  that  firm  determination,  that  attentive  calm, 
with  which,  at  the  first  sign,  the  masses  rushed  to  the  doors 
of  the  prisons,  in  order  to  bid  farewell  to  their  pastors,  and 
to  assure  them  that  so  long  as  the  pastoral  crozier  remains 
in  their  hands,  even  should  the  time  come  when  the  machin- 
ations of  our  government  would  deprive  the  faithful  of  all 
j)astoral  succor,  the  bishops  may  count  on  the  jiersevering 
fidelity  of  the  Catholic  people  to  Holy  Church.  Gentlemen, 
if  you  have  occasion  to  witness  these  facts,  I  think  that  you 
will  begin  to  understand  that  this  matter  is  not  a  strife  with 
particular  individuals,  but  a  combat  between  two  funda- 
mental principles — between  the  Catholic  Keligion  and  a 
philosophy  which  is  without  a  Christian  foundation.  The 
openly  avowed  opposition  of  Prince  Bismarck,  so  strik- 
ingly displayed  during  this  struggle,  may  be  very  power- 
ful ;  but  it  is  merely  a  transient  phenomenon.  Undoubt- 
edly, Bismarck  is  a  powerful  personage  ;  but  in  face  of  this 


28  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

war  of  principles,  he  is  weak  as  a  reed.  If  you  wish,  gentle- 
men, to  attain  your  object  by  this  miserable  law  of  banish- 
ment, your  calculations  are  false  ;  and  you  simply  prove 
that  you  know  nothing  concerning  the  force  of  Christian  • 
convictions.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  suffering  engen- 
ders a  desire  to  suffer ;  when  we  see  our  pastors  persecuted, 
imprisoned,  exiled,  do  you  think  that  we  will  be  wanting  in 
the  courage  to  share  their  lot  ?  You  will  be  obliged  to 
employ  more  trenchant  weapons ;  but  reflect  well  as  to 
the  choice  of  those  weapons.  In  the  meantime,  we  shall 
meditate  on  the  immortal  motto  :  '  Per  crucem  ad  h/cem.'  " 
On  the  same  occasion,  Windthorst  thus  reproved  Falk  and 
the  Bismarckian  majority  in  the  parliament :  "  What  danger 
menaces  the  State,  if  a  priest  celebrates  Mass,  or  performs 
any  other  one  of  his  functions — if,  on  the  field  of  battle, 
or  during  an  epidemic,  the  priest  assists  a  dying  man,  con- 
soling him,  and  aiding  him  as  he  passes  into  eternity  ? 
. . .  Do  you  wish  to  decree  absolutely  that  no  person  can 
receive  the  Sacraments,  unless  he  receives  them  in  the 
manner  which  may  seem  proper  to  each  and  every  suc- 
cessive Minister  ?  We  are  told  that  the  performance  of  re- 
ligious duties  is  free  ;  but  I  can  see  no  liberty  in  the  im- 
prisonment of  the  clergy,  when  they  exercise  religious  func- 
tions which  do  not  concern  the  State.  You  say,  gentlemen, 
that  you  desire  peace  ;  but  do  you  conscientiously  believe 
that  peace  can  be  obtained  by  the  means  which  you  j^ro- 
pose  ?  I  can  assure  you  that  in  spite  of  what  the  Minister 
terms  the  keenness  of  his  weapons,  you  will  not  attain  your 
object ;  for  Catholics  and  believing  Protestants  are  con- 
vinced that  no  sacrifice,  not  even  that  of  life,  is  too  great  for 
the  attainment  of  religious  freedom.  .  . .  You  have  the  power 
to  torment  us,  to  render  our  condition  miserable  indeed  ;  you 
can  wound  our  hearts  ;  but  you  cannot  take  from  us  our 
faith.  If  you  close  all  our  churches,  we  will  assemble  in 
the  forests,  as  the  Catholics  of  France  were  wont  to  assemble, 
during  the  rule  of  the  Jacobins."  The  address  which  closed 
tlie  discussion  on  the  part  of  the  Catholic  champions  was 
delivered  by  a  Polish  deputy,  the  Abbe  Respadek.  Even  since 
the  treaties  of  1815,  in  spite  of  those  treaties,  and  in  spite  ol 


THE  lUSMAlUKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAU  FOK  C"IVILIZATK)N."        2U 

the  words  of  the  royal  Hohoiizollern,  the  Prussian  f^overn- 
ment  had  ever  coutiimed  that  opjiression  of  its  l*olisli  sub- 
jects which  it  had  initiated  at  the  time  of  the  tirst  i)artition — 
an  oppression  which  coukl  not  fail  to  justify  the  old  Polish 
proverb  :  "So  long  as  the  sun  warms  the  earth,  the  Pole  will 
never  be  a  brother  to  the  German."  The  world  was  not  sur- 
prised, therefore,  when  it  perceived  that  the  persecut  ionaccora- 
panyingthe  "War  for  Civilization"  JiadfallenontheDuchvof 
Posen  with  a  severity  much  greater  than  that  with  which  Bis- 
marck afflicted  the  Catholics  of  any  other  province.  It  was  the 
heart  of  a  Catholic,  of  a  ])riest,  and  of  a  Pole,  that  spoke  in 
these  words  of  Respadek  :  "  Gentlemen,  we  have  lost  a  xery 
great  portion  of  what  constitutes  the  happiness  of  a  nation. 
But  three  treasures  have  remained  to  us  intact;  a  h)ve  of 
truth,  our  national  honor,  and  our  fidelity  to  oiir  altars. 
These  treasures,  genth  men,  cannot  be  taken  from  us,  either 
by  the  threats  of  the  powers  above  us,  or  by  the  temptations 
of  the  powers  beneath  us.  We  submit  humbly  to  the  decrees 
of  Providence  ;  we  submit  to  the  laws  of  human  justice  ;  but 
you  need  not  ask  us  to  sul)mit  to  a  power  that  does  not  re- 
spect our  consciences.  If  you  wish  to  realize  the  truth  of 
what  I  say,  look  at  Cell  No.  25  in  the  prison  of  Ostrowa  (1) ; 
look  at  the  fifty  priests  who  are  imjjrisoned  or  exiled,  and  the 
many  others  who  are  reduced  to  misery  ;  and  then  remember 
ivell  that  among  us  there  are  hundreds  of  others  who  will  un- 
dergo the  same  fate,  if  this  persecution  continues.  Gentle- 
men, you  may  persecute  a  nation  which  preserves  its  faith  ; 
but  you  cannot  dishonor  it.  You  may  thrust  into  prison  a 
bishop  who  is  armed  only  with  the  Gospel  ;  you  may  con- 
demn him  by  your  laws  ;  but  you  cannot  conquer  him." 

Now  for  a  brief  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  May 
Laws  were  enforced.  The  first  act  of  violence,  after  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  was  the  closing  of  the  seminaries, 
firstly,  in  Posen,  and  afterward  in  the  diocese  of  Paderborn, 
and  in  others.  In  Posen,  the  Prussian  government  had  not 
waited  for  the  May  Laws  in  order  to  make  a  radical  attack 
on  the  religion  of  its  Polish  subjects.  Many  years  })revioas- 
ly,  it  had  violated  the  treaty  of  partition  and  subsequent  com- 

(1)  The  cell  occupied  by  Archliis'.iop  Lcdocliowskl. 


30  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

pacts  by  prohibiting  the  Polish  language  in  the  schools  and 
in  the  courts  of  justice  ;  but  it  had  allowed  religious  instruc- 
tion to  be  given  in  their  mother-tongue  to  little  children. 
Shortly  after  the  beginning  of  the  "  War  for  Civilization," 
however,  it  had  revoked  this  "  concession  ";  and  when  Mgr. 
Ledochowski,  surmising  that  the  emperor  had  not  realized 
the  baneful  effects  of  the  revocation,  memorialized  His  Majesty, 
the  "  pious  and  loyal  "  William  declared  that  the  decree  was 
of  his  own  conception.  Then  the  prelate  caused  the  lambs 
of  his  flock  to  be  assembled,  outside  of  school  hours,  and  in 
special  localities,  for  the  usual  catechetical  instruction  ;  but 
the  police  broke  up  the  classes.  Then  the  children  were 
taken  into  the  churches ;  but  the  catechists  were  fined, 
and  the  parents  were  informed  that  if  their  children  were 
taught  the  Catechism  in  Polish,  they  would  be  dismissed 
from  the  schools.  When  the  May  Laws  had  been  adopted, 
the  seminary  of  Posen  was  closed,  because  the  archbishop 
would  not  allow  the  president  of  the  province  to  arrange  its 
course  of  studies  "  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  law,"  as 
the  officer  told  the  archbishop  in  his  letter  of  Aug.  21.  In 
the  diocese  of  Munster,  the  preparatory  seminary  of  Gaes- 
donk  was  closed  ;  in  the  diocese  of  Culm,  that  of  Peplin  ;  and 
the  same  fate  overtook  all  the  Catholic  boarding-schools  in 
Paderborn,  Treves,  Munster,  Breslau,  Bonn,  and  Posen.  The 
next  victims  of  the  May  Laws  were  the  female  religious.  In 
Posen,  the  religious  of  the  Sacred  Heart  had  been  suppressed 
before  the  publication  of  the  law  against  convents  ;  nor  was 
the  governmental  action  incomprehensible  in  this  instance, 
since  the  authorities  chose  to  consider  these  Sisters  as 
"  affiliated  "  to  the  terrible  Jesuits.  But  what  crime  had  the 
cloistered  Carmelite  nuns  committed  ?  In  spite  of  the  univer- 
sally admitted  fact  that  these  religious  held  no  communication 
with  the  outside  world,  they  also  were  exiled.  At  Osieczna,  in 
Posen,  the  Oratorians  had  a  "  House  of  Ketreat,"  whither  the 
archbishop  was  wont  to  send  those  of  his  clergy  who  needed  to 
devote  some  time  to  penance  and  serious  meditation.  The 
president  of  the  province  summoned  Father  Brezinski,  the  su- 
perior of  this  establishment,  to  furnish  him  with  a  copy  of  the 
rule  of  the  house.    Brezinski  replied  that  lie  would  consult  the 


THE  BISMAKCKl.VN  SO-CALLED  "  WAR  FOR  CIVILIZATION."        31 

aiclibishop  ;  and  for  this  "  crime,"  he  was  lined  lOOtlialers. 
Ad  there  was  not  so  much  mouey  in  tlie  house,  the  otiicers  lev- 
ied on  four  pigs  ;  and  when  it  was  found  that  the  animals  did 
not  belong  to  the  culprit,  his  room  was  searched  for  some 
portable  proj)erty  of  value,  and  about  ten  thalers'  worth  of 
clothes  were  confiscated  for  the  benefit  of  the  imperial-royal 
treasury.  Then  the  priests  who  were  in  retreat,  four  in 
number,  were  interrogated  as  to  the  reason  for  their  "  im- 
prisonment "  ;  and  they  were  told  that  they  were  free.  Only 
one  consented  to  depart  without  the  permission  of  his  ordinary. 
Of  course  a  legislation  so  elastic  as  that  which  bore  the 
name  of  Falk,  one  that  pretended  to  give  to  a  governmental 
agent  the  power  to  dispense  ecclesiastics  from  a  performance 
of  the  canonical  penances  imposed  by  their  bishops,  arrogat- 
ed to  itself  the  right  of  fining  and  imprisoning  bishops  ad 
libitum.  Quite  consistently,  therefore,  in  Article  XV.  of  the 
law  of  May  11,  it  was  decreed  that  no  ecclesiastical  superior 
could  make  any  appointment  without  the  approbation  of  the 
provincial  president ;  and  that  any  violation  of  this  provision 
should  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  from  200  to  1,000  thalers,  or 
by  a  "  corresponding  length  of  imprisonment."  The  Article 
XVIIL  of  the  same  law  prohibited  a  bishop  from  allowing 
an  ecclesiastical  office  to  remain  vacant  for  more  than  one 
year  ;  this  "  crime  "  was  to  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  1,000  tha- 
lers, and  the  fine  could  be  repeated  ad  infinitum,  until  the 
vacancy  was  filled.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months^  the 
archbishop  of  Posen  was  condemned  to  pay  fines  to  the 
amount  of  30,000  thalers  ;  and  as  he  did  not  possess  such  a 
sum,  his  horses  were  seized,  then  his  cari'iage,  tlien  his 
furniture,  and  when  an  official  declaration  shosved  that  his 
person  alone  was  then  seizable,  he  was  incarcerated.  The 
lot  of  a  priest,  unless  he  preferred  apostasy,  was  as  painful 
as  that  of  a  bishop  ;  his  "punishment"  was  generally  aggra- 
vated by  the  malice  of  the  police  and  of  his  jailers.  Thus, 
when  the  pastor,  Grokowski,  and  two  other  priests  were  im- 
prisoned, care  was  taken  to  give  each  one  of  them  a  Jew  as  his 
cell-mate.  Seldom,  indeed,  were  the  confessors  allowed  to 
purchase,  with  their  own  money  or  witli  that  which  the 
pitying  faithful  sent  to  them,  better  food  than  that  furnished 


32  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

by  tlie  prison  authorities,  even  tliougli  they  were  sick  almost 
unto  death ;  and  in  many  instances,  meat  was  given  to 
them  only  on  Friday,  wlieu,  of  course,  they  would  not  eat  it. 
We  have  alluded  already  to  the  imprisonment  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  and  of  the  bishops  of  Paderboru,  Treves, 
and  Munster.  In  some  places,  even  women  and  children 
were  the  victims  of  the  May  Laws.  Thus,  in  Munster,  when 
the  ladies  of  the  diocese  sent  a  dutiful  address  to  their  per- 
secuted bishop,  each  signer  was  arrested  and  fined.  In  Po- 
sen,  on  several  occasions  the  police  arrested  children  who,  by 
command  of  their  j^arents,  had  gone  to  the  cathedral  to  be  ex- 
amined in  religion  by  the  archbishop.  We  have  noted  that 
the  Prussian  government  called  upon  every  Chapter  to  elect 
an  administrator,  in  the  case  of  a  "dismissal  "  of  the  bishop. 
Without  exception,  the  Chapters  of  all  the  afflicted  dioceses 
refused  to  obey  ;  and  the  governmental  commissaries  were 
avoided  as  though  they  were  lepers.  Each  imprisoned  pre- 
late had  appointed  a  delegate,  who  v^•as  known  only  by  the 
priests ;  and  in  no  case  were  the  efforts  of  the  government 
successful,  although  it  adopted  every  means  to  discover  the 
identity  of  the  bishop's  representative.  luPosen,  40  deans 
were  examined  on  this  jDoint ;  and  when  it  was  found  that 
none  of  them  would  betray  the  secret,  36  were  incarcerated. 
In  some  places,  the  government  installed  pastors  of  its  own 
choice  in  the  churches  ;  but  the  people  would  not  accept 
the  ministrations  of  these  unfortunates.  Thus,  when  the  im- 
perial commissary  summoned  the  Catholics  of  Vielen,  in 
Posen,  to  the  church,  in  order  to  announce  to  them  that 
the  acts  performed  by  a  priest  not  acceptable  to  the  govern- 
ment were  "  null  and  void,  "  out  of  3,300  parishioners,  only 
four  attended,  and  two  of  these  were  functionaries  of  the 
State.  In  the  parishes  of  Krobia  and  Buk,  not  one  Cath- 
olic appeared  before  the  commissary.  In  fact,  there  was 
not  a  parish  in  Prussian  Poland,  into  which  an  apostate 
priest  had  been  intruded  by  the  government  of  the  "  pious 
and  loyal "  William  I.,  which  did  not  afford  the  spectacle  of 
a  shepherd  without  a  flock.  The  excommunicated  renegade 
was  in  possession  of  the  parish  church  ;  but  at  his  Mass  not 
a  person  attended,  and  he  was  never  asked  to  baptize,  to  offi- 


THE  BTSMARCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WKU  FOR  CIVILIZATION."        33 

ciate  Jit  a  uiarriiirj;e,  or  to  pray  for  the  dead.  The  Catliolic 
world,  therefore,  was  not  surprised  when,  on  Nov.  t24,  1873, 
the  presi(UMit-iu-c'hief  of  Posen,  b}'  cominand  of  tlie  Cabinet 
of  Berlin,  ordered  Archbishop  Ledochowski  to  resign  his 
diocese.  "The  example  of  such  resistance  and  disobedience 
has  led  his  clergy  to  perpetrate  the  same  crimes,"  declared 
the  Prussian  official ;  "  marriages  are  blessed  by  ecclesias- 
tics who  perform  tlie  offices  of  the  Church  illegally,  and  the 
government  can  no  longer  tolerate  such  confusion.  In  the 
interests  of  public  order,  the  government  cannot  allow  this 
archbishop  to  occupy  a  position,  in  which  he  exercises  an 
influence  prejudicial  to  the  State."  The  reply  of  Ledo- 
chowski to  this  impudent  assumption  was  worthy  of  Poland 
and  of  tlie  prelate  (1);  and  we  shall  quote  some  of  its  more 
prominent  passages  :  "  From  the  da}-  wlieu  the  g(n-ernment 
declared  war  on  the  Catholic  faith  in  all  the  regions  sub- 
ject to  the  sceptre  of  His  Majesty,  I  have  frequently  been 
forced  to  believe  that  the  present  officers  of  the  State  have 
no  knowledge  of  the  holy  faith  which  we  profess,  and  that 
they  are  incapable  of  understanding  the  duties  which  that 
faith  imposes  on  us.  It  is  precisely  because  of  this  ignor- 
ance that  the  president-in-chief  orders  me,  in  the  aloresaid 
proclamation,  to  lay  aside  m}^  archiepiscopal  dignity  ;  and 
he  threatens  that  if  I  do  not  comply  with  his  order  within 
eight  days,  the  secular  tribunal  of  Berlin  will  pronounce  my 
deposition.  My  episcopal  office,  together  with  its  duties 
and  its  rights,  has  been  given  to  me  by  God,  through  the 
hands  of  His  vicar  on  earth. . . .  No  secular  power  can  abro- 
gate my  mission. ...  As  for  a  voluntary  resignation  of  my 
archbishopric  of  Gnesen-Posen,  undoubtedly  such  a  proceed- 
ing could  take  place  in  certain  circumstances,  if  the  con- 
sent of  our  Holy  Father  were  accorded;  but  I  l)elieve  that 
the  government  knows  me  too  well  to  suppose  that  I  would 
be  guilty  of  such  a  deed  in  the  present  condition  of  tilings. 
I  would  be  unwoHhy  of  the  spiritual  dignity  which  God 
has  conferred  on  me,  were  I  to  abandon  my  flock  willing] v, 
at  the  very  moment  when  it  is  in  danger    of   becoming    the 

'■*.)  See  the  article  by  Count  Tarnowski,  entitled  '/7i.'  PrMssinu  Oovcriimcnt  and  Arc}i. 
bishop  Ledochowski,  in  the  I'oUsh  Uevific  for  Aiip.,  187-1. 


34  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

prey  of  incredulity,  heresy,  and  schism. .  . .  You  mention, 
Mr.  President-in-chief,  certain  of  the  principal  acts  of  my 
pastoral  ministry,  and  you  adduce  them  as  justifying  the 
demand  you  have  mad-e.  I  would  never  have  dared  to  enu- 
merate these  proofs  of  my  conscientiousness  in  the  fulfilment 
of.  my  episcopal  obligations  ;  they  are  the  fruit  of  the  grace 
of  God,  which  aids  man  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  most 
difficult  duties.  You  render  the  same  testimony  to  the  mer- 
its of  my  clergy,  and  of  the  people  confided  to  my  paternal 
care  ;  and  this  testimony,  recorded  in  your  official  publication, 
will  cause  the  entire  world  to  honor  my  priests  and  the  faith- 
ful of  my  two  archdioceses.  Only  two  of  my  priests  denied 
the  faith,  and  perhaps  they  did  not  know  what  they  did ; 
and  among  the  laity,  are  there  many  more  who  have  per- 
jured themselves  before  God  and  His  Church  ?  . . .  The  presi- 
dent-in-chief makes  a  great  mistake  when  he  thinks  that 
the  invincible  constancy  of  my  clergy  and  people  in  uphold- 
ing the  principles  of  Catholic  truth,  and  their  persever- 
ance in  duty  amid  the  horrors  of  persecution,  are  my  work, 
the  result  of  my  influence  and  authority.  No,  sir  ;  they  are 
the  fruit  of  divine  mercy  and  grace."  On  Feb.  4,  1874, 
Mgr.  Ledochowski  was  confined  in  the  prison  of  Ostrowa, 
where  he  was  treated  with  the  utmost  rigor.  On  March  15, 
1875,  Pope  Pius  IX.  evinced  his  admiration  of  the  heroic 
confessor  by  raising  him  to  the  Sacred  College.  On  April 
15,  he  was  dismissed  from  prison,  but  was  ordered  to  leave 
the  empire.  He  then  fixed  his  residence  in  Cracow  ;  but  the 
demonstrations  of  the  Austrian  Poles  in  his  honor  fright- 
ened the  Cabinet  of  Vienna,  then  very  anxious  to  please  Prus- 
sia, and  he  was  requested  to  leave  Galicia.  Proceeding  to 
Rome,  he  continued  to  direct  the  affairs  of  his  diocese  ;  and 
during  several  years  Bismarck  caused  him  to  be  condemned 
again  and  again  to  imprisonment  in  contumaciam.  It  was 
said  that  the  chancellor  impudently  attempted  to  procure 
his  extradition  from  the  usurper  in  the  Quirinal ;  but  if  that 
move  was  made,  Pius  IX.  checkmated  it  by  lodging  His  Emi- 
nence in  the  Vatican,  where  he  found  safety  until  1884, 
when  Pope  Leo  XIII.  prevailed  upon  him  to  resign  his 
archdiocese,   and  to  become   the    papal   Secretary   o^  Me- 


THE   BISMARCKIAN  SO-C.OXED  "  WAll  FOR  CIVILIZATION."       35 

morials.  In  1892  lie  was  made  Prefect  of  the  Propajjjauda. 
The  weapon  on  which  Bismarck  had  chiefiy  relied  for  his 
combat  with  the  Church — a  weapon  which,  alth()n}i;h  untried, 
was  ap])arently  trusty — and  which  promised  more  of  success 
than  he  could  hope  to  attain  by  his  more  vulf^ar  arms  of  starva- 
tion or  imprisonment,  was  "  Old  Catholicism."  The  scho<jl 
of  Munich,  the  result  of  the  marriage  of  "  German  science  " 
and  ecclesiastical  insubordination,  had  told  him  that  the  pro- 
clamation of  the  dogma  of  Papal  Infallibility  would  be  the 
signal  for  a  revolt  against  Rome  on  the  part  of  the  majority  of 
the  German  clergy  ;  and  that  in  all  probability,  his  most 
difficult  task  would  be  the  selection,  from  among  so  many 
available  candidates,  of  a  primate  for  that  grandest  con- 
ception of  "  German  intelligence,"  a  German  Naticmal  Church. 
But  "  Old  Catholicism  "  disappointed  the  sanguine  chancel- 
lor ;  when  he  examined  its  microscopic  proportions,  probably 
he  wondered  that  such  an  abortion  ever  came  into  existence. 
But  the  war  on  the  Catholic  Church  was  in  full  career  ;  and 
it  was  not  for  the  chief  exponent  of  "  Borrussianism  "  to  be 
die  first  to  weaken.  So  thought  the  "  man  of  blood  and 
iron  "  for  several  years  ;  "  he  would  never  go  to  Canossa,"  al- 
though some  of  the  best  specimens  of  "  German  intelligence," 
men  of  his  own  party,  insisted,  in  the  sixth  year  of  the 
struggle,  that  the  true  interests  of  the  fatherland  called  on  him 
to  make  peace  with  the  Queen  of  the  Seven  Hills.  Even  the 
Gazetie  of  the  Cross,  which  had  so  complacently  announced 
the  first  signs  of  the  foolish  contest,  did  not  hesitate  to  say, 
on  Aug.  11,  1878  :  "  It  is  because  of  the  '  War  for  Civiliza- 
tion '  that  every  kind  of  moral  and  material  misery  is  seen 
in  every  corner  of  the  German  Empire.  It  is  only  by  aban- 
doning the  '  War  for  Civilization,'  and  by  abandoning  the  ideas 
that  caused  it,  that  we  can  escape  from  our  embarrassments. 
Such  is  our  opinion  ;  it  is  becoming  more  general  every  day  ; 
and  where  there  is  a  will,  there  is  a  way."  The  Gazette 
was  a  Protestant  journal  ;  but  at  that  time,  nearly  all  the 
German  Protestants  who  retained  any  belief  in  Protestantism, 
all  who  were  not  freethinkers,  csilled  on  Bismarck,  in  the 
name  of  Protestantism  itself,  to  retrace  the  steps  he  had 
taken  in  this  lamentable  path.     The  combat  had  caused  far 


3G  STUDIES   Ds    CHURCH   HISTORY, 

more  damage  to  Protestantism  than  to  Catholicism.  The 
Protestants  had  gladly  acclaimed  the  law  which  rendered 
civil  marriage  obligatory  and  sufficient,  because  they  thought 
that  the  infamous  enactment  would  affect  the  Catholics  more 
severely  than  it  hurt  themselves.  But  while  statistics  did 
not  show  any  decrease  of  religious  marriages  among  Catholics 
since  the  beginning  of  the  persecution,  at  least  half  of  the 
unions  among  Protestants  had  been  conducted  in  Pagan 
fashion.  In  the  Protestant  Synod  of  Essen,  held  in  1877, 
Schultz,  a  superintendent-general,  made  this  lamentable  avow- 
al:  "  In  the  province  of  Saxony,  there  is  not  a  town  of  any 
considerable  size,  in  which  from  forty  to  fifty  per  cent,  of 
the  marriages  have  not  been  contracted  Avithout  the  blessing  of 
the  (Protestant)  Church.  In  one  manufacturing  city  of  18,000 
inhabitants,  out  of  the  150  marriages,  only  13  were  blessed 
by  the  (Protestant)  Church,  and  these  would  not  have  been 
so  blessed,  had  not  the  parents  exerted  all  their  author- 
ity, and  had  not  the  ministers  made  many  sacrifices  to 
gain  their  point.  "  The  Protestants  had  also  rejoiced  when 
the  Bismarckian  legislation  declared  that  Christian  parents 
should  no  longer  be  obliged  to  procure  the  baptism  of  their 
children.  In  the  fifth  year  of  the  persecution,  the  statistics 
showed  that  every  child  of  Catholic  parents  had  been  bap- 
tized ;  but  among  the  Protestants,  only  one  in  three  had  been 
baptized  in  Berlin  and  in  Koenigsberg,  and  only  one  in  five 
in  the  provinces  (1).  When  this  result  of  the  May  Laws 
became  known,  the  government  ordered  all  its  military  and 
civil  officers,  under  pain  of  dismissal,  to  contract  their  mar- 
riages before  some  minister  of  religion,  and  to  procure  the 
baptism  of  their  children.  Does  history  furnish  an  in- 
stance of  governmental  self-stultification  analogous  to  this 
•decree  of  the  champion  of  "  German  intelligence  "  ?  A  law 
for  the  entire  kingdom  is  promulgated  ;  and  after  a  long 
experience  of  its  effects,  Bismarck  finds  that  it  is  so  wicked 
and  absurd  that  he  must  fain  order  all  of  the  employees  of 
the  State,  an  enormous  number  in  Germany,  to  ignore  it. 
Common  sense  would  have  dictated  the  abrogation  of  the  in- 
iquitous law ;  but   its  maker  could  not  "go  to   Canossa." 

(1)  Janiszewski  ;  loc.   cit.,  p.  417. 


THE  BISMAltCKlAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAli  I'OK  ClMLlZATION."        37 

Meanwhile,  atheism  cougratulated  itself  on  its  fi)resijj;ht  in 
having  supported  the  mighty  chancellor  ;  and  the  (Jatholics 
found  consolation  in  the  hope  that  "  God  liad  permitted  the 
persecution  for  the  decomposition  of  Proti'stantism,  and  in 
order  to  lead  believing  Protestants  into  the  true  Church  "  (1). 
Much,  however,  as  Bismarck  detested  Catholicism,  he  did 
not  love  Protestantism  sufficiently  well  to  prevent  its  dissolu- 
tion by  following  a  course  which,  as  he  fancied,  would  pre- 
vent the  consolidation  of  the  German  Empire,  then  so  en- 
ergetically pressed  by  Socialism.  The  usually  perspicacious 
statesman  did  not  perceive  that  his  policy  tended,  by  more 
ways  than  one,  to  the  end  which  the  Socialists  had  in  vieAV  ; 
that  Socialism  is  perfectly  logical,  if  the  princii)les  of  Lib- 
eralism, as  Bismarck  understood  it,  are  well  founded.  "  Lib- 
eralism," said  Mgr.  Ketteler, "  makes  of  the  State  a  God 
here  present ;  and  nevertheless  it  talks  about  Beligion  and 
the  Church.  That  is  sheer  nonsense.  Socialism  cries  out  : 
'  If  the  State  is  God,  the  historical  development  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  is  an  immense  fraud.  I,  Socialism,  wish  to 
hear  no  more  talk  about  religion,  Church,  or  worship.'  Lib- 
eralism wishes  to  deprive  marriage  of  its  religious  character  ; 
and  nevertheless  it  tries  to  preserve  it  under  the  form  of  a 
civil  union.  Again  Socialism  cries  out :  '  If  God  has  not 
regulated  marriage,  Ave  want  no  regulations  by  men  ;  our 
wills  are  our  law  ;  our  passions  constitute  our  right,  and  let 
no  man  interfere  with  them  !  '  Liberalism  says  :  '  The  law  of 
the  State  is  absolute  ;  the  Church,  the  family,  the  father, 
have  no  rights  other  than  those  Avhicli  the  State  grants  to 
them  through  its  legislative  bodies.  As  for  property,  how- 
ever, that  is  inviolable.'  But  Socialism  retorts  :  'Ncmseuse  ! 
If  the  State  is  the  sole  source  of  right  and  of  law,  it  is  also  the 
source  of  property.  We  call  for  a  revision  of  the  laws  on 
property  and  on  inheritance ....  Away  with  all  your  econ- 
omical principles  which  tend  to  concentrate  wealth  in  the 
hands  of  the  few ! '  "(2).  Shortly  after  Bismarck  had  entered 
on  his  disgraceful  campaign,  the  Socialists  held  a  Congress 
at  Ghent.     One  of  the  leaders,  Liebnecht,  made  this  obser- 

(1)  Oil?-  I'rmoit  Duties,  by  Mgr.  Conrad  Martin.  Bishop  of  Paderboru.    Paris,  18T8. 

(2)  The  VTar  for  Civilizalion,  p.  11-15. 


38  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTOKY. 

vation  :  "  The  Ultramontanes  have  more  influence  than  we 
have  over  the  minds  of  the  people ;  but  now  the  parliament 
has  delivered  us  from  that  enemy."  And  another  leader, 
Bebel,  declared : "  The  Ultramontanes  are  our  mortal  en- 
emies." Bismarck,  however,  began  his  war  on  Socialism 
bj  attempting  to  exterminate  these  mortal  enemies  of  the 
pest ;  and  he  ought  not  to  have  been  surprised,  when,  having 
urged  the  Centre  to  vote  for  the  law  against  Socialism,  he 
heard  from  Windthorst :  "  How  can  we  extinguish  the  fire, 
when  jou  are  continually  nourishing  it  ?  " 

From  what  we  have  said  concerning  the  May  Laws,  the 
reader  will  readily  understand  that  any  concession  on  the  part 
of  the  Holy  See  was  impossible  ;  and  that  since  the  German 
chancellor  refused  to  abandon  any  of  his  arrogant  and  absurd 
pretensions,  the  "  War  for  Civilization "  seemed  destined 
to  last  until  the  disintegrating  forces  of  Socialism  would 
have  destroyed  the  power  which  knew  not  how  to  avail 
itself  of  its  sole  means  of  salvation.  But  an  unexpected 
circumstance  showed  both  parties  to  the  struggle  that  peace 
might  not  be  far  distant.  On  May  13,  1878,  a  Socialistic 
workman,  one  Hoedel  or  Lehmann,  attempted  the  life  of 
William  I.  The  aim  of  the  miscreant  was  not  true ;  but 
the  shock  produced  a  deep  impression  on  the  mind  of  the 
monarch,  and  he  remarked  to  the  author  of  the  May  Laws 
that  probably  the  contemplated  crime  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  people  had  been  robbed  of  their  religion.  A  few  weeks 
afterward,  on  June  2,  another  Socialist,  a  certain  Dr.  Nobil- 
ing,  made  a  second  attack  on  the  emperor-king,  wounding 
him  seriously  in  the  face  and  arm,  and  forcing  him  torelinquish 
the  reins  of  government,  for  a  time,  to  the  crown-prince. 
This  second  danger  augmented  the  imperial  disgust  with 
the  "  War  for  Civilization  "  ;  and  the  feeling  became  predom- 
inant, when,  on  the  occasion  of  the  inauguration  of  the  Ger- 
mania  monument  at  Niederwald  on  the  Khine,  it  was  dis- 
covered that  a  mine  had  been  prepared  for  the  destruction 
of  the  entire  imperial  family.  If  we  add  to  these  facts  the 
revelation  made  at  the  recent  elections,  that  Berlin  alone 
counted  56,133  resolute  partisans  of  Liebnecht  and  Bebel, 
we  will  comprehend  the  significance  of  the  many  invitations 


THE   BISMARCKIAN    80-CALLED    "  WAR    FOll   CIVILIZATION."      39 

which  Bismarck  extended  to  Mgr.  Masella,  the  papal  nuncio 
at  Munich,  to  visit  Berlin.  The  Holy  See  was  certainly 
gratified  by  this  advance  on  the  part  of  him  who  had  said 
that  he  "  woukl  never  go  to  Cauossa  ";  but  the  dignity  of  the 
nuncio  forbade  a  journey  to  the  Prussian  capital  under  the 
circumstances  then  subsisting  (1).  The  chancellor  tlien 
suggested  Kissingen,  a  neutral  place,  for  the  desired  inter- 
view ;  he  was  accustomed  to  repair  thither  annually  for  the 
sake  of  the  waters,  and  the  prelate  might  like  to  try  the  "  euro," 
and  at  the  same  time  to  have  a  little  talk  about  matters  which 
interested  both  Eome  and  Germany.  The  nuncio  found  it 
convenient  to  visit  Kissingen,  and  several  interviews  were  held 
by  the  two  diplomats.  But  saving  the  fact  that  the  ice  was 
broken,  nothing  came  of  these  meetings  ;  for  while  Bismarck 
offered  to  send  an  ambassador  to  the  Vatican,  he  insisted  on 
a  recognition  of  the  May  Laws  by  the  Pontiff.  Shortly  after 
this  tentative  attempt  at  reconciliation,  negotiations  were  re- 
sumed at  Vienna,  between  Mgr.  Jacobini,  papal  nuncio  at 
the  Austrian  court,  and  Count  Hiibner,  acting  for  the  chancel- 
lor. Mgr.  Jacobini  was  one  of  the  most  conciliatory  of  men ; 
and  Hiibner  became  convinced  that  if  the  prelate  and  his  mas- 
ter were  to  meet,  the  latter  would  obtain  his  desires.  Gas- 
teiu,  in  the  duchy  of  Salzbourg,  was  selected  for  another  trial 
of  Bismarckian  cajolery  or  intimidation  ;  but  the  conciliatory 
Jacobini  informed  the  chancellor  that  the  Holy  See  would 
never  recognize  the  May  Laws.  Not  until  1880  did  Bismarck 
resume  his  approach  toward  Canossa.  Then  he  introduced 
in  the  Landtag  his  first  modification  of  the  May  Laws. 
While  retaining  the  power  of  maintaining  or  abolishing,  at  its 
own  good  pleasure,  the  royal  commissaries  whom  it  had 
charged  with  the  duty  of  administrating  the  temporalities  of 
dioceses,  the  government  renounced  its  usurpation  of  the  right 
to  depose  ecclesiastics  ;  and  in  1881  it  recognized,  without 
forcing  them  to  take  the  obnoxious  oath  of  absolutely  uni- 
versal obedience,  vicars-general  for  the  dioceses  of  Paderborn, 
Osnabruck,   and   Breslau.     Bismarck   even  recognized  the 

(1)  Justin  McCarthy,  in  his  Life  of  Leo  XIIL,  appreciates  the  reason  for  which  Mgr. 
Masella  declined  to  po  to  Berlin  :  "  It  was  quite  clear  to  a  man  of  Pope  Leo's  experience 
and  observation  that  if  he  were  to  send  his  Munich  nuncio  to  Berlin,  the  news  would  tro  all 
over  the  world  that  the  Holy  See  was  sueing  for  peace  with  Prussia." 


40  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

Pope's  appointment  of  Mgr.  Kopp  to  tlie  see  of  Fulda,  and 
that  of  Mgr.  Korum  to  the  see  of  Treves.  However,  the  new 
bishops,  disposed  as  thej  were  to  yield  to  the  chancellor  in 
all  reasonable  matters,  found  themselves  so  trammelled,  that 
Windthorst  styled  them  "bishops  in  vinculis."  Such  was 
the  condition  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  when  Windthorst  forced 
the  hand  of  the  government  by  his  proposition  to  grant  free- 
dom to  the  Catholic  clergy  "  in  everything  concerning  the 
Sacrifice  of  the  Mass  and  the  administration  of  the  Sacra- 
ments." This  instalment  of  justice  having  been  rejected  by 
two  thirds  of  the  deputies,  and  the  same  fate  having  be- 
fallen a  proposition  to  restore  their  olden  "  dotations " 
to  the  clergy,  Bennigsen,  the  leader  of  the  National 
Liberals,  declared  that  all  such  projects  were  very  inop- 
portune, since  "  Rome  was  then  very  nearly  vanquished. 
Let  us  have  but  one  or  two  years  of  patience,  and  we  will 
gather  the  fruits  of  our  excellent  policy,  for  we  will  have 
conquered  the  Pope."  But  the  elections  of  1882  showed 
that  the  Liberal  leader  had  erred  ;  the  Centrists  gained  sev- 
eral seats,  and  Rome  manifested  no  signs  of  yielding  to  the 
governmental  pretensions.  Another  step  toward  Canossa 
was  taken  on  May  31,  1883,  when  it  was  decreed  that  a 
deposed  bishop  might  be  "  pardoned  "  by  the  emperor,  and 
might  then  resume  the  administration  of  his  diocese ;  that  the 
Minister  of  Worshii^  might  dispense  candidates  for  ecclesi- 
astical offices  from  "  legal  formalities  ";  that  ecclesiastical 
students  should  not  be  obliged  to  undergo  those  State  ex- 
aminations which  had  been  proclaimed  as  the  best  guarantees 
against  su]-)erstition  and  fanaticism.  This  enactment  was 
certainly  a  great  relief  to  the  harried  clergy  ;  but  not  one  of 
the  deposed  liishops  was  "  pardoned  "  by  William  L,  until 
after  the  visit  of  the  crown-prince  (the  future  Frederick  III.) 
to  Leo  XIII.,  when  that  "  favor  "  was  accorded  only  to  the 
bishops  of  Limbourg  and  Munster.  It  is  evident  that  Bis- 
marck, realizing  that  the  more  severe  features  of  his  "W^ar 
for  Civilization  "  should  disappear,  still  trusted  to  be  able  to 
save  the  principles  for  which  he  had  contended  ;  those 
principles  would  be  abandoned,  only  when  the  May  Laws 
would  be  abrogated.     Tliis  truth  was  so  evident  to  Wind- 


THE   BISMARCKIAN  SO-CALLED  "  WAU  FOll  CIVILIZATION."       41 

tliorst,  the  leader  of  the  Centre,  that  when  iMgv.  (laliniberti, 
then  nuncio  at  Vienna,  advised  him  to  use  his  inlluence 
witli  his  party  in  favor  of  a  less  vigorous  opposition  to  th(> 
ohaneellor,  His  Little  Excellency,  as  the  Catholics  allection- 
ately  termed  their  chief  champion,  replied  :  "  1  sh.iU  accede 
to  your  request  most  Avillingly  ;  but  not  before  the  May 
Laws  have  been  formally  withdrawn.  They  do  indexed 
swear  to  us  that  these  laws  will  no  longer  be  applied;  l)ut 
wliile  that  assurance  may  suffice  for  to-day,  who  will  answer 
for  the  morrow?  The  freedom  of  us  Catholics  is  a  right. 
Can  we  abandon  it  to  the  caprice  of  a  Minister  ?  "  And  here 
let  it  be  noted  that  this  refusal  of  the  Centre  to  hearken  to 
the  recommendation  of  Mgr.  Galimberti,  who  was  known  to 
have  merely  echoed  the  views  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  was  an 
excellent  refutation  of  that  falsehood  which  the  school  of 
Bismarck  had  so  assiduously  circulated  iu  justitication  of  its 
persecution  of  the  Catholics  ;  namely,  that  the  Roman  Pon- 
tiff held  iu  his  hands  the  political  opinions  and  tlie  votes  of 
the  German  Catholics.  And  the  firnmess  of  AViudthorst  was 
rewarded  when,  by  siiggesting  the  pontifical  arbitration  in  the 
affair  of  the  Caroline  Islands,  the  cluiucellor  showed  that  lie 
was  willing  to  advance  a  little  further  on  the  road  to  Canossa. 
The  proceedings  connected  with  this  arbitration  afforded  to 
Bismarck  an  opportunity  of  treating  directly  with  the  Holy 
See  ;  and  the  first  consequence  of  the  rapprocJi€ii>€)if  was 
the  governmental  consent  to  the  filling  of  the  then  vacant 
sees  of  Cologne  and  Friboiirg.  It  was  tlien  that  Cardinal 
Ledochowski,  yielding  to  the  wishes  of  the  Pontiff,  resigned 
a  diocese  to  which  he  covdd  scarcely  hope  to  return ;  and 
the  provost  of  Koenigsberg,  Dinder,  was  made  archbishop 
of  Posen.  Then  Mgr.  Kopp,  bishop  of  Fulda,  was  called  to 
a  seat  in  the  LTpper  House  of  Prussia  ;  and  although  the 
traditions  of  the  German  Church  seemed  to  forbid  such  a 
coxirse,  the  prelate  thought  that  circumstances  dictated  his 
acceptance  of  tlie  position  (1).     Bismarck  had  confidence  in 

(1)  A  seat  in  the  Upper  House  tiad  been  offered,  at  various  times  fiuring  this  ecnturv.  to 
several  bistiops ;  tnit  it  had  always  bi-en  declined.  Fioderick  William  IV.,  the  brother  of 
the  emperor  William  I.,  and  the  most  just  of  all  the  Hohenzollern,  would  t:ladly  have  seated 
several  bishops  among  his  legislatiiijf  nobles  ;  and  he  approched  Mgr.  Geissel.  then  arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  in  the  matter.    The  prelate  rei)lied  :  "  So  long  as  the  bishops  can  sit  in 


42  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTOKY. 

Mgr.  Kopp ;  but  his  object  in  ranging  him  among  the  peers 
was  to  obtain  a  means  of  treating  with  the  Centre  without 
any  intervention  of  his  own  personality.  On  May  21; 
1886,  another  modification  to  the  May  Laws  was  decreed. 
The  State  renounced  its  examination  of  clerical  students,  re- 
establishing the  theological  schools  as  they  had  been  before 
1873,  but  requiring  their  superiors  to  furnish  to  the  Min- 
ister of  Public  Worship  their  statutes  and  the  names  of 
their  professors.  The  Pope  was  recognized  as  the  superior 
judge  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  ;  and  the  royal  court  which 
had  sat  in  Berlin  since  1873,  for  the  purpose  of  deciding 
those  affairs,  was  suppressed,  thus  exhibiting  no  longer  the 
anomaly  of  a  Protestant  tribunal  fining  or  imprisoning 
Catholic  priests  who  had  refused  absolution  to  persons 
who  were  unworthy,  or  who  had  celebrated  Mass  or  attend- 
ed the  dying  without  governmental  permission.  Finally,  the 
elections  of  Feb.,  1887,  having  convinced  Bismarck  that  the 
power  of  the  Centre  was  growing  instead  of  diminishing,  he 
determined  to  make  such  further  modifications  of  the  obnox- 
ious laws  as  he  deemed  apt  to  conciliate  a  party,  whose  aid 
he  sadly  needed.  These  modifications  were  presented  in 
five  Articles  ;  and  when  they  were  examined  by  Windthorst 
in  the  name  of  the  Centre,  the  perspicacious  leader  decided 
as  follows  :  The  first  Article  ought  to  be  rejected,  he  contend- 
ed, because  although  it  allowed  the  existence  of  diocesan 
seminaries,  it  gave  to  the  State  a  very  badly  defined  right  of 
surveillance  over  the  teaching  in  those  institutions — an  indefi- 
niteness  which  bade  fair  to  invite  trouble  of  various  kinds. 
The  second  Article,  treating  of  the  right  of  Veto,  should  be 
partly  amended,  said  Windthorst,  and  partly  rejected  ;  it  was 
condemnable  as  an  entirety.  The  third  Article,  acknowledg- 
ing tlie  disciplinary  authority  of  the  Church,  was  welcomed 
by  the  great  Centrist.  The  fourth  Article,  recognizing  the 
right  of  the  Church  to  infiict  canonical  punishment  on  her 
subjects  when  they  violated  her  laws,  was  of  course  approved. 
The  fifth  Article,  which  permitted  the  return  of  certain  re- 
ligious orders  or  congregations,  and  excluded  others,  was 

the  Upper  House  only  by  royal  favor,  they  will  never  wish  to  sit  there."    Bazin  ;  loc.  cif., 
p.  217. 


THE   BISMARCKLVN    SO-C.\LLED    "  WAR    FOR   CIVIUZATION."     43 

steruly  criticized.     The  eminent  juriscousult  said  :    "Among 
the  demands  which  Catholics  wdl  never  cease  to  make,  is 
that  for  the  freedom  of  the  religions  orders  and  congrega- 
tions.    We  shall  say  nothing  here  concerning  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  and  the  orders  which  are  alleged  to  be  afHliated  to  it ; 
their  return  must  be  considered  by  the  Keichstag,  for  it  was  a 
law  of  the  empire  that  crushed  them.     But  we  must  declare 
at  once  that  there  are  two  objections  to  the  law  which  is  now 
proposed.     The  first  objection  arises  from  the  fact  that  per- 
mission to  return  is  granted  solely  to  the  orders  or  congre- 
gations which  are  either  devoted  to  the  care  of  souls,  or  are 
given  to  offices  of  charity,  or  lead  a  contemplative  life."     Then 
the   government   is   reminded   of  the   moral,  enconomical, 
and  material  losses  which  have  been  entailed  upon  the  Cath- 
olic populations  by  the  expulsion  of  the  teaching  orders.    The 
second  objection  to  Article  Y.  is  derived  from  the  state  of 
utter  dependency  on  the  government  in  which  the  restored 
orders  will  be,  if  the  law  is  passed.     Windthorst  concluded 
his  report  with  this  declaration  :  "  It  is  indubitable  that  this 
project  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  final  revision  of  the  existing 
politico-ecclesiastical  legislation  ;  and  until  sucli  revision  is 
effected,  it  will  be  futile  to  talk  about  a  durable  peace  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  State."     The  arguments  of  its  lead- 
er convinced  the  entire  Centre  ;  but  it  soon  transpired  that 
Pope  Leo  had  written  to  the  archbishop  of  Cologne,  mani- 
festing a  willingness  to  be  content, /or  ihe  'present,  with  the 
governmental  concessions.     Then  the    Centre   yielded  ;  not 
deeming  it  good  policy  to  be  more  exigent  than  the  Eomau 
Pontiff  in   matters  concerning  which  he  was  certainly  the 
better  judge.     The  new  law  was  enacted  ;  and  thenceforth 
the  State  exercised  its  "  right "  of  Veto  on  the  appointment  of 
a  pastor,  only  so  far  as  the  tifle  of  pastor  was  involved.     The 
government  merely  insisted  that  the  bishops  should  appoint 
to  pastorships  no  priests  who  already  labored  under  civil 
condemnation.     The  ordinaries  were  to  be  no  longer  obliged 
to  fill  vacancies  within  a  stated  period  of  time ;  and  if  a 
pastor  were  condemned  to  prison,  the  pastorship  was  not  to  be 
regarded  as  ipso  facto  vacant,  as  the  May  Laws  had  prescribed. 
Disciplinary  measures  were  no  longer  to  be  notified  to  the 


44  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH    HISTOEY. 

governors  of  the  provinces.  The  Law  of  May  20,  1874,  con- 
cerning the  administration  of  vacant  dioceses,  was  cancelled. 
Toleration  was  to  be  extended  to  religious  orders  Avhich 
were  devoted  to  the  contemplative  life,  to  exercises  of  Chris- 
tian charity,  or  to  the  education  of  young  girls.  With  these 
final  modifications,  the  "  War  for  Civilization  "  practically 
terminated  ;  as  its  instigator  and  conductor  avowed,  nothing 
of  his  scheme  remained,  save  "ruins  and  rubbish."  Bis- 
marck had  arrived  at  Canossa. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FEEEMASONEY  IN  LATIN  AMERICA. — GAECIA  MOEENO,  "THE 
MODEEN  ST.  LOUIS."  * 

The  first  Masonic  Lodge  in  Spain  was  established  in  1726  ; 
the  first  Lodge  in  Madrid  was  opened  in  1731.  Not  having 
been  condemned  by  the  Church  until  1738,  the  Brethren  of 
the  Three  Points  enjoyed  twelve  years  of  perfect  freedom  for 
the  diffusion  of  their  poison,  ere  its  deadly  nature  was  per- 
ceived by  the  Spaniards.  Lodges  were  soon  founded  in  all 
the  principal  cities  ;  "and  when,  in  1756,  the  government  of 
Ferdinand  VI.  awoke  to  a  sense  of  its  duty  in  reference  to 
the  sectaries,  they  had  multiplied  to  such  an  extent,  and 
their  nefarious  doctrines  had  been  so  widely  spread,  that 
very  little  good  was  produced  by  that  celebrated  prohibitory 
edict  which  Masonic  apologists  affect  to  stigmatize  as  "  the 
greatest  and  most  cruel  persecution  of  their  order."  When 
Charles  III.  left  Naples  in  order  to  mount  the  Spanish 
throne  in  1759,  many  of  his  courtiers  were  adepts  of  the 
Square  and  Compass  ;  for  the  Neapolitan  court  had  been  a 
hot-bed  of  Masonry  for  many  years.  With  the  advent  of 
these  Italian  brethren,  the  most  prominent  of  whom  was  the 
Marquis  of  Squillace,  the  Lodge  of  Madrid  found  its  power 
greatly  increased  ;  and  from  that  day  the  influence  of  the 
sectaries  on  the  policy  of  the  Spanish  government  has  been 
almost  permanent.  Much  of  this  success  was  originally  due 
to  the  fact  that  in  those  days  the  Spanish  Lodges,  like  those 

*  This  chapter  appeared  in  the  Anirr.  Cath.  QKartcrhi  Review,  Vol.  xxiii. 


FREEMASONRY   IN    LATIN    AMERICA.  46 

of  the  Two  Sicilies,  dopemled  from  the  Grand  Lod<;e  of 
Loudou,  aud  to  the  analogous  fact  that  the  English  cabinet 
encouraged  the  propagation  of  Masonry  in  both  Spain  aud 
Portugal  for  its  own  political  aud  commercial  interests. 
Keeue,  tlie  English  ambassador  at  Madrid,  denoted  most  of 
his  energy  and  time  to  the  Masonic  propaganda  ;  and  wiien 
Cliarles  IV.  ascended  the  throne,  nearly  all  the  commerce  of 
Spain  was  in  English  hands.  Under  Charles  IV.,  many  of 
the  highest  functionaries  of  the  kingdom  and  not  a  few  ecclesi- 
astics were  votaries  of  the  Dark  Lantern.  Even  the  Inquisition 
was  invaded  by  the  sectaries.  Llorente,  the  secretary  of  the 
dread  tribunal,  was  one  of  the  most  active  Masons  of  his  day  ; 
and  to  his  perversion  is  due  that  shallow  diatribe  which  the 
average  Protestant  regards  as  a  "  History  "  of  the  institution 
which  is  his  most  persistent  nightmare  (1).  The  power  oi  tlie 
sectaries  had  become  so  great  in  1800,  that  Urquijo,  the 
Prime  Minister  of  Cliarles  IV.  and  a  Mason  of  high  degree, 
tliought  that  the  time  had  come  when  Spain  might  definitely 
cease  to  have  any  relations  with  Piome,  and  he  issued  a  se- 
ries of  edicts  tending  to  that  end.  Fortunately  the  king 
hearkened  to  the  representations  of  Pius  VII.,  and  revoked 
the  schismatical  decrees ;  but  the  Masonic  influence  was  not 
easily  thwarted.  Urquijo  and  his  brethren  devised  a  plan 
for  the  un-Christianizatiou  of  their  country  ;  he  proposed  to 
import  several  hundred  thousands  of  Russian  and  other  Jews 
into  Spain,  and  to  give  such  pecuniary  aid  and  political  en- 
couragement that  in  time  they  might  dominate  the  Christian 
element  in  the  kingdom  (2).  The  French  invasion  prevented 
the  actuation  of  this  design;  and  it  was  already  forgotten 
when,  in  1869,  after  the  enforced  abdication  of  Isabella  II., 
the  eminent  Mason,  Zorilla,  endeavored  to  actuate  a  similar 
plan.  Zorilla  proposed  to  the  government  of  the  temporary 
Regency  (Marshal  Serrano)  that  an  invitation  to  settle  in  Spain 
should  be  extended  to  many  thousjuids  of  English  Protestants. 
"  These  immigrants,"  he  insisted,  "  must  all  I>e  EiH/lifih  Protent- 
rnj^s  "  ;  and  unpatriotically  ignoring  the  fact  that  modern 
Spain  had  owed  to  Irish  Catholic  immigrants  much  of  the 

a  I  For  an  acrount  of  Llorente  sinri  bis  book,  see  our  Vol.  il.,  p.  402. 

(2)  La  Fientk  ;  Ecrlc^inxlical  Hi.-tnnj  ,,r  .<?;;«)),  Vol.  iv.,  p.  114.     Madrid.  187.3. 


46  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

military  power  that  she  still  possessed,  he  added :  "  Spain 
(/.  €.,  Spanish  Freemasonry)  has  no  use  fo7'  Irish  Catholics." 
In  1880,  another  luminary  of  Freemasonry,  Sagasta,  then 
Grand  Master  of  the  Grand  Orient  of  Spain,  and  unfortu- 
nately Prime  Minister  of  Alfonso  XII.,  affected  feelings  of 
commiseration  for  the  Russian  Jews,  against  whom  the  Slavs, 
maddened  by  the  poverty  to  which  Hebraic  usury  had  re- 
duced them,  had  risen  in  wicked  riot.  The  tender-hearted 
statesman  urged  Alfonso  XII.  to  pay  the  travelling  expenses 
of  80,000  of  the  Russian  and  Polish  Jews  if  they  would  settle 
in  Spain,  and  to  give  to  each  head  of  a  family  or  adult  un- 
married man  a  share  of  the  public  lands,  all  necessary  im- 
j^lements,  etc.,  and  a  guarantee  of  support  until  they  were 
able  to  sustain  themselves — that  is,  until  the  greater  part  of 
the  lands  of  their  Christian  neighbors  would  have  fallen  into 
their  clutches  (1).  Alfonso  XII.  declined  to  promote  the 
Masonico-Jewish  project ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  brethren  an- 
ticipated much  power  for  their  order  during  the  reign  of  the 
weak  son  of  Isabella  II.  In  the  Bulletin  of  the  Symbolic 
Scotch  Grand  Lodge,  Jan.,  1882,  we  read:  "In  Spain  cruel 
trials  have  frequently  been  the  portion  of  Freemasonry; 
tolerated  and  proscribed  alternately,  the  lot  of  the  Spanish 
brethren  has  never  been  an  enviable  one.  We  were  a  little 
anxious  as  to  the  course  that  Alfonso  XII.  would  pursue  in 
our  regard  ;  but  we  are  satisfied,  since  his  promises  to  enforce 
liberty  of  conscience  hsLve  been  fulfilled.  The  advent  of  the 
illustrious  Grand  Master,  Praxedes  Mateo  Sagasta,  to  the 
Prime  Ministership,  assures  to  Freemasonry  the  power  of 
exercising  its  mission  of  benevolence,  and  of  diffusing  its  tn- 
lightenment."  Sagasta  had  just  given  a  proof  of  his  desire 
to  "  enlighten  "  the  Spaniards  by  an  endeavor  to  make  civil 
marriage  the  law  of  the  land,  and  by  a  declaration  that  "  if 
that  law  entailed  a  rupture  with  Rome,  the  government  of 
Alfonso  XII.  would  draw  inspiration  from  the  conduct  of 
Charles  III.,  and  would  give  an  example  of  firmness  against 
the  obstinacy  of  the  Church"  (2).     Sagasta's  project  for  the 

(1)  Deschamps  ;  Secret  Societies  and  Society,  Bk.  iii.,  ch.  6,  8  i.    Sixth  edition.    Paris, 

1882. 
(•2)  Association  Cntholiqite,  Jan.  15,  1883. 


FPEEMASONRY    IN    LATIN    AMEUICA.  47 

ilemoralizatiojj  of  Spanish  society  was  perforce  postponed  to 
a  more  propitious  moment ;  lor  the  resistance  of  the  Catholic 
deputies  "was  then  seconded  by  the  fear,  on  the  part  of  the 
government,  of  a  Carlist  rising  in  defence  of  legitimacy. 

In  just  proportion  with  tlie  increase  of  Masonic  influence 
in  Spain,  the  educational  establishments  of  the  kingdom  had 
become  corrupted.  In  many  of  the  ecclesiastical  institu- 
tions, during  the  reign  of  Charles  111.  (1740-1788),  heretical 
doctrines  were  openly  taught.  Estalla,  rector  of  the  Semin- 
ary of  Salamanca,  and  an  avowed  Freemason,  taught  a 
"  natural  religion,"  and  tiierefore  atheism,  to  the  future  re- 
ligious teachers  of  the  people  ;  and  the  authorities  of  the 
seminaries  of  Osma,  Cordova,  and  Murcia  soon  imitated  his 
audacity.  In  the  time  of  Charles  IV.  (1788-1808),  and  for 
many  years  afterward,  the  once  glorious  Chapter  of  St,  Isi- 
dore paraded  its  "  enlightenment."  In  accordance  with  the 
system  of  Arauda  (1),  it  endeavored,  nearly  a  century  before 
Bismarck's  similar  enterprise  in  our  day,  to  relegate  to  the 
regions  of  the  past  all  doctrines  which  it  chose  to  consider 
as  "  Jesuitical,"  and  it  did  not  hesitate  to  inoculate  its  stu- 
dents with  the  poison  of  Locke  and  d'Alembert.  Incred- 
ulism  and  immorality,  therefore,  were  not  then  the  foreign 
exotics  which  they  had  hitherto  been  ;  although,  just  as  in 
the  Spain  of  to-day,  the  immense  majority  of  the  people  re- 
mained true  to  their  faith,  and  the  nation  was  then,  as  now, 
the  most  moral  of  all  the  nations  of  continental  Europe.  The 
Spain  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  and  of  Philip  11.  was  a 
thing  of  the  past ;  the  Spain  of  Aranda,  Urtijo,  Campoman- 
es,  Jovellanos,  and  others  of  that  ilk— all  graduates  of  Ma- 
sonry—was preparing  the  catastrophe  for  the  Spain  which 
we  know,  the  Spain  of  Espartero,  Prim,  O'Donnell,  Castelar, 
Zorilla,  Sagasta,  and  other  Masonic  pygmies,  who  fancied, 
each  in  his  turn,  that  the  mantle  of  Cardinal  Ximenes  had 
fallen  on  his  shoulders  (2). 

(1)  See  our  Vol.  iv.,  p.  468. 

(2)  The  reaiier  who  desires  to  learn  how  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  Spain  were  pre- 
vented,  diirincr  the  latter  part  of  the  ei(,'hteenth  century  and  durin?  the  first  years  of  the 
nineteenth,  from  displayintr  the  eneriry  which  was  necessary  for  a  s'lccessfiil  combat  with 
Freemasonry,  will  do  well  if  he  studies  the  work  hy  Henry  Bnick.  Piofcssor  in  the  Seiula- 
ary  of  Mayence.  entitled.  The  Secret  Societie.*  in  Si>aiii.    Mayence.  1881. 


48  SlUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTOKY. 

A  natural  consequence  of  the  spread  of  Freemasonry  in 
Spain  was  its  introduction  into  the  Spanish-American  colon- 
ies. According  to  the  Monde  Ma^onnique  (1),  an  organ  of 
tiie  Dark  Lantern  which  has  every  facility  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  information  concerning  this  and  similar  matters,  there 
were,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution  against  the  motlier- 
couutry,  ninety-nine  Lodges  in  Peru  alone.  That  these  and 
other  Lodges  were  the  instigators  of  the  insurrections  of 
1815-1830,  and  that  they  simply  obeyed  the  orders  given  by 
the  heads  of  European  Masonry,  when  they  so  acted,  was 
deliberately  stated  by  the  Protestant  diplomat.  Count  Haug- 
witz,  in  the  memorial  which  he  presented  to  the  European 
sovereigns  who  formed  the  Congress  of  Verona  in  1822  ;  and 
as  his  assertion  was  not  contradicted  by  the  Masonic  half  of 
the  assembly,  it  may  be  regarded  as  strictly  true  (2).     Nearly 

(1)  In  the  issue  for  March,  1875. 

(2)  Some  passages  from  this  memorial  by  Haugwltz,  who  was  the  Prussian  Prime  Minis- 
ter of  that  day,  ought  to  interest  the  reader.  "  Now  that  I  am  at  the  end  of  my  career 
(he  was  then  seventy  years  old,  and  had  been  in  the  Prussian  cabinet  nearly  forty  years), 
I  think  that  it  is  my  duty  to  draw  your  attention  to  the  aims  of  those  secret  societies  whose 
poison  threatens  humanity  to-day  more  than  ever.  Their  history  is  so  intimately  inter- 
twined  with  my  own  that  I  cannot  refrain  from  giving  some  details 1  had  scarcely 

attained  my  majority  when  I  found  myself  occupying  a  distinguished  place  In  tlie  highest 
grades  of  Masonry.  Before  I  could  even  know  myself,  before  I  could  understand  the  situa- 
tion into  which  I  had  rashly  plunged  myself.  I  found  myself  entrusted  with  the  chief  direc- 
tion of  a  part  of  Prussian,  Polish,  and  Russian  Masonry.  As  far  as  its  secret  labors  were  con- 
cerned. Masonry  was  then  divided  into  two  sections.  The  first  affected  to  aim  at  a  discovery 
of  the  jihilosopher's  stone  ;  its  religion  was  Deism,  or  rather  Atheism  ;  its  directive  centre, 
under  Dr.  Zinndorf,  was  in  Berlin.  The  second  section,  the  apparent  head  of  which  was 
Prince  F.  of  Brunswick,  was  very  different.  In  open  antagonism  with  each  other,  these  two 
parties  united  in  order  to  obtain  the  domination  of  the  world,  to  subjugate  every  throne- 
such  was  their  object.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  tell  you  how,  in  the  satisfaction  of  my  ar- 
dent  c'lriosity.  I  mastered  the  secret  of  each  of  these  sects  ;  tlie  triUh  is  that  the  secret  is  no 
mvsferv  for  me.  And  that  secret  disgusts  me.  It  was  in  1T77  that  I  assumed  the  direc- 
tion of  some  of  the  Prussian  Lodges  ;  it  was  three  or  four  years  before  the  convent  of  Will- 
helmsbad,  and  the  invasion  of  the  Lodges  by  Illuminism.  M>  sphere  of  action  em- 
braced the  brethren  scattered  through  Poland  and  Russia.  Had  I  not  seen  the  fact  with 
mv  own  eves,  I  would  not  believe  it  possible  that  governments  culd  close  their  eyes  to 
such  a  disorder  as  a  state  within  a  state.  . .  .  Our  object,  like  that  of  the  olden  Templars,  was 
todominate  overthrones  and  sovereigns.  .  .  .  There  appeared  a  book  entitled  Errors  and 
'Truths.  This  work  produced  a  sensation,  and  it  impressed  me  deei.ly.  ...  At  once  I 
thought  I  would  now  learn  what  was  hidden  under  the  emblems  of  the  Order  :  hut  accord- 
ino- as  I  penetrated  further  into  the  dark  civern.  deeper  grew  my  conviction  that  there 
was  something  very  different  in  the  last  recesses.  The  light  came  when  I  found  that 
Saint-Martin,  the  author  of  this  work,  was  really  one  of  the  coryphees  of  the  Chapter  of  Sion. 

ThenI  acquired  the  firm  conviction  that  the  drama  which  began  in  1789,  the  French 
Revolution,  the  regicide  with  all  its  horrors,  had  not  onlv  been  lousr  prepared,  but  tlKit  it 
was  the  result  of  our  association,  of  our  oaths,  etc.  ..  .  Those  who  know  me  can  judge 
of  the  effect  which  these  discoveries  produced  on  me.  ...  My  first  care  was  to  communi- 
cate mv  discoveries  to  King  William  III.    Both  of  us  were  convinced  that  all  of  the  Ma- 


FREEMASONRY   IN  LATIN   AMERICA,  49 

all  of  the  Spanish  commanders-in-chief  in  America  during  the 
years  1815-1830  were  Freemasons ;  hence  the  numerous  under- 
standings with  the  rebel  leaders,  and  hence,  notably,  the  capit- 
ulation of  the  S])auish  army  at  Ayacucho,  in  Peru,  in  182-1  (1). 
When  the  Spanish-American  colonies  had  become  indepen- 
dent  states,  then   the  halcyon  days  of   Spanish-American 
Masonry,  if  we  are  to  judge  from  a  Masonic  point  of  view, 
entered  on  their  course.     "  Then,"  says  the  Monde  3Ia^on- 
nique,    "  a   love  of   enlightenment  and  of   liberty   arose  at 
once,  together  with  independence,  as  thougli  from  a  propi- 
tious soil."     The  entire  political  history  of  most  of  the  Span- 
ish-American republics,  and  much   of  that  history   in  the 
others,  shows  that  while  the  soil  may  have  been  '•  propitious," 
its  Masonic  cultivators  produced  no  other  crops  than  chronic 
revolutions  and  all   their  attendant   miseries.     As   for   the 
"  love  of  enlightenment "  which  the  Lodges   claim  to  have 
manifested  in  every  land  of  Latin- America  during  the  periods 
when  the  civil  power  has  been  in  their  hands,  it   cannot   be 
denied  that  if  Satanic  hatred  of  Catholicism  and  of  its  works 
be  a  test  of  "  enlightenment,"  then,  indeed,  the  Dark  Lantern  is 
more  luminous  than  the  sun  of  justice  and  of  truth.     It  may 
be  observed,  however,  than  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese- Amer- 
ica, just  as  in  other  Christian  lands,  "  love  of  enlightenment " 
has  not  been  the  impelling  motive  of  Freemasonry  in  its  war 
to  the  knife  against  the  Church.     In  the  eyes  of  Freemasonry, 
the  crying  sin  of  the  Church  is  not  that  she  is  ignorant  rather 
than  enlightened,  despotic  rather  tlian  liberal ;  her  unpar- 
donable fault  is  that  she  is  tlie  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.     As 


scnlc  grades,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  were  destructive  of  all  religious  principles, 
conducive  to  the  execution  of  the  most  criminal  designs,  and  that  the  lowest  grades  were 
used  as  rr.eie  mantles  to  cover  the  iniquities  of  the  highest.  This  conviction,  snared  with 
me  by  the  king,  caused  me  to  renounce  Masonry  absolutely  ;  but  the  king  deemed  it  pru- 
dent to  abstain  from  an  open  rupture  with  the  Order."  When  Ilaugwitz's  memorial  had 
been  well  discussed  by  the  sovereigns  a.ssembled  in  Verona,  the  Prussian  king  al  ne  re- 
fused to  take  measures  against  Freemasonry  ;  and  from  that  day  the  Lodges  regardeci  Prussia 
as  the  sole  continental  State  willing  to  accomplish  theirwork,  fas  tint  nefas.  Theemper 
ors  of  Austria  anc"  Russia  determined  to  act  as  energetically  as  their  Masonic  surroundings 
would  permit.  Alexander  I.,  the  Russian  cz^ir,  had  hitherto  protected  Masonry,  but  now 
he  proscribed  it;  in  1816  he  nad  expelled  the  Jesuits  from  his  empire,  but  in  1«:.M,  as  we 
have  seen,  he  sent  (ieneral  Michaud  to  Rome  to  prepire  the  way  for  the  return  of  Rus.sia 
Into  the  Catholic  fold.  He  died  mysteriously  as  soon  as  the  errand  of  Michaud  was  made 
known.    Was  that  death  the  work  of  Masonry  V 

<1)  See  the  cited  work  by  Bruck  for  several  Spanish  authorities  for  this  a.sse-tion. 


50  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH   HISTORY. 

M.  de  Champagny  well  said  :  "  There  has  ever  been,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  but  one  single  war  between  the 
Church,  whether  patriarchal.  Mosaic,  or  Christian,  and  that 
Proteus  Avliich  was  styled  Paganism  in  ancient  times,  which- 
appeared  as  Mohammedanism  in  the  sixth  century,  which 
was  disguised  as  Protestantism  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
which  masqueraded  as  Incredulism  in  the  eighteenth,  and 
which  now  combats  as  the  Revolution"  (1) ;  and  Freemasonry 
is  the  personification  of  each  one  of  these  pests.  The  Satanic 
sympathies  of  Freemasonry,  whatever  may  be  the  individual 
sentiments  of  some  of  its  adepts,  are  especially  evinced  in  La- 
tin-America ;  for  not  one  of  the  Masonic  "  Powers"  in  those 
regions  interrupted  its  relations  with  the  Grand  Orient  of 
France,  when  that  great  and  shining  exemplar  of  all  the 
Masonic  virtues  erased  from  its  Constitution  the  name  of  God 
and  all  mention  of  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul  (2). 

Elsewhere  we  have  alluded  to  the  peculiar  tactics  adopt- 
ed by  Freemasonry  in  its  war  against  Christianity  in  Portu- 
gal (3) ;  to  the  deliberate  attempt  to  corrupt  the  entire  Portu- 
guese clergy — an  enterprise  the  plan  of  which  had  been 
sketched  originally  by  Weisshaupt  as  calculated  to  subju- 
gate the  German  priesthood,  and  which  was  recommended 
afterward  by  the  'Roman  Alta  Vendita,  as  promising  to  place 
a  Carbonaro  on  the  throne  of  Peter  (4).  This  Satanic  meth- 
od of  warfare  had  attained  a  measure  of  success  in  Ger- 
many and  in  Tuscany  in  the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century ;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  it  did  not  fail  entirely  when 
it  was  waged  in  Portugal  in  later  days.  With  light  hearts, 
therefore,  the  Brethren  of  the  Three  Points  undertook  in 
Brazil  the  most  important  campaign  which  they  have  ever 
conducted  in  Latin  America.  Their  first  victory  entailed  the 
capture  of  no  less  a  personage  than,  Dom  Pedro,  the  son  and 
heir  of  John  VL  In  1814  John  VI.  returned  to  Portugal, 
whence  the  Napoleonic  invasion  had  driven  him  ;  but  Dom 
Pedro  remained  in  Brazil  and  became  a  Mason.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  it  was  the  advice  of  his  fellow-sectaries 
that   induced  Pedro   to  prefer   an  independent   sceptre  of 

(1)  The  Power  of  VTordK.  p.  31.    Paris.  1880. 

(2)  See  our  Vol.  Iv.,  p.  436.  {^)  Ibid.,  Vol.  t..  p.  267.  (4)  Ihid.,  p.  483 


FllEEMASONUY   IN   L.S.T1N    AMEKICa.  51 

Brazil  to  a  double  crown  of  Brazil  and  Portu^^al  (1).  In  a  let- 
ter written  to  his  father  on  July  15,  1822,  he  advised  the  old 
monarch  to  imitate  him,  since,  as  he  ar<fued,  "  the  Portu- 
guese were  verj'  foolish  when  they  felt  such  horror  for  so 
philanthropic  an  institution"  (2).  In  1820  Dom  Pedro  was 
made  Grand  Master  of  Brazilian  Masonry,  and  during  his 
entire  reign  he  endeavored  to  establish  the  order  tirmly  in 
his  dominions.  No  open  attack,  however,  was  made  on 
Catliolicism  during  this  reign,  and  the  same  prudence  was 
observed  during  the  greater  part  of  the  reign  of  Dom  Pedro 
II.  (1831-1889).  But  during  all  these  years  the  Freemasons 
were  insinuating  themselves  not  only  into  all  the  religious 
confraternities  which  abound  in  Brazil  as  well  as  in  Port- 
ugal, but  also  into  the  priesthood,  and  even  into  the  epis- 
copacy. For  many  years  before  the  persecution  which  we 
are  about  to  narrate,  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that 
any  person  could  be  admitted  into  the  Confraternity  of  Mt. 
Carmel,  or  into  the  Third  Order  of  St.  Francis,  unless  he 
Was  previously  enrolled  in  some  Masonic  Lodge  (3) ;  Jind  we 
can  perceive  the  significance  of  this  alarming  Tact  if  we 
remember  that  as  in  Portugal,  so  in  Brazil,  few  persons  of 
any  respectability  did  not  belong  to  one  of  these  or  similar 
confraternities,  so  great  and  manifold  were  the  religious  and 
social  advantages  reaped  by  their  members  (4).  Certainly  it 
seems  strange  that  the  adepts  of  Square  and  Triangle  waited 
until  1872  to  dofif  the  mask  which  had  hitherto  hidden  their 
hideousness  (5).     Perhaps  they  had  not  been  sure  of  the  ap- 

(1)  Clatel  ;  Pictnrial  History  of  Freemasonry,  Pt.  ii.,  ch.  3. 

(1)  This  letter  is  given  in  its  entirety  by  Mencacoi,  in  bis  Documents  for  the  History  of 
Af  Italian  Revolution,  Vol.  ii..  p.  67. 

(3)  Dkschamps  ;  loc.  cit.,  Bk.  iii.,  ch.  :io,  %  1. 

,4)  The  riots  which  («curred  in  Porto,  in  Portugal,  in  1862.  and  in  which  the  war-cry 
A-as,  "Down  with  the  Sisters  of  Charity!"  were  instigated  by  the  Third  Order  of  St. 
/ranels.  These  wonderful  disciples  of  the  Seraph  of  Assisi,  in  the  letter  of  dismissal  from 
ihe;r  hospital  which  they  sent  to  the  Daughters  of  St.  Vincent,  protested  that  "  their  dettr- 
minaiiou  was  caused  by  no  unfavorable  opinion  of  the  Sisters."  Such  a  remark  was 
superfluous.    They  were  Freemasons,  and  that  fact  explained  their  action. 

(5)  In  Ma/,  1872,  the  Bulletin  of  the  United  Grand  Orient  of  Brazil  thus  manifested 
the  designs  <./  ;he  order:  "We  are  fighting  to  fulfil  the  grand  humanitarian  and  social 
mission  which  has  been  reserved  for  our  order  in  the  universal  country  which  is  afflicted 
by  errors  a  th(.u~and  years  old.  . . .  Our  reason,  our  intelligence,  tell  us  that  we  are 
progressing  towa.-o  perfectibility,  and  the  chief  point  is  to  regulate  our  march  so  as  to 
arrive  at  the  goal  ni,>re  surely.  . . .  Hidden  behind  the  screen  of  so  called  religious  be- 
liefs, the  Black  Men  (de  priests)  propagate  the  fatal  principle  of  obligatory  ignorance,  in 


52  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTOKY. 

probation  of  the  emperor,  Dom  Pedro  II.,  a  sovereign  who 
would  have  liked  to  serve  God  without  displeasing  the  devil ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  just  before  the  persecution,  when  Dom 
Pedro  was  about  to  return  from  his  travels  in  North  America  ■ 
and  Europe,  it  was  commcm  talk  in  Brazil  that  the  stay  of 
His  Majesty  in  Italy  and  in  the  United  States  had  rendered 
him  bitter  against  the  Holy  See,  and  that  the  Brazilian 
Church  might  expsct  trouble.  Villefranche  narrates  that  one 
morning  in  1872,  at  about  seven  o'clock,  just  as  Pius  IX. 
had  finished  his  Mass,  word  was  brought  to  His  Holiness 
that  the  emperor  of  Brazil,  who  was  then  visiting  Victor 
Emmanuel,  desired  an  audience.  In  spite  of  the  early  hour, 
the  Pontiff  consented  to  receive  Dom  Pedro.  TV  hen  the 
Brazilian  had  made  his  obeisance,  the  Pope  said  :  "  Well, 
what  can  I  do  for  Your  Majesty?  "  Dom  Pedro  replied  :  "  I 
beg  Your  Holiness  not  to  call  me  '  Your  Majesty  '  ;  at  pres- 
ent I  am  the  Count  d'  Alcantara." — "  Very  well,"  said  the 
Pope,  "what  can  I  do  for  the  Count  d' Alcantara  ?  " — "I 
have  come,"  replied  Dom  Pedro,  "  to  ask  permission  to  bring 
the  King  of  Italy  to  Your  Holiness."  Villefranche  says  that 
Pius  IX.  arose,  and  with  his  eyes  flashing,  he  cried :  "  There 
is  no  use  in  proposing  such  a  thing  to  me.  When  the  King 
of  Piedmont  restores  to  me  ray  states,  I  may  consent  to  re- 
ceive him,  but  not  until  then  shall  I  do  so."  The  same  in- 
terview is  narrated  somewhat  differently  by  the  Brazilian 
authority  on  whose  report  of  the  Masonic  persecution  De- 
schamps  relies  as  being  of  such  unimpeachable  value  that 
"  it  would  be  rash  not  to  accord  it  full  confidence."  Accord- 
ing to  this  authority,  when  Dom  Pedro  had  made  his  impu- 
dent request,  the  Pontiff  calmly  said  :  "  My  little  Count,  you 
understand  nothing  about  these  things  ;  so  don't  talk  about 
them."  The  pontifical  retort,  says  the  Brazilian  friend  of 
Deschamps,  cut  Dora  Pedro  to  the  quick,  and  he  determined 
to  punish  Pius  IX.  "  One  thing  is  certain,"  adds  this 
authority  ;  "  before  the  emperor's  return  from  Europe,  it 
was  circulated  ever3^wliere  in  Brazil  that  His  Majesty  had 

order  to  perpetuate  their  sacerdotnl  authority. .  .  .  The  people  will  now  fear  off  the  bandages 
of  slavery  which  the  oppressors  of  the  hiiinaii  ronsfi»»nce  have  placed  over  their  eyes.  .  . . 
The  advantages  cf  modern  civilization  will  now  inke  the  place  of  the  routine  of  centuries  '' 


FREEMASONRY    IN    L.VTLN   AMERICA.  53 

become  ill-disposed  toward  the  Cluirch  ;  that  he  was  greatly 
excited   against  her,  aud  that  she  might  expect  much  mis- 
fortime.     These  riimc^rs,  I  repeat,   were  heard   everywhere 
before  the  return  of  the  emperor,  aud  events  justified  thorn." 
Whether  or  nottliis  rumor  was  well-founded,  the  sprin^^  of 
1872  was  signalized  by  a  declaration  of  open  war,  on  the  part 
of  Freemasonry,  against  the  Church  of  the  immense  majority 
of  the  Brazilians.     At  that  time  Brazilian  Masonry  was  di- 
V'ided  into  two  factious,  each  having  its  own  Grand  Lodge — 
I  he    one  being  of  monarchical  spirit,  and  the  other    being 
essentially  radical  aud  revolutionary.     The  Grand  Master  of 
the  first  faction  was  Kio  Branco,  the  President  of  the  Cabinet. 
On  March  3d  the  Rio  Branco  Masons  gave  a  banquet  to  their 
leader,  in  order  to  congratulate  him  on  some  measures  which 
he  had  induced  the  Parliament  to  vote  ;  and  one  of  the  features 
of  the  celebration  M'as  a  discourse  hy  a  priest.     The  speech 
was  reproduced  by  the  most  important  journal  of  the  empire, 
the    Comrnercio,  and  the  full  name,  position,  titles,  etc.,  of 
the  orator  were  carefully  detailed.     The  audacious  ecclesias- 
tic was  immediately  suspended  by  his  bishop  ;  and  then,  from 
every  corner  of  Brazil,  were  heard  the  howls  of  "  the  friends 
of  Brazilian  liberty."     Herod  and  Pilate  shook  hands  ;  on 
April  16th  the  "Conservative  "  Grand  Orient  (the  Lavra  Dio) 
invited  the  Radical  Grand  Orient  (the  Benedictinos,  so  called 
from  the  place  of  its  meeting)  to  sink  all  political  differences 
in  order  to  wage  a  more  successful  war  against  the  "  Black 
Men."     That  this  union  might  be  the  more  impressive,  both 
Orients  announced  in  the  newspapers  that  on  a  certain  day 
the  Brethren  would  have  a  solemn  Mass  of  Requiem  offered 
for  one  of  their  number  who  had  just  died  "  impenitent  and 
unabsolved."     The  defiance  of  episcopal  authority  was  un- 
mistakable ;  but  unfortunately  the   bishop  of    Rio   Janeiro 
neglected  his  duty,  and  the  Mass  was  celebrated  with  all  the 
pomp  of  Masonry.     Having  thus  vindicated  their  claims  to 
popular  respect  in  the  capital,  the  sectaries  turned  their  at- 
tention to  the  provinces.     Mgr.  Vital  Gon9alves  de  Oliveiro. 
a  prelate  of  sweet  character  and  of  great  tact,  had  just  been 
installed  in  Lis  diocese  of  Olinda,  wdien  tlie  journals    an- 
nounced, on  June  27th,  and  in  the  name  of  the  united  Grand 


54  STUDIES   EN   CHUECH   HISTOEY. 

Orients,  that  on  the  Feast  of  Sts.  Peter  and  Paul  a  Mass  oi 
thanksgiving  would  be  celebrated  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter, 
in  commemoration  of  the  foundation  of  the  Lodge  of  Olinda. 
In  spite  of  his  gentleness,  Oliveiro  was  of  stamina  very  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  bishop  of  Eio  ;  therefore,  he  immediately 
wrote  to  each  pastor  in  his  diocese  a  reminder  that  no  priest 
could  officiate  or  assist  at  a  function  which  was  avowedly 
Masonic.  The  clergy  refused  to  do  the  bidding  of  the  Orient ; 
but  the  Brethren  were  not  discouraged.  On  July  3d  the 
newspapers  told  the  public  that  a  Mass  of  Eequiem  would 
be  offered  in  the  Cathedral  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  a 
recently  deceased  Brother,  and  that  the  Lodge  of  Olinda 
would  attend  with  all  its  insignia.  Again  the  clergy  did 
their  duty ;  and  then  the  Masonic  journals  called  on  the  peo- 
ple to  protest  against  the  wickedness  of  the  priests  "  who 
would  not  pray  for  the  dead."  The  bishop  of  Olinda  was 
asked  to  refute  the  following  argument :  "  Why  does  the  bish- 
op so  limit  Freemasonry  as  to  prevent  it  from  appearing 
oflScially  at  the  religious  functions  in  his  churches  ? 
Masonry  is  a  holy  institution  ;  the  proof  of  this  assertion  lies 
in  the  fact  that  there  are  many  Masons  among  his  clergy,  even 
in  his  Chapter,  and  also  in  the  confraternities.  The  Free- 
masons are  excellent  Catholics ;  for  the  same  hands  which 
carry  the  mallet  in  the  Lodges  carry  the  sacred  banners  and 
images  in  religious  processions."  On  December  28th  Mgr. 
Oliveiro  sent  a  circular  to  all  his  clergy,  calling  on  them 
to  procure  either  an  abjuration  from  all  the  Masonic  mem- 
bers of  the  confraternities,  or  a  resignation  of  their  member- 
ship (1).  It  was  found  that  in  some  of  the  confraternities 
there  were  no  Freemasons  ;  but  there  were  too  many  of  the 
societies  which  proved  that  the  sectaries  had  not  belied  them, 
and  these  were  disciplined  by  the  interdiction  of  their  spe- 

(I'l  The  reader  must  know  that  in  this  term  "  confraternitifs  "  were  included  in  Brazil 
a-'  in  Portu<ral,  not  only  orfranizations  like  those  to  which  that  name  Is  pivea  In  other 
( oimtries,  but  also  those  bodies  which  had  been  instituted  by  Pombal  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  business  affairs  of  th'^  parishes,  but  principally  in  order  to  attenuate  the 
authority  of  the  bishops.  These  parochial  "  confraternities  "  were  very  different  from  our 
Boards  of  Trustees,  or  the  French  OmseiU  de  Fabrique,  or  the  Italian  Fabriche ;  they  not 
only  handled  the  parochial  funds,  but  they  arrauRed  all  festive  celebrations,  and  invited 
whom  they  pleased  to  assist  at  them.  They  wore  special  costumes,  and  attended  all  mar- 
riages, funerals,  and  very  many  civil  functions. 


FREEMASONRY    IN    L.VTIN    AMERICA.  55 

cial  chapels.     As  was  to  be  expected,  and  as  the  Masons  had 
hoped,  the  censured  confraternities  continued  to  liokl  their 
accustomed  services  in  their  interdicted  chapels,  one  of  their 
number  presiding  when  no  priest  could  be  induced  to  otftciate. 
Tliov  also  continued  to  attend,  in  their  special  regidia,  at  all 
the  parochial  services  in  their  churches.     In  the  diocese  of 
Para  everything  happened  as  in  that  of  Olinda  ;  and  the  par- 
ish clergv  of  each  diocese  were  notified  by  the  rebels  that  if 
the  confraternites  were  not  allowed  to  appear  in  church  and 
to  receive  the  Blessed  Sacrament  "  in  their  Masonic  capacity," 
the  said  confraternities  would  remove  the  sacred  vestments 
from  the  churches,  and  would  take  possession  of  the  keys  of 
the  Tabernacles.     The  threat  was  fulfilled  ;  and  whenever  a 
priest  was  summoned  to  give  the  Holy  Viaticum  to  the  dying, 
he  was  obliged  to  humiliate  himself  before  the  president  of 
his  Masonic  confraternity,  unless  time  allowed  him  to  go  to 
the  Tabernacle  in  the  episcopal  residence,  or  to  that  in  one 
of  the  convents.     In  none  of  the  parishes  of  Olinda  and  Para 
was  Mass  now  offered  ;  and  the  interdicted  confraternities 
confiscated   to    secular   purposes    (or    to    their    individual 
pockets)  the  funds  which  had  been  placed  in  their  care  for 
the  celebration  of  Masses  for  the  Dead,  or  for  other  pious 
intentions.     These  diabolic  outrages  could  not  continue  in  a 
Catholic  community  without  much  risk  of  life  and  limb  on  the 
part  of  the  perpetrators  ;   the   people   are   not   always    as 
patient  as  their   spiritual   advisers.     It  became  necessary, 
therefore,  for  the  "  Masonic  Catholics  "  to  invoke  the  aid  of 
the  civil  authority  against  the  Canons  of  the  Church.     They 
appealed  to  the  Parliament,  not  having  reflected  that   the 
deputies  of  the  people  might  sustain  the  authority  of  the  bish- 
ops ;   but  their   mistake   was   perceived  by  the  Minister  of 
Ecclesiastical  Afiairs,  a  notorious  Freemason,  and  he  advised 
them  to  appeal  lo  his  tribunal.     The  advice  was  followed  ; 
and  with  Masonry  as  a  judge  in  a  case  to  which  it  was  a  party, 
the  issue  was  not  doiibtful.     On  June  12,  1873,  an  imperial 
decree  ordered  the  bishops  to  withdraw  the  interdict  which 
they  had  pronounced  against  the  confraternities  ;  the  govern- 
ment alleging  that  the  Papal  condemnation  of  Freemasonry 
was  c  f  no  value,  since  it  had  never  received  the  ro3'ul  exequatur. 


56  STUDIES  IX    CHURCH    HLSTORY. 

or,  in  plain  language,  since  His  Brazilian  Majesty  had  not 
accorded  to  it  his  gracious  approbation.  By  a  strange  coin- 
cidence, at  the  very  moment  that  tire  decree  of  Dom  Pedro 
II.  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mgr.  Oliveiro,  he  received  also  ■ 
the  Papal  Brief,  Quanquam  dolores,  in  which,  under  date  of 
May  29th,  Pius  IX.  approved  all  that  he  and  the  bishop  of 
Para  had  done  in  the  matter  of  the  Freemasons,  and  ordered 
him  to  communicate  this  approbation  to  the  entire  Brazilian 
hierarchy.  The  bishop  of  Olinda,  therefore,  wrote  to  the  em- 
peror :  "  Sire,  I  hold  now  in  one  hand  your  order  to  raise  the 
interdict  which  I  have  inflicted,  and  in  the  other  hand  I  hold 
a  Brief  in  which  His  Holiness  commends  all  that  I  have  done 
in  that  matter.  Your  Majesty  shall  judge  whether  I  am  free 
to  obey  your  commands."  Oliveiro  immediatel}'  published 
the  Papal  Brief  throughout  his  diocese,  and  the  government 
summoned  him  to  answer  for  the  "crime"  of  publishing  a 
document  from  Rome  without  the  royal  permission.  But 
when  it  was  learned  that  all  the  bishops  in  the  empire  had 
been  equally  guilty,  the  trial  was  postponed  indefinitely,  and 
other  and  more  radical  measures  were  taken  against  the  prin- 
cipal offender.  On  January  2, 1874,  an  imperial  commissary 
presented  himself  at  the  residence  of  the  intrepid  prelate  in 
Pernambuco.  When  informed  that  the  officer  was  charged 
witli  the  unpleasant  task  of  arresting  him,  Oliveiro  replied 
that  he  would  yield  only  to  force.  Then  the  commissary  laid 
his  hand  on  the  bishop's  arm — the  conventional  sign  that  force 
was  being  used — and  the  prisoner  asked  to  be  allowed  to  re- 
tire to  his  private  rooms  for  a  few  moments.  Permission 
Having  been  accorded,  Oliveiro  withdrew.  When  seated  in 
his  chamber,  he  rapidly  wrote  a  protest  against  the  govern- 
mental proceedings.  Then  he  put  on  all  his  pontifical  robes, 
and  went  to  his  private  chapel.  After  a  moment  of  prayer,  he 
opened  the  door,  and  asked  the  waiting  commissary  :  "  Quern 
qiuvrUis  ?  "  Then  he  read  his  protest,  and  followed  the  officer 
to  the  man-of-war  which  was  to  convey  him  to  Rio.  Having 
arrived  in  the  capital,  he  was  confined  in  the  arsenal  for  three 
days,  and  then  he  was  visited  by  certain  officers,  who  asked 
him  what  he  had  to  say  in  answer  to  the  charges  which  they 
read  to  him.     No  answer  could  be  made  ;  for,  as  a  Catholic 


FREEMASONIJY    IN    LAl'IX    AMEUICA.  57 

bishop,  Oliveiro  could  not  admit  the  oompeteucy  of  a  seculai 
tribunal  iu  religous  matters.  But  he  asked  f(3r  })aper,  wrote 
a  few  words,  and  sealed  the  doeumeut.  When  the  judges  who 
were  to  try  his  case  assembled,  they  were  very  anxious  to 
learn  the  nature  of  his  pleading ;  but  when  the  important 
paper  was  opened,  it  was  found  to  contain  :  "  Jesus  autem 
tacehaty  On  February  21  the  daring  criminal  was  con- 
demned to  four  years  of  hard  labor  in  a  fortress ;  but  Dom 
Pedro  deigned  to  alleviate  the  sentence  by  exempting  his 
victim  from  the  hard  labor.  Immediately'  after  the  disposal 
of  the  case  of  the  bishop  of  Olinda,  tliat  of  Mgr.  Macedo,  the 
bishop  of  Para,  received  the  same  treatment,  and  ended  in  the 
same  manner.  After  two  years  of  imprisonment,  both  prel- 
ates were  graciously  "  pardoned"  by  the  emperor.  But  the 
bishop  of  Para  was  destined  to  undergo  many  more  painful 
experiences  at  the  hands  of  the  Masonic  apostles  of  "  enlight- 
enment and  liberty."  The  most  notable  of  these  suil'erings 
was  that  which  was  entailed  by  his  condemnation  of  the 
Confraternity  of  Our  Lady  of  Nazareth  ;  an  institute  which, 
founded  in  1842  for  noble  purposes  of  mutual  edification,  had 
latterly  fallen  almost  entirely  into  the  clutches  of  Masonry. 
In  October,  1877,  this  association  was  celebrating  one  of  its 
feasts  with  a  grand  procession,  when  suddenly  the  spectators 
were  shocked  by  the  sight  of  pictures  of  entirely  naked  wom- 
en, and  of  other  representations  even  more  obscene,  amid  the 
images  of  Jesus,  Mary,  and  the  saints  (1).  The  episcopal 
condemnation  of  this  sacrilege,  accentuated  by  an  interdict 
of  the  chapel  of  the  culpable  confraternity,  entailed  legal 
proceedings  which  lasted  for  more  than  two  years,  and  finally 
the  Masons  gained  their  cause  ;  for  the  president  of  the  prov- 
ince, Goma  y  Abreu,  was  an  adept.  On  the  night  of  the  day 
when  it  had  been  decided  that  the  sacrilegious  organization 
should  retain  possession  of  its  chapel,  the  brethren  passed  in 
procession  before  the  palace  of  the  bishop,  insulting  him  with 
hootings  and  groans.  The  religious  images  were  carried,  as 
usual,  in  this  procession  ;  but  the  character  of  the  participants 
was  shown  by  the  fact  that  nearly  all  wore  their  hats  and 
had  cigars  in  their  mouths  ;  and  iu  order  that  the  victory 

!1)  Tbua  rhe  I'arls  Vnivers  of  N"veinber  10.  1879.  f|uollng  the  Diario  de  Belem. 


58  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

might  be  more  clearly  uuderstood  as  one  of  Masonry,  the 
rooms  of  the  Lodge  of  Para  were  grandly  illuminated  during 
the  festivities,  and  the  brethren  furnished  the  populace  with 
an  expensive  exhibition  of  firewoi'ks,  the  chief  features  of 
which  were  Masonic  emblems  (1).  But  in  spite  of  the 
apparent  triumph  of  the  Lodges  over  the  bishops  of  Olinda 
and  Para,  the  more  perspicacious  of  the  brethren  could  not 
fail  to  perceive  that  their  outrageous  violations  of  law  and 
justice,  to  say  nothing  of  their  open  scorn  of  all  that  most 
Brazilians  held  as  dearer  than  life,  were  drawing  to  the  clergy 
the  sympathies  of  all  honest  men,  and  were  tightening  the 
bond  of  unity  between  the  hierarchy  and  the  priests.  There- 
fore it  was  decided  in  the  superior  councils  of  the  Dark  Lan- 
tern that  there  should  be  a  cessation  of  the  high-handed 
proceedings  of  the  jDrevious  seven  years  ;  that  there  should  be 
a  recourse  to  the  more  prudent  wales  of  European  Masonry  ; 
that,  in  fine,  the  order  should  endeavor  to  gain  possession  of 
the  family,  and  to  control  the  education  of  the  young.  This 
resolution  was  foreshadowed  in  the  address  which  Saldanha 
Marinho,  the  Prime  Minister,  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  his 
installation  as  Grand  Master  of  the  United  Grand  Orients  of 
Brazil :  "  I  now  assume,  before  you  and  before  Brazil,  the  oner- 
ous duty  of  defending  zealously  those  grand  social  ideas, 
the  realization  of  which  is  the  aim  of  every  free  people.  . . . 
I  have  always  opposed  the  logic  of  truth  to  the  subtleties  of 
Jesuitism.  ;  the  serenity  of  my  conscience  to  the  sophisms  of 
hypocrisy ;  the  rights  of  free  reason  to  the  excesses  of 
fanaticism  ;  the  spread  of  healthy  teaching  to  the  propagation 
of  error  and  obscurantism.  .  . .  Strong  though  he  may  be 
in  the  possession  of  truth,  no  one  man  can  succeed  in  this 
propaganda  of  generous  ideas  ;  and  here  is  revealed  the  power 
of  our  order.  You  have  already  demonstrated  your  good  will 
and  your  zeal  by  a  generous  supply  of  the  resources  which  are 
necessary  for  the  success  of  the  mission  which  I  have  under- 
taken ;  and,  thanks  to  that  aid,  during  the  last  seven  years  I 
have  sent  into  the  farthest  corners  of  the  empire,  and  even 
into  foreign  lands,  the  echo  of  our  complaints  and  aspirations, 
and  our  demand  for  the  restoration  of  rights  which  have  been 

(1)  The  Vnivers  of  December  31,  1879,  quoting  the  Boa  Nova  de  Para. 


FllEEMASONUV  IN  LAl'lN  A.MKUICA.  59 

■sufifocated  by  the  iinnies  of  fanuticism  and  superstition.  ... 
The  task  which  wo  have  jirojjosed  to  ourselves,  and  not 
merely  iu  the  name  of  Masonry,  but  for  its  sake,  since  the 
upholding  of  these  principles  involves  the  very  existence  of 
the  order,  is  to  procure  the  institution  of  civil  iiiarri(((fcs,  so 
as  tj  free  our  fcUuw-citizois  J'ruiii  (Jic  iijnninij  of  on  exclusive 
ami  intolercnd  Church;  and,  secondly,  to  obtain  the  secidar- 
ization  of  all  cc  meter  ies,  tlicrehu  protect  i)i(j  the  mortal  remains  of 
the  dead  from,  the  insidts  of  a  religious  sect  which  pretends  to 
extend  its  jioicer  info  the  domain  of  the  Lijinite''  (1).  But 
Saldauha  Marinho  relinquished  his  portfolio  in  1880  ;  and  the 
new  cabinet,  beyond  an  enforcement  of  the  j)riuciple  of  govern- 
mental sujjervision  of  education,  evinced  no  desire  to  aid  the 
Masonic  propaganda.  So  "  clerical,"  in  fact,  did  the  new  ad- 
ministration show  itself,  that  it  even  ventured  to  allow  the 
Capuchins  to  undertake  the  evangelization  of  such  of  the 
Brazilian  tribes  as  were  still  Pagan.  The  bishops  were 
allowed  comparative  freedom  in  the  exercise  of  their  pastoral 
duties  ;  and  large  numbers  of  the  deluded  sectaries,  who  had 
learned  from  the  recent  persecution  that  Masonry  was  not  an 
inoffensive  and  merely  benevolent  association,  made  their 
formal  abjurations.  The  advent  of  the  Republic,  proclaimed 
in  1889,  gave  great  encouragement  to  the  Brethren  of  the 
Three  Points,  and  the  laws  were  all  revised  in  a  Masonic 
sense  ;  but  hitherto  the  fervent  Catholicism  of  the  nation  has 
prevented  any  open  and  extraordinary  persecution  of  the 
Church. 

'\\'Tiile  the  "  Liberator,"  Simon  Bolivar,  was  fighting  for  the 
independence  of  Columbia  (2),  the  civil  administration  of 
the  country  was  in  the  hands  of  the  vice-president.  General 
Santander,  a  democrat  like  the  president,  but  a  man  of 
pronouncedly  Masonic  heart.  Bolivar  would  have  willingly 
allowed  the  Church  to  live  at  peace  in  a  free  state ;  but 
Santander  could  perceive  no  happiness  in  a  state  which  did 
not  hold  the  Church  in  slavery.  By  means  of  a  Lodge  which 
he  founded  in  Bogota,  entitled  a  "  Society  for  Enlightenment," 

(1)  Journal  of  Belgian  3i(i,so>iry,  Dee.  8,  1879. 

(2)  Such  was  the  name  given  in   1810  to  the  republic  formed  by  the  confederation  of 
Venezuela,  New  Granaila  and  Equador. 


60  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

and  of  which  he  caused  himself  to  be  elected  "  Venerable,'' 
he  spread  the  poison  of  a  bastard  Liberalism  among  the  peo- 
ple, inoculating  them  with  the  notion  that  they  would  never 
be  really  free,  until  Columbia  possessed  a  truly  Liberal  Con- 
stitution, and  that  such  a  panacea  would  never  be  obtained  un- 
less they  ceased  to  elect  to  the  Congress  men  who  were 
"  reactionaries,  fanatics,  and  secret  partisans  of  the  Spanish 
Government."  In  1821  an  imposing  majority  of  Freema- 
sons greeted  General  Santander  when  he  met  the  new  Con- 
gress in  Cucuta.  The  first  act  of  the  precious  body  was  to 
abolish  the  article  of  the  Constitution  Avliich  declared  that  the 
Catholic  religion  was  that  of  the  State ;  and  the  pretext  was- 
the  non-necessity  of  such  a  declaration  in  a  Catholic  republic. 
When  the  leader  of  the  minority,  Dr.  Banos,  announced  that 
his  party  could  not  vote  for  an  enactment  which  was  "  radically 
vicious,"  he  was  instantly  expelled  from  the  Congress.  Of 
course  the  Congress  voted  for  the  abolition  of  the  Inquisition,. 
Mdiich  had  been  dead,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  for  many 
years  ;  and  it  also  decreed  that  the  right  of  censorship  should 
be  vested  in  the  government  alone — a  power  which  Santander 
immediately  exercised  by  authorizing  the  publication  of  the 
works  of  Voltaire,  Helvetius,  Diderot,  Bentham,  as  well  as  of 
many  immoral  pamphlets.  The  Congress  also  prepared  the 
way  for  a  schism,  that  favorite  engine  of  Satan  when  heresy  is 
not  immediately  possible.  The  Holy  See  had  allowed  the 
Spanish  sovereigns  to  exercise  ajusjMtronatus  in  the  nom- 
ination of  bishops  and  in  the  administration  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical revenues,  and  the  Congress  pretended  to  have  inherited 
this  right  from  the  defunct  government.  Then,  in  order  to 
banish  the  last  efi'ects  of  "  centuries  of  intellectual  slavery," 
the  Congress  imposed  a  new  plan  of  studies  on  the  univer- 
sities, and  even  on  the  ecclesiastical  seminaries.  One  of  the 
obligatory  text-books  was  the  work  of  the  materialist  and 
atheist,  Bentham  ;  and  when  a  certain  eminent  professor,  Dr. 
jMargallo,  stigmatized  this  author  as  impious,  he  was  thrown 
into  prison.  Eestrepo,  the  historiographer  of  Columbia  and 
a  friend  of  Santander,  is  constrained  to  say  of  this  republican 
tvranny  :  "  This  congressional  legislation  made  a  tabula  rasa 
of  the  customs,  as  well  as  of  the  religious  convictions,  of  the 


FUEEMASONllY  IN  LATIN    AMEUU'A.  61 

nation  ;  in  a  word,  it  was  a  complete  anonmly  in  face  of  tlie 
sentiments  of  the  people.  Therefore  the  simple  announce- 
ment of  another  session  of  this  Congress  caused  as  much 
consternati(Mi  as  tliough  an  earthquake  or  a  hunicane  liad 
been  predicted.  In  fact,  such  Congresses,  being  c()ni})osed 
almost  exclusively  of  lawyers  and  of  lads  who  were  crammed 
full  of  French  theories  (those  of  1789),  had  but  one  object — to 
impregnate  Columbia  with  the  doctrines  of  Voltaire  and 
Rousseau  "  (1).  Had  the  Masonico-Liberal  administration 
given  to  the  people  some  material  compensation  for  tlie  im- 
pieties with  which  it  dehiged  the  land,  the  spirit  of  the  world 
might  have  triumphed  in  Columbia ;  but  brigandage, 
devastation,  military  executions  for  pretended  royalism,  and 
rapine  of  every  kind,  became  the  order  of  the  day.  This 
condition  of  affairs  caused  every  lover  of  order  and  of  common 
decency  to  call  on  Bolivar,  the  man  who  had  liberated  them 
ii-oni  the  "  yoke  of  the  Spaniards,"  to  free  them  from  the  more 
intolerable  yoke  of  Masonic  Liberalism ;  some  begged  him 
to  restore  the  Spanish  domination ;  others,  and  the  most  re- 
spectable of  all,  suggested  that  he  might  don  a  crown  as 
"  Emperor  of  the  Andes."  These  clamors  reached  Bolivar 
immediately  after  his  great  victory  of  Poti^si,  obtained  on 
April  1,  1825,  and  by  which  he  had  liberated  Peru.  He  pre- 
pared immediately  to  proceed  to  Columbia,  and  in  the  mean- 
time he  forwarded  a  proclamation  announcing  his  jouruev  : 
"  The  noise  of  your  discords  has  reached  me,  even  in  Peru,  and 
I  return  to  you  with  an  olive-branch  in  my  hand.  If  vour  dis- 
orders do  not  cease,  anarchy  and  consequent  death  will  tri- 
umph over  the  ruins  of  Columbia."  During  the  ensuing  three 
years  the  efforts  of  the  Liberator  to  endow  his  compatriots 
with  peace  and  prosperity  were  continually  thwarted  bv  the 
Santanderist  Masons  ;  tlie  Lodges  had  resolved  to  rule  or  t(j 
bury  Bolivar  and  Columbia  in  the  saine  tomb.  But  a  crisis 
arrived  on  Sept.  25, 1828,  when,  at  the  hour  of  midnight,  a  band 
of  these  ]iartisans  of  liberty  and  eidighteument  assailed  the 
presidential  palace,  and  with  daggers  in  hand,  forced  their  way 
to  the  bedroom  of  Bolivar,  crj'ing  for  his  death.     The  attempt 

(1)  History  of  CnhimJiin,  rited  hy  Berthe  In  his  Garcia  Moreno.  Prcsiiltiit  of  hJavndc^- 
Aveiti/cr  of  Chriistian  K:uht,  niid  its  Martyr.    Paris,  ]i-8T. 


C2  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

failed  ;  the  president  had  escaped  by  a  secret  passage.  The 
leading  assassins  were  shot ;  and  Sautander,  convicted  of 
complicity,  was  banished.  Then  the  Liberator  issued  the 
following  decree  :  "  Considering,  firstly,  that  the  State  would 
be  soon  brought  to  ruin  if  impunity  were  accorded  to  crim- 
inals and  rebels,  I  resume  the  dictatorial  power  with  which 
the  people  invested  me.  Considering,  secondly,  that  Secret 
Societies  have  the  planning  of  political  revolutions  for  their  prin- 
cipal object,  and  tliat  their  baneful  character  is  sufficiently  mani- 
fi  sted  by  the  mystery  ivith  which  they  surround  themselves,  I 
order  the  suppression  of  all  such  societies,  and  the  closing  of 
their  Lodges^  Then,  exhorting  the  clergy  to  inculcate  un- 
ceasingly the  principles  of  Christian  morality,  he  continued  : 
"  It  is  because  the  country  has  abandoned  correct  principles 
that  a  spirit  of  madness  has  taken  possession  of  it.  In  order 
to  neutralize  the  wicked  theories  which  have  utterly  demor- 
alized the  poeple,  let  the  clergy  preach  obedience  and  respect 
to  all"  Finally,  being  persuaded  that  the  youth  of  Columbia 
were  being  poisoned  by  the  doctrines  then  in  vogue  in  the 
universities,  he  decreed  that  the  entire  curriculum  should  be 
levised  in  a  Christian  sense,  and  that  a  profound  study  of 
religion  should  be  introduced,  "so  that  the  young  men  of  the 
nation  might  have  weapons  wherewith  to  combat  impiety  and 
their  own  passions."  Nothing  but  sad  experience  and  the 
ascendency  of  truth  could  have  wrung  these  admissions  from 
Bolivar ;  for  during  his  early  years  he  had  advocated  the 
principles  of  1789  almost  to  the  point  of  deifying  the  Revo- 
lution. Tlie  adepts  of  Square  and  Triangle  never  forgave  the 
Liberator  for  his  declaration  of  these  Christian  sentiments  ; 
and,  had  they  not  expected  much  from  the  day  when  his  parti- 
sans would  be  obliged  to  appeal  again  to  the  polls  for  the  ap- 
probation of  the  electors,  he  would  have  paid  for  his  temerity 
with  his  life.  In  the  meantime  the  people  were  made  to  be- 
lieve that  every  vote  cast  for  a  partisan  of  the  dictator  would 
be  a  vote  for  a  Columbian  monarchy,  and  when  the  elections 
had  been  held  it  was  found  that  the  Masonic  candidates 
had  triumphed  in  nearly  every  instance. 

On  January  1.3,  1830,  the  new  Congress  assembled  ;  and 
in  spite  of  the  entreaties    of  his  friends,  and  although  the 


FREEMASOMiY  IX  LATIN  AMERICA.  63 

diplomatic  corps  promised  its  unajniiious  support  if  lio 
would  retain  liis  dictatorship,  the  Liberator  resigned  his 
office,  never,  as  he  protested,  to  assume  it  again.  "  And 
now,"  he  wrote  to  the  Congress,  "let  my  last  official  act  l>e  to 
recommend  Conijnss  to  protect  continuaUy  our  Itoly  religion, 
the  fruitful  source  of  tlic  blessings  of  heaven ;  and  to  e7itr<at 
Congress  to  restore  its  sacred  and  imprescriptible  rights  to 
public  instruction,  which  has  been  made  a  cancer  for  Colum- 
bia  Fellow-citizens,   I  must   say,   and  ivith  the  blush  of 

shame  on  my  brow,  that  ivhile  we  have  ivon  our  independence, 
it  has  been  icon  at  the  expense  of  every  other  blessimj.  . .  . 
For  twenty  jears  I  have  served  joii  as  soldier  and  as 
magistrate.  During  that  long  period  we  have  freed  our 
country,  procured  liberty  for  three  republics,  repressed 
many  civil  wars,  and  four  times  1  have  resigned  to  the  peo- 
ple the  supreme  power  which  they  confided  to  me.  To-day 
I  fear  that  I  may  be  an  obstacle  to  your  happiness,  and 
therefore  I  resign,  for  the  last  time,  the  magistracy  with 
which  you  have  honored  me.  The  most  unworthy  suspi- 
cions have  been  expressed  in  my  regard,  and  I  have  been 
unable  to  defend  myself.  A  crown  has  been  offered  to  me 
frequently  by  men  who  are  now  ambitious  of  supreme  power, 
but  I  always  refused  that  crown  with  the  indignation  of  a 
sincere  republican.  I  swear  that  a  desire  for  a  throne  has 
never  stained  my  soul.  Columbians,  I  conjure  you  to  heed 
my  last  entreaty.  Be  united,  and  do  not  become  the  assas- 
sins of  your  country  !  "  On  May  8th  Bolivar  departed  from 
Carthagenn,  with  the  intention  of  sailing  for  Europe.  While 
waiting  for  the  ship  which  he  was  not  destined  to  board,  he 
heard  of  the  dismemberment  of  the  Columbia  which  he  had 
founded.  Venezuela  liad  become  independent  under  the 
presidency  of  General  Paez.  The  three  departments  of 
Equador,  namely,  Quito,  Cuenca  and  Guayaquil,  had  become 
autonomous  under  the  rule  of  General  Flores.  His  dearest 
friend,  Marshal  Soucre,  the  victor  of  Ayacucho,  had  been 
assassinated  by  his  rivals — a  crime  which  caused  the  Liber- 
ator to  say  :  "  It  is  the  blood  of  Abel  that  has  been  shed." 
He  heard  also  that  the  students  in  Bogota — lads  who  were 
pupils  of  Masonic  instructors — were  amusing  themselves  by 


64  STUDIES     IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

making  a  target  of  his  portrait.  Perhaps  he  "was  not  sur- 
prised when  General  Urdaneta,  having  made  a  kind  of  coup 
cV  i'faf  in  order  to  save  the  remnants  of  Columbia,  sent  to 
him  a  deputation,  entreating  him  to  resume  the  dictatorship. 
His  reply  was  :  "  A  gate  of  bronze  sej)arates  me  from  power 
— legality.  I  cannot  assume  an  authority  with  which  another 
has  been  invested."  His  friends  begged  him  to  think  of 
his  dying  country ;  but  he  replied  :  "  Tlicre  is  no  hojje  for 
my  cuunfnj.  Such  is  my  conviction,  and  my  despairy  The 
moral  agony  which  such  reflections  entailed  on  Bolivar 
brought  him  to  the  tomb.  Having  been  taken  to  the  city  of 
Santamarta,  where  his  friends  thought  that  he  might  obtain 
sufficient  strength  to  enable  him  to  prosecute  his  European 
trip,  the  bishop  told  him  that  he  w^as  at  the  point  of  death. 
He  received  the  Last  Sacraments  with  edifying  fervor,  and 
died  in  his  forty-eighth  year  on  December  17,  1830,  a  victim 
of  Masonic  treachery  and  of  Masonic  essential  lack  of 
patriotism. 

The  Republic  of  Equador,  born  of  the  dismemberment  of 
that  ephemeral  creation  of  Bolivar,  the  Bepublic  of  Colum- 
bia, was  subjected  for  many  years  to  the  pretendedly  "  Con- 
servative Liberalisrh  "  which  found  its  fit  exponents  in  men 
like  Flores,  Rocafuerte,  and  Boca.  This  Liberalism  exhib- 
ited the  sovereignty  of  the  people  as  its  essential  principle ; 
but  its  Conservatism  consisted  in  preserving  itself  in  power, 
even  in  spite  of  the  will  of  the  nation.  The  hybrid  did  not 
trouble  itself  to  persecute  the  Church,  so  long  as  the  Church 
showed  herself  willing  to  serve  as  its  obsequious  servant. 
Under  the  rule  of  Urbina  and  Eobles  hypocritical  Con- 
servatism disappeared,  and  unblushing  Radicalism  seemed 
destined  to  consummate  a  ruin  which  was  already  more 
than  half  completed.  But  a  new  era  dawned  for  Equador 
in  1861,  when  Garcia  Moreno  was  elected  to  the  too  frequent- 
ly prostituted  presidential  office.  In  his  first  message  to 
the  Congress  the  new  president  asked  that  body  to  adopt 
a  Constitution  which  would  be  Catholic  in  every  sense  of 
the  terra — one  which  would  furnish  "  the  sole  means  of 
regenerating  the  country  by  an  energetic  repression  of  crime, 
by  giving  a  solid  education  to  youth,  and  by  protecting  the 


FREEMASONRY  IN  LATIN  AMEIilCA.  65 

liolj  religion  of  our  ancestors,  so  that  by  the  aid  of  that  re- 
ligion we  may  procure  a  realization  of  reforms  which  neither 
government  nor  laws  can  etiect  by  their  own  unaided  efforts." 
The  draft  of  a  Constitution  which  Moreno  submitted  began 
with  the  declaration  that  the  Holy  Catholic  and  Roman 
Religion  was  the  sole  Religion  of  the  State.  But  the 
Freemasons,  who,  in  spite  of  the  generally  Catholic  result 
of  the  recent  elections,  had  obtained  a  few  seats  in  the 
Congress,  could  not  miss  this  opportunity  of  prcjtesting 
against  "  a  retrograde  legislation."  One  of  the  sectaries,  a 
priest,  declaimed  a  discourse  of  Mirabeau  in  theatrical  style, 
concluding  with  the  sage  observation  that  "  since  God  is  as 
visiV)le  as  the  sun,  it  would  bean  injurious ,  superfluity  to 
recognize  Him  officially."  Such  reasoning  did  not  convince 
the  deputies  ;  the  entire  Constitution  was  adopted,  ,and 
Moreno  found  himself  free  to  endow  Equador  with  the 
blessings  of  a  truly  liberal  and  Christian  government.  Our 
limits  do  not  permit  an^'  detailed  narrative  of  all  that  was 
effected  for  his  country  by  this  "  modern  St.  Louis."  The 
loud-mouthed  praters  about  popular  enlightenment  should 
have  admired  him ;  for  when  they  murdered  him,  the  free 
schools  of  the  republic  numbered  500,  with  32,000  pupils, 
whereas  under  the  Masonic  government  there  had  been  onl}^ 
200  schools,  with  8,000  pupils.  The  spirit  which  animated 
Garcia  Moreno  is  indicated  in  the  message  which  he  had 
prepared  for  the  Congress  as  he  was  about  to  enter  on  his 
third  term  of  office,  when  the  Masonic  assassins  sent  liim  to 
his  reward  in  heaven  :  "  Only  a  few  years  have  elapsed  since 
Equador  repeated  every  day  the  lament  which  the  Liberator, 
Bolivar,  expressed  in  his  last  message  to  the  Congress  oi 
1830  :  '  I  must  say,  and  with  the  blush  of  shame  on  my 
brow,  that  while  we  have  won  our  independence,  it  has  been 
won  at  the  expense  of  every  other  blessing.'  But  since  that 
time,  having  placed  our  trust  in  God,  and  having  abandoned 
the  course  of  impiety  and  apostasy  which  entices  the  world 
in  this  epoch  of  blindness,  we  have  reorganized  ourselves 
into  a  thoroughly  Catholic  nation,  and  therefore  each  day 
I'as  beheld  an  increase  of  happiness  and  prosperity  in  our 
bsloved  country.     Once  Equador  'vas  a  body  from  which  life 


66  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

".iras  departing ;  it  was  being  already  devoured,  just  as  a 
•corpse  is  devoured  by  a  multitude  of  those  hideous  insects 
which  the  license  of  putrefaction  allows  to  develop  in  the 
darkness  of  the  grave.  But  to-day,  obeying  the  Sovereign 
Voice  which  commanded  Lazarus  to  issue  from  his  tomb, 
Equador  returns  to  new  life,  although  she  still  retains  the 
winding-sheet  of  death,  that  is,  some  remnants  of  the  misery 
and  corruption  in  which  she  was  once  wrapped.  In  order 
to  justify  my  words,  I  need  only  render  an  account  of  our 
progress  during  the  last  two  years,  referring  you  to  the 
special  reports  of  each  ministerial  department  for  documents 
and  details  ;  and,  in  order  that  you  may  perceive  the  extent 
of  our  progress  during  this  period  of  regeneration,  I  shall 
compare  the  present  conditions  with  those  which  once  ob- 
tained. And  I  shall  institute  this  comparison,  not  for  our 
self-glorification,  but  in  order  to  glorify  Him  to  whom  we 
owe  everything,  and  whom  we  adore  as  our  Redeemer, 
Father,  Protector,  God.  ...  To  the  perfect  liberty  which 
the  Church  now  enjoys  among  us,  and  to  the  apostolic  zeal 
of  our  virtuous  pastors,  we  owe  a  reformation  of  the  clergy, 
an  improvement  in  morals,  and  so  great  a  diminution  in  the 
number  of  crimes,  that  in  our  population  of  more  than  a 
million  there  are  not  enough  of  criminals  to  fill  our  peni- 
tentiary. To  the  Church  we  owe  those  religious  organ- 
izations which  constantly  produce  such  happy  results  in  the 
education  of  the  young,  and  in  the  care  of  the  sick  and  the 
poor.  ...  If  I  have  committed  any  errors,  I  ask  your  pardon 
a  thousand  times  ;  but  I  am  sure  that  my  will  has  not  been 
at  fault.  But  if,  on  the  contrary,  you  find  that  I  have 
succeeded  in  my  endeavors,  attribute  all  the  merit,  firstly, 
to  God  and  the  Immaculate  Dispenser  of  the  inexhaustible 
treasures  of  God's  mercies  ;  and,  secondly,  to  yourselves, 
to  the  people,  to  the  army,  and  to  all  the  members  of  the 
administration  who  have  seconded  my  efi'orts  so  admirably." 
A  strange  document,  truly,  in  the  closing  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century — a  document  which  could  never  have 
emanated  from  a  Cavour  or  a  Bismarck,  a  Gambetta  or  a 
Thiers,  a  Metternich  or  a  Von  Beust,  a  Palmerston  or  a  Glad- 
stone.     But   all   the   messages   of   Garcia   Moreno   to   the 


PREEMASONRY  IN  LATIN  AMERICA.  67 

fiquadorian  t<.ugress  had  sounded  the  same  notes,  and  all  of 
his  goveruniental  acts  had  accorded  with  his  ])rofessious. 
When  Victor  Emmamiel  coni])leted  his  series  of  sacrilegious 
robberies  by  the  seizure  of  the  Papal  capital  in  1870,  Garcia 
Moreno  was  the  sole  potentate  in  Christendom  who  protested 
against  the  iniquity.  Immediately  after  the  news  of  tlie  crime 
had  reached  Quito,  the  president  of  Equador  dictated  to  his 
foreign  secretary  the  following  protest,  Avhich  was  sent  at  once, 
according  to  constitutional  formality,  to  the  Italian  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs  :  "  The  undersigned,  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs  of  the  Republic  of  Equador,  has  the  honor  of  address- 
ing the  following  protest  to  His  Excellency,  the  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  of  King  Victor  Emmanuel,  because  of  the 
melaiiclioly  events  which  occurred  last  September  in  the 
capital  of  the  Catholic  world.  Since  the  very  existence  of 
Catholicism  has  been  menaced  in  the  person  of  its  august 
head,  the  representative  of  Catholic  unity,  who  has  been 
despoiled  of  that  temporal  dominion  which  is  the  necessary 
guarantee  of  his  independence  in  the  exercise  of  his  divine 
mission,  Your  Excellency  will  admit  that  every  Catholic,  and 
with  much  more  reason  every  government  which  rules  over  a 
considerable  number  of  Catholics,  not  only  has  the  right,  but 
is  also  bound  to  protest  against  this  hideous  and  sacrilegious 
crime.  However,  before  raising  its  voice,  the  Government  of 
Equador  waited  for  protests  on  the  part  of  the  more  power- 
ful states  of  Europe  against  the  unjust  and  violent  seizure  of 
Rome  ;  and  it  waited  for  what  would  have  been  much  more 
gratifying — that  His  Majesty,  King  Victor  Emmanuel,  Avould 
voluntarily  do  homage  to  the  sacred  cnaracter  of  the  noble 
Pontiff  who  governs  the  Church  by  restoring  its  stolen 
territories  to  the  Holy  See.  But  the  Equadorian  Government 
waited  in  vain  ;  the  mouarchs  of  the  old  continent  remain 
mute,  and  Rome  continues  to  suffer  under  the  oppression  of 
Victor  Emmanuel.  For  this  reason  the  Government  of  Equa- 
dor, in  spite  of  its  feebleness,  and  in  spite  of  the  enormous 
distance  which  separates  it  from  the  Old  World,  now  fulfils 
its  duty  by  protesting  before  God  and  before  men,  and 
especially  in  the  name  of  the  Catholic  people  of  Equador, 
against  the  wicked  invasion  of  Rome  and  the  subjugation  ol 


68  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

the  Roman  Pontiff — deeds  which  have  been  perpetrated  in 
violation  of  repeated  2)romises,  and  which  are  now  disguised 
by  derisory  guarantees  of  independence  which  do  not  hide 
the  ignominious  servitude  of  the  Church.  The  Equadorian 
Government  protests,  finally,  against  the  consequences  which 
the  Holy  See  and  the  Church  will  suffer  because  of  this 
shameful  abuse  of  power.  While  addressing  this  protest  to 
you  by  formal  order  of  His  Excellency,  the  President  of  this 
Republic,  the  undersigned  still  trusts  that  King  Victor 
Emmanuel  will  repair  the  injuries  which  he  has  inflicted  in 
a  moment  of  madness,  before  his  throne  is  rediiced  to  ashes  by 
the  avenging  fire  of  the  Revolution"  (1). 

Not  content  with  this  personal  protest,  Garcia  Moreno 
urged  all  the  governments  of  South  America  to  follow  his  ex- 
ample ;  but,  as  he  afterwards  said  :  "  I  had  little  hope  that 
our  sister  republics  would  respond  to  the  invitation  ;  I  merely 
wished  to  fulfil  my  duty  as  a  Catholic  by  giving  the  greatest 
possible  publicity  to  our  own  protest.  Columbia  replied  in 
moderate  terms,  but  negatively  ;  Costa  Rica  answered  neg- 
atively, and  in  an  insolent  manner  ;  Bolivia  informed  me 
very  courteously  that  she  would  consider  the  matter  carefully  ; 
Chili  and  Peru  did  not  condescend  to  acknowledge  the  receij^t 
of  my  communication.  But,  after  all,  what  does  it  matter? 
God  lias  no  need  for  us  in  order  to  accomplish  His  designs,  and 
Se  iv ill  accomplish  them  in  spite  of  hell,  and  in  spite  cf  the 
emissaries  of  hell,  the  Freemasons,  who  are  more  or  less  masters 
in  every  land  of  South  America,  saving  our  own  "  (2).  The 
Brethren  of  the  Three  Points  were  not  then  masters  in  Equa- 
dor,  but  their  perennial  efforts  to  obtain  the  supremacy  were 
redoubled  when  Garcia  Moreno  so  nobly  stigmatized  the  chief 
masterpiece  of  their  craft  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  1873  the  sectaries  were  spurred  to  a  definitive  enter- 
prise by  a  realization  that  Equador  was  indeed  lost  to  them 
•unless  "  the  modern  St.  Louis "  was  deprived  of  power. 
Garcia  Moreno,  a  president  of  an  American  republic,  and  in 
this  enlightened  nineteenth  century,  had  proposed  to  an 
American  Congress  that  the  land  which  it  represented  should 
be  solemnly  consecrated  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus ;  and 

(1)  El  NacinnaU  of  Quito,  January  18,  1871.  (3)  Bkrthe  ;  loc.  cit..  Vol.  ii.,  ch.  2. 


FREEMASONRY  IN  LATIN  AMERICA.  69 

the  Congress  luicl  passed  the  resolution  without    discussion, 
and  unanimously.     In  the   beginning   of   April,    1873,    the 
bishops  of  Equador   met   in  the  Third  Plenary   Council  of 
Quito,  and  Moreno  informed  them   of  his  desire   that  they 
would  do  their  part  toward  consecrating  the  republic  to  the 
Sacred    Heart.     Ou  April  18th   the   synodals  decreed  that 
"  the  greatest   happiness   of   a   people  being  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Roman  faith,  and  since 
that  preservation  depends  on  the  mercy  of  God,  the  nation 
should  humbly  seek  the  Heart  of  Jesus  in  order  to  obtain 
that  blessing.     Therefore    the    Council    of   Quito    solemnly 
offers  and   consecrates   the   republic   to   the  Sacred  Heart, 
supplicating  that  Heart  to  be  the  protector,  guide,  and  de- 
fender of  this  country,  so  that  it  may  never  wander  from  the 
Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  E.omau  faith,  and  that  all  the  in- 
habitants of  Equador,  conforming  their  lives  to  that  faith, 
may   hud  in  it  their  happiness  in  time  and    in    eternity." 
As  soon  as  this  decree  was  conveyed  to  the  president  he  laid 
it  before  the  Congress,  and  that  body  immediately  decreed  : 
"Considering  that  the  Third  Plenary-  Council  of  Quito  has 
by  a  special  decree  consecrated  the  republic  to  the  Sacred 
Heart  of  Jesus,  placing  us  all  under  the  protection  of  that 
Heart,  it  befits  the  representatives  of  the  nation  to  associate 
themselves  with  an  act  which  is  so  conformable  to  their  em- 
inently Catholic  sentiments.     Considering  that  this  act,  so 
efficacious  for  the  preservation  of  our  faith,  is  also  the  best 
means  of  assuring  the  prosperity  and  progress  of  the  State, 
the  Congress  decrees  that  the  republic,  consecrated  forever 
to  the  Heart  of  Jesus,  adopts  that  Heart  as  its  Patron  and 
Protector.     The  Feast  of  the  Sacred  Heart  shall  be  hereafter 
a   civil   holiday  of  the  first  class,  and  shall  be  celebrated 
in  every  cathedral  in   the   most   solemn  manner  possible. 
Furthermore,  in  order  to  excite  the  zeal  and  piety  of  the 
faithful,  there  shall  be  erected   in  every  cathedral  an  altar 
dedicated  to  the  Sacred  Heart,  in  front  of  which  there  shall  be 
placed,  at  the  expense  of  the  State,  a  slab  commemorative  of 
the  present  decree."     As  we  have  said,  this  decree  was  passed 
imanimously.     On  the  day  appointed  for  the  public  ceremony 
of    the    consecration,    while    the    function    was    being   per- 


70  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

formed  in  each  of  the  five  other  cathedrals  of  the  republic, 
the  president  and  Congress  proceeded  in  grand  state  to  the 
cathedral  of  Quito.  After  the  archbishop  had  promulgated 
tlie  decree  in  the  name  of  the  Church,  Garcia  Moreno  repeat- 
ed it  in  the  name  of  the  Republic  of  Equador.  Has  an}^  ruler 
of  modern  times  thus  brought  before  the  minds  of  his  people 
the  days  of  Charlemagne  and  of  St.  Louis  ?  The  "  apostle 
of  ignorance  and  of  superstition  "  was  sentenced  to  death  in 
the  secret  councils  of  the  Dark  Lantern  ;  but,  as  usual  in  the 
execution  of  Masonic  sentences  of  the  highly  placed,  the 
"  removal  "  was  to  be  made  to  appear  as  the  natural  result 
of  the  criynes  of  the  victim.  Incendiary  pamphlets  were 
scattered  broadcast  throughout  Equador,  all  exhibiting  Mor- 
eno as  a  fit  subject  for  popidar  execration.  Thus,  the  in- 
famous Moncayo  described  him  as  a  cruel  hypocrite  :  "  He 
avows  himself  a  partisan  of  the  Syllabus,  in  order  to  com- 
mit crimes  at  his  convenience.  Communicating  and  shoot- 
ing ;  proscribing,  scourging,  and  confiscating, — such  are  the 
offerings  which  please  the  God  of  the  Jesuits."  From  Lima 
there  came  a  pretended  "  History  of  Equador,"  in  which  the 
following  Masonic  instigation  to  murder  was  read :  "In 
that  nation  which  has  exterminated  so  many  tyrants  there 
is  still  energy  enough  to  deliver  it  from  this  most  detestable 
despotism.  Let  the  ferocious  terrorist  and  his  accomplices 
tremble  before  the  justice  of  the  sovereign  people !  The 
young,  the  crowds,  need  no  general  to  lead  them  to  the  combat. 
When  suffering  attains  to  a  certain  degree  of  intensity,  a 
martyr  arises  to  lay  the  oppressor  low."  In  a  diatribe  en- 
titled, "  A  Perpetual  Dictatorship,"  the  impious  Montalvo 
accused  Moreno  of  having  driven  many  women  of  the  street 
to  suicide,  because  they  preferred  death  to  a  residence  in  the 
asylum  of  the  Sisters  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  The  conse- 
cration to  the  Sacred  Heart,  said  Montalvo,  had  turned 
Equador  into  a  convent  of  idiots,  with  a  permanent  scaffold 
on  the  premises  (1).     From  time  to  time  the  Masonic  journals 

(1)  The  charges  of  Montalvo  were  so  absurdly  calumnious  that  Charles  Welle,  who  had 
been  consul  of  the  United  States  in  Quito,  was  constrained  to  write  to  the  San  Francisco 
Chi-onicle  :  "  These  accusations  cause  a  smile  of  pity  and  contempt  on  the  part  of  all  who 
have  known  Garcia  Moreno.  Havins  resided  in  Equador  very  many  years,  and  being 
perfectly  acquainted  with  all  that  has  recently  occurred  there,  I  know  well  what  I  say ; 


FREEMASONRY  IN  LATIN  AMERICA.  71 

throughout  South  America  published  accounts  of  Moreno's 
assassination,  undoubtedly  with  the  idea  of  impressing  upon 
the  popular  raintl  the  necessity  of  such  a  catastrophe.  Thus, 
on  October  2(5, 1873,  twenty-two  months  before  the  real  mur- 
der, a  despatch  from  Guayaquil  informed  Peru  that  Moreno 
had  just  "  fallen  under  the  dagger  of  his  aide-de-camp,  Colonel 
Salazar,  who  had  been  helped  by  a  crowd  of  persons  who 
were  hostile  to  the  Jesuits.  Twenty-three  Jesuits  perished 
with  the  president,  and  the  people  would  have  killed  the 
Papal  nuncio  as  well,  had  he  not  succeeded  in  escaping  to 
the  mountains."  Moreno  was  frequently  warned  from  re- 
liable sources  that  the  Lodges  had  decreed  his  death,  and 
that  he  should  never  go  abroad  without  an  escort.  He  al- 
ways replied  that  if  the  Masons  had  decreed  his  assassin- 
ation, no  human  means  would  prolong  his  life ;  that,  how- 
ever, he  was  in  the  hands  of  God.  In  reply  to  one  of  these 
warnings,  he  said  :  "  I  have  already  learned  from  Germany 
that  the  German  Lodges  have  instructed  those  of  America 
to  move  heaven  and  earth  to  overthrow  the  government  of 
Equador.  Probably  Grand  Master  X.  is  concerned  in  this 
instruction  ;  but  if  God  extends  His  mercy  to  us,  what  have 
we  to  fear,  even  though  oiir  power  is  equal  to  zero,  when 
compared  with  the  power  of  that  clay-footed  Colossus  ?  " 

In  July,  1875,  Moreno  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Pope 
Pius  IX.  :  "  Most  Holy  Father,  I  implore  your  blessing,  hav- 
ing been  chosen  again,  without  any  merit  on  my  part,  to 
rule  this  Catholic  republic  during  the  coming  six  years. 
The  new  presidential  term  does  not  commence  until  August 
30th,  when  I  take  the  oath  to  the  Constitution,  and  then  I  shall 
dutifully  inform  Your  Holiness  officially  of  the  fact ;  but  I 
wish  to  obtain  your  blessing  before  that  day,  so  that  I  may 
have  the  strength  and  the  light  which  I  need  so  much  in  or- 
der to  be  unto  the  end  a  faithful  son  of  our  Redeemer,  and  a 
loyal  and  obedient  servant  of  His  infallible  Vicar.  Now  that 
the  Masonic  Lodges  of  the  neighboring  countries,  instigated 
by  Germany  (1),  are  vomiting  against  me  all  sorts  of  atrocious 

and  I  do  not  exaggerate  when  I  declare  that  to  me  Garcia  Moreno  appears  to  be  the  most 
illustrious  man  that  South  America  ever  produced." 

(U  Durinu'  the  infamous  Bismarcklan  "  War  for  Civilization."  It  wh.s  the  general  belie' 
among  the  Catholics  uf  South  America  that  the  German  chancellor  was  the  prime  mover  ol 


72  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

insults  and  horrible  calumnies ;  now,  also,  that  the  Lodges 
are  secretly  arranging  for  my  assassination ;  I  have  more 
need  than  ever  of  the  Divine  protection,  so  that  I  may  live  and 
die  in  defence  of  our  holy  religion,  and  for  the  dear  republic, 
which  I  am  called  once  more  to  rule.  What  hapjDiness  can  be 
mine,  Most  Holy  Father,  so  great  as  that  of  being  hated  and 
calumniated  for  the  sake  of  our  Divine  Redeemer  ?  And  how 
great  a  happiness  your  blessing  will  be  to  me  if  it  procures 
for  me  from  heaven  the  privilege  of  shedding  my  blood  for 
the  God  who  shed  His  own  for  us  on  the  cross !  "  On  the 
evening  of  August  5th  a  priest  demanded  audience  with  the 
president,  stating  that  his  business  could  not  be  deferred- 
When  in  the  presence  of  Moreno,  he  said  :  "  You  have  been 
warned  that  the  Freemasons  have  decreed  your  death,  but 
you  have  not  been  told  when  the  sentence  will  be  exe- 
cuted. I  come  to  tell  you  that  your  days  are  numbered ; 
that  the  conspirators  have  resolved  to  murder  you  as 
soon  as  opportunity  offers.  Probably  the  deed  will  be 
committed  to-morrow ;  therefore,  take  j'our  measures  ac- 
cordingly." Moreno  quietly  answered :  "  I  have  received 
many  similar  warnings ;  and,  after  mature  reflection,  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  but  one  measure  for  me  to 
take,  and  that  this  measure  is  to  keep  myself  in  a  state  wherein 
I  shall  be  fit  to  meet  my  God."  Then  he  proceeded  with  his 
work,  which  was  the  preparation  of  the  message,  some  pas- 
sages of  which  we  have  given.  At  six  o'clock  on  the  follow- 
ing morning,  August  6th,  the  Feast  of  the  Transfiguration  of 
Our  Lord,  Moreno  assisted  at  Mass,  according  to  his  daily 
habit,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Dominic  (1) ;  and  he  received 
Holy  Communion,  undoubtedly  fully  prepared  to  recognize 
the  Holy  Eucharist  as,  in  all  probability,  the  Viaticum  for  his 
momentous  journey.  Having  returned  to  his  residence,  he 
spent  some  time  with  his  family,  and  then  gave  some  finish- 
ing touches  to  his   message.     Shortly  after  midday    he   left 

all  the  Masonic  manoevres  in  their  regions ;  tliat  he  took  this  means  of  atJding  to  the  em- 
harrassments  of  the  Holy  See.  while  he  was  endeavoring  to  constitute  a  German  National 
Church.  Certainly  the  word  of  the  well-informed  and  calmly  judicious  Garcia  Moreno 
gives  more  than  plausibility  to  the  belief. 

(1)  Moreno  never  missed  his  daily  Mass;  and  every  day  he  read  a  chapter  of  the  New 
Testament  and  one  of  the  Imitation.  Every  evening  he  recited  the  Rosary,  generally 
with  his  family. 


FREEMASONRY  IN  1  ATIN    AMERICA.  73 

his  palace,  followed  at  a  little  ilistance  by  an  aide-de-camp, 
his  intention  being  to  read  his  message  to  the  Congress.  On 
the  way  he  entered  the  cathedral,  and  prayed  before  the 
Blessed  Sacrament  for  nearly  an  hour.  Leaving  the  house 
of  God,  he  turned  his  steps  toward  the  Government  House, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Great  Square  ;  but  he  had  walked 
only  a  few  yards  when  seven  assassins  rushed  on  him.  One 
of  the  murderers  cried  :  "  Die,  strangler  of  liberty  !  "  and  as 
the  martyr  of  liberty  fell,  pierced  by  six  bullets  and  by  four- 
teen dagger-strokes,  he  cried  in  clear  voice  :  "  I  die,  but  God 
;loes not  die — Pero  D'los  no  se  muere  "  (1).  From  among  tlie  in- 
numerable panegyrics  on  Garcia  Moreno  we  select  the  follow- 
ing tribute  from  the  pen  of  Louis  Yeuillot :  "  Garcia  Moreno 
was  superior  to  vulgarity,  indifference,  and  forgetfulness  ; 
he  would  have  been  above  hatred,  if  God  could  jiermit 
that  virtue  shoiild  not  entail  hatred.  It  may  be  said  of  More- 
no, that  he  was  the  most  aji^iV^n^i  of  all  moderns  ;  he  wasa 
man  who  did  honor  to  humanity.  It  was  not  sufficient  for  him 
to  be  one  of  Plutarch's  characters  ;  he  entertained  an  idea  of 
grandeur  which  was  vaster  and  more  just  than  that  of 
Plutarch.  Alone,  unknown,  but  sustained  by  faith  and  his 
great  heart,  he  effected  all  that  Plutarch  describes  his 
worthiest  heroes  as  having  effected  ;  and  he  did  all  tliis 
in  accordance  with  his  natural  character,  and  by  a  careful 
observance  of  a  rule  which  he  had  planned  for  himself.  But 
he  did  more  ;  continually  aiming  higher,  he  dared  to  attempt 
a  task  that  our  epoch  deems  impossible.  In  the  government 
of  Equador  he  was  a  man  of  Jesus  Christ.     Let  us  salute 

(1)  The  crime  of  1875  was  not  the  first  ihat  Masonry  perpetrated  ajrainst  the  life  of 
Moreno.  Shortly  after  the  final  catastroi>he.  the  Roman  CirUtd  (\ittolica,  the  caline.staiid 
most  iinsensational  periodical  in  Europe,  niirnited  how,  in  the  fall  of  1869,  a  certain 
p;qiiadorian  scientist  received  satisfactory  proof  1  hat  tlie  Lodges  had  even  at  that  time  re- 
solved to  murder  the  preat  president.  This  peutleman  had  studied  in  various  Ktiropciin 
universities  ;  amoiiff  others,  in  that  of  Berlin.  When  about  to  return  home,  where  a  profc.s- 
sorship  in  the  L'niversityof  Quito  awaited  him,  he  called  on  one  of  his  Berlinese  professors 
in  order  to  bid  him  farewell.  The  young  man  had  won  the  admiration  and  aflectlon  of 
the  German,  who  was  highly  placed  in  the  councils  of  the  Dark  Lantern.  When  the  old 
Freemason  learned  that  his  friend  was  about  to  accept  a  professorship  to  which  he  had 
been  appointed  by  Garcia  Moreno,  whom  the  youth  greatly  admired,  he  remarked  that 
there  was  no  sense  in  accepting  favors  from  a  man  who  would  be  dead  before  the  aml)i- 
tious  lad  arrived  in  Equador.  The  words  produced  no  deep  impression  in  the  mind  of  the 
hearei  ;  but  when  he  arrived  in  Guf  yaquil  he  learned  that  the  president  hiul  just  escaped 
assassination,  and  that  very  foolishly  the  chief  criminal,  Cornejo,  bad  been  punished 
jnerely  by  banishment  for  eight  yean. 


74  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY 

this  noble  figure,  the  most  beautiful  of  modern  times  ;  it  is 
worthy  of  history.     A  man  of  Jesus  Christ ;  that  is,  a  man 
of  God,  in  public  life  !     And  he  was,  as  the  phrase  runs,  a 
man  of   his  time ;  he  studied  the  sciences  of  his   time,   he. 
appreciated  its  habits,  he  understood  its  customs  and  laws  ; 
but,  nevertheless,  he  was  never  aught  else  than  an  exact  fol- 
lower of  the  Gospel,  a  faithful  servant  of  God  ;  and  he  made 
his  people,  who  had  been  Christian  indeed,  but  were  being 
devoured  by  Socialism,  a  people  faithful  in  the  service  of 
God.     It  was  a  little  republic  of  South  America  that  showed 
this  wonder  to  the  world.     Moreno  was  a  Christian,  and  one 
of  a  stamp  not  at  all  affected  by  our  modern  rulers  ;  he  wa» 
one  of  those  leaders  of  whom  the  nations  have  lost  all  remem- 
brance ;  he  was  a  dispenser  of  justice,  such  as  the  seditious 
and  the  conspirators  of  our  day  seldom  meet.     In  Moreno 
there  was  something  of  Medicis,  and  something  of  Ximenes. 
He  was  Medicis,  less  the  trickery  of  that  prince  ;  he  was  Xim- 
enes, less  the  cardinalitial    scarlet.     Of  both   Medicis  and 
Ximenes  he  had  the  genius,  the  magnificence,  and  the  love 
of  country.     What  is  want' ng  in  the  glory  of  Garcia  Moreno  ? 
Nothing.     He  furnished   a   unique   example   to   the   world 
amid  which  he  lived ;  he  was  an  honor  to  his  country  ;  and 
perhaps  his   death  was  the   greatest  service   that   he  ren- 
dered to  his   people.     He   showed   the   human   race   what 
valor  and  faith  can  effect  when  they  are  united  to  enlight- 
ened patriotism"  (1).     On  Sept.  20,  1875,  Pope  Pius  IX.,  in 
one  of  those  eloquent  Allocutions  in  which  the  Captive  of 
the  Vatican  was  wont  to  unmask  the  designs  of  the  persecut- 
ors   of   the   Church,  described   the    work   of    Masonry   in 
France,  Germany,  and  Switzerland;  and   then  turning  his 
discourse  to   South   America,    he   said :     "  Amid   all   these 
governments   thus   delivered   to   the   delirium   of   impiety, 
Equador  has  been  miraculously  distinguished  for  its  spirit 
of  justice,  and  for  tl  e  indomitable  faith  of   its   president. 
But  alas !  even  in  Eqiiador  there  are  not  wanting  some  im- 
pious men   who  consider  it  an  insult  to    their   pretended 
modern   civilization  that  there  should  be  found  a  govern- 
ment which,  while  devoting  itself  to  the  material  welfare  of 

a)  In  the  Ujiivers.  September  27,  1875. 


FREEMASONRY    IN    L-VTIN   AMERICA.  75 

its  people,  endeavors  at  the  same  time  to  assure  the  moral 
and  spiritual  progress  of  that  people.  These  valiaut  meu 
decided  to  murder  their  illustrious  president;  and  he  suc- 
cumbed to  the  steel  of  the  assassins,  a  victim  of  his  faith,  and 
of  his  Christian  love  for  his  countrj." 

Freemasonry  did  not  attain  to  power  immediately  after  it 
had  murdered  Garcia  Moreno  ;  Borrero,  the  successor  of  the 
martj'r,  was  a  Liberal,  but  nevertheless  a  good  Catholic.  But 
in  1877  a  creature  of  the  Lodges,  a  drunken  soldier  named 
Vintimilla,  was  raised  to  a  dictatorship,  and  a  carnival  of 
Masonry  was  initiated.  A  decree  for  the  secularization  of 
education,  that  is,  for  an  atheistic  training  of  the  young,  was 
issued  immediately  ;  and  when  the  pastors,  with  the  bishop 
of  Riobamba  at  their  head,  protested  against  the  iniquity, 
another  decree  pronounced  the  penalty  of  banishment  against 
"  ecclesiastics  who  alarmed  consciences."  Mgr.  Chica,  the 
archbishop  of  Quito,  announced  to  the  government :  "  Come 
what  may,  I  shall  continue  to  resist  the  propagation  of  error. 
Such  is  my  duty,  and  with  the  grace  of  God  I  shall  be  faith- 
ful to  it."  Fifteen  days  after  this  protest,  on  Good  Friday, 
March  30th,  the  archbishop  officiated  at  the  Mass  of  the  Pre- 
sanctified  in  the  cathedral.  He  had  scarcely  taken  the  wine 
of  ablution  when  he  was  attacked  by  horrible  convulsions, 
and  died  within  an  hour.  The  autopsy  showed  that  twelve 
grains  of  strychnine  had  been  given  to  the  prelate.  Of  course, 
the  assassins  were  never  punished.  The  remains  of  the  arch- 
bishop had  scarely  been  placed  in  the  toml),  Avhen  Vintimilla 
ordered  all  the  pastors  in  tlie  republic  to  celebrate,  on  April 
19th,  Masses  of  Eequiem  for  the  souls  of  "  all  the  martyrs  of 
holy  Liberalism  who  had  fallen  since  March  19,  1869  " — this 
date  being  that  of  a  famous  insurrection  against  Moreno.  To 
this  decree  the  bishops  opposed  an  order  forbidding  "a  scan- 
dal to  the  Catholic  people  ";  and  as  nearly  all  the  Equadorians 
applauded  the  action  of  the  prelates,  the  dictator  perforce 
contented  himself  with  an  oath  of  revenge.  In  quick  succes- 
sion came  a  revocation  of  the  Concordat  which  had  guaran- 
teed the  liberty  of  the  Catholic  religion,  a  supjjression  of  all 
the  ecclesiastical  salaries,  and  the  exile  of  many  pastors. 
The  bishop    of   Guayaquil  died    with    all  the  symptoms  of 


76  STUDIES  IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

poisoning,  and  the  bishop  of  Riobamba  escaped  assassination 
by  fleeing  to  the  mountains.  The  people  of  Equador  were  on 
the  verge  of  revolution,  when  Vintimilla  resolved  to  change  his 
policy.  The  exiled  priests  were  recalled,  and  the  bishops 
were  made  to  understand  that  the  government  desired  peace. 
This  "  treachery  "  on  the  part  of  their  creature  enraged  the 
Masons ;  the  Catholics  could  not  rely  on  the  sincerity  of  their 
recent  enemy  ;  and  in  1883  a  revolution,  in  which  both  Liber- 
als and  Conservatives  took  part,  overthrew  Vintimilla.  From 
that  time  until  the  Masonic  eruption  under  Alfaro,  the  sequels 
of  which  still  persevere  in  the  form  of  nearly  every  con- 
ceivable kind  of  persecution  of  the  Church,  the  Brethren  of 
the  Three  Points  allowed  Equador  to  rest  in  comparative 
peace. 

The  sad  distinction  of  having  succumbed,  perhaps  pusil- 
lanimously,  to  Masonic  machinations  more  frequently  than 
the  other  South  American  Republics,  belongs  to  Brazil  and 
Equador.  But  in  all  the  other  states  the  Church  has  found, 
at  least  in  our  day,  much  reason  for  sorrow.  In  Argentina 
the  Government  asked  the  Holy  See,  in  1875,  to  send  some 
missionaries  and  some  female  religious  who  would  labor  in 
the  outlying  regions  of  the  republic,  where  there  was  a 
dearth  of  spiritual  and  civilizing  agencies.  Pius  IX.  im- 
mediately arranged  with  the  superiors  of  the  Congregation 
of  St.  Francis  de  Sales,  the  now  wide-spread  society  which 
had  been  founded  in  Turin  by  Don  Bosco,  for  the  departure 
of  ten  Salesians  for  the  promising  held  ;  and  he  ordered 
twelve  Sisters  of  the  Congregation  of  Our  Lady  della  Mis- 
ericordla,  the  mother-establishment  of  which  is  in  Savona, 
to  set  out  for  the  same  destination.  In  the  audience  of  fare- 
well which  His  Holiness  accorded  to  the  little  band,  he 
necessarily  reflected  on  the  iniquities  recently  perpetrated 
by  Masonry  in  countries  which  were  sisters  to  Argentina, 
and  in  order  to  encourage  the  new  apostles,  he  said  :  "  This 
time  I  am  not  sending  lambs  to  a  pack  of  wolves.  You  are 
going  to  a  country  where  the  authorities  are  favorable  to 
you,  and  God  will  fructify  your  labors."  But  scarcel}^  had 
the  Salesians  and  their  auxiliaries  landed  in  Argentina, 
when  they  learned  that  the  Masons,   enraged  because  of  a 


FREEMASONRY  IN  LATIN  AMERICA.  77 

failure  to  induce  the  Congress  to  euter  ou  a  course  of  Sa- 
tauic  enterprise  in  regard  to  Catholicism,  had  incited  the 
populace  of  Buenos  Ay  res  to  an  auti- Jesuitical  riot,  massa- 
cred several  of  the  Jesuit  j)rofessors  who  were  instructing  the 
Argentine  youth  in  the  sciences  apparently  dear  to  the  Ma- 
sonic heart,  and  levelled  the  college  to  the  ground.  Nor  did 
Chili- hitherto,  perhaps,  the  most  pronouncedly  Catholic 
state  in  Latin  America — escape  the  contagion.  In  1875  the 
Grand  Lodge  of  Chili,  ruled  by  English  and  German  mer- 
chants and  speculators,  drew  up  a  plan  for  the  "  complete 
secularization" — that  is,  for  the  atheization — of  the  social 
institutions  of  the  republic.  This  scheme,  entitled  a  "  Plan 
of  Work  for  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Chili,"  was  published  by 
that  excellent  Masonic  authority  to  which  we  are  indebted 
for  so  much  of  our  knowledge  concerning  the  enter})rises  of  the 
Brethren,  namely,  the  Monde  Maconrnqne,  in  its  issue  of 
January,  1876.  In  tlie  third  Article  of  this  plan  it  is  or- 
dered that : "  The  Section  for  Instruction  shall  attend  to  : 
1st,  the  foundation  of  secular  schools  ;  2d,  to  the  furnishing 
of  aid  to  every  society  (especially  the  Protestant  coIpoHeurfi) 
which  gives  gratuitous  instruction  to  the  poor  (that  is, 
which  tries  to  deprive  the  poor  of  their  faith)  ;  3d,  to  con- 
tribute to  the  prosperity  of  all  the  scientific,  literary,  and 
artistic  institutions  in  the  country  (provided  that  there  were 
any  which  were  not  Catholic) ;  4th,  to  give  popular 
conferences  for  the  spread  of  such  knowledge  as  tends  to 
facilitate  the  progress  of  humanity.  "  The  Section  for  Benev- 
olence was  to  occupy  itself :  "  1st,  with  the  foundation  of 
hospitals  (as  though  Chili  needed  hospitals)  ;  2d,  with  aid- 
ing directly  or  indirectly  all  such  institutions  tvhen  they  do 
not  pw'sne  egoistic  <nid  -secfai-ian  objects  (thut  is,  when  they 
are  not  Catholic).  "...  The  Section  for  Propaganda  was 
to  :  "  1st,  defend  and  make  known  the  veritable  sentiments 
of  Freemasonry  (then  why  not  abolish  "  the  secret "  ?) ;  2d, 
to  try  to  introduce  into  all  pul)lic  institutions  the  principles 
of  Liberty,  Eqiiality,  and  Fraternity  ;  and  especially  to  labor 
for  a  separation  of  Church  and  state,  /or  the  establi.slnnent  of 
Civil  Marrimje  (1),  for  the  abolition  of  all  privileges,  for  tlie 

(1)  Civ;l  marriage,  with  its  necessary  conspqiicncp  of  divorce  ml  Utiituni   lunl  ilr-  ulti- 


78  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

fiecularization  of  all  charities  (so  as  to  provide  fat  salaries 
for  the  distributors,  attendants,  etc.) ;  3d,  for  the  help  of  all 
victims  of  religious  intolerance."  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of 
the  English  and  German  residents  in  Chili,  this  Masonic 
programme  failed  ;  but  in  1881  the  Masonic  Chaine  cC  Union 
(p.  437)  encouraged  the  Brethren  with  this  information  : 
"  Brother  Jose  Vergara,  Minister  of  the  Interior,  has  been 
chosen  Grand  Master  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Chili.  We 
cannot  doubt  that,  under  the  direction  of  this  eminent 
Brother,  the  Chilian  Lodges  will  recover  all  their  activity, 
which  is  now^  so  repressed  by  the  clerical  party.  In  Chili 
it  is  really  the  English  and  German  Lodges  that  do  the 
ivorky  Nevertheless,  hitherto  the  sterling  Catholicism  of 
the  Chilian  people  has  refused  to  accept  the  enlightenment 
which  emanates  from  the  rays  of  the  Dark  Lantern. 

Venezuela  has  held  its  own  fairly  well  in  face  of  Masonic 
aggression,  although  during  the  three  presidential  terms  of 
Guzman  Blanco  (1873-1887)  the  Brethren  continually  flat- 
mate destruction  of  the  very  idea  of  the  family,  is  ever  one  of  the  dearest  objects  to  the  Ma- 
sonic heart.  Voltaire,  Helvetius,  d'Alembert,  Rouill6  d'Orfeuil  and  all  ejnxdem  furfuris 
insisted  upon  the  destruction  of  every  trace  of  a  sacramental  idea  In  matrimony,  and  the 
Constituent  Assembly  of  1790  actuated  this  theory  when  it  proclaimed  the  equality  of  bast- 
ards and  legitimate  children.  In  this  Assembly  Cambac^res,  the  future  arch-chancellor  of 
Napoleon  and  future  Grand  Master  of  French  Masonry,  declared  :  "  There  is  a  law  which 
"^superior  to  all  others,  and  that  law — the  law  of  nature-tells  us  that illesfitlmate children 

have  all  the  rig-hts  which  some  would  take  from  them All  children,  without  any  distinc- 

*ion,  have  the  right  of  succession  to  those  who  have  given  existence  to  them.  The  differ- 
ences heretofore  subsisting  between  these  classes  of  children  are  merely  effects  of  pride  and 
superstition,  and  they  are  ignominious  and  contrary  to  justice."  During  the  rule  of  the 
Paris  Commune  of  1871,  as  we  learn  from  Maxinie  du  Camp,  in  his  ConvulsUrns  of  Paris, 
the  Central  Council  applauded  the  Citizen  Gratien  when,  at  a  reunion  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville, 
he  thus  perorated  :  "  If  we  wish  to  give  to  all  an  equal  and  a  revolutionary  education,  we 
must  destroy  the  family.  The  child  is  not  a  property  of  a  father  and  mother  ;the  child  be- 
longs to  the  State."  Ragon  whose  Intet'iyretath'e  Cotirse  was  approved  by  the  Grand 
Onent  of  France  in  1840  as  "  the  work  of  a  profoundly  instructed  brother,"  says  :  "  The 
indissolubility  of  marriage  is  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  reason —  Its  correct- 
ive is  divorce ;  divorce  is  now  amonir  our  customs,  waiting  for  the  day  when  it  will  be 
found  among  our  laws.  "  Louis  Napoleon,  in  his  NapoJfonic  Ideas,  when  recounting  the 
mistakes  of  the  French  govemtiients  that  preceded  his  own,  numbered  as  one  of  those 
errors  their  failure  to  admit  the  right  of  divorce  in  their  jurisprudence.  Since  such  are 
the  sentiments  of  Masonry  in  regard  to  marriajie  and  the  family,  we  were  not  surprised 
when  we  read  in  the  Official  Mitnicipal  Bidlctiyi  nf  Paris  of  September,  1882,  that  on 
the  preceding  Ausust  12th.  at  a  di>tributi()n  of  prizes  to  the  schools  of  the  Fourteenth  Aron- 
rtissement.  Brother  Schmidt,  an  assistant  to  the  mayor,  told  the  young  gi/Is  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  French  mothers  "  to  make  their  children  hate  that  religious  cosmopolitanism 
which  debases  our  earthly  country  beneath  a  hypothetical  religion  which  is  hidden  some- 
where in  the  vault  of  heaven,"  and  that  children  should  he  taught  to  despise  "  that  hu- 
mility which  Impels  a  man  to  kneel  before  another  who  is  no  more  infallible  than  him- 
self." 


FREEMASONi^Y   IN    LaTIN    AMERICA.  79 

tered  themselves  that  Venezuehiu  Catholioisin  was  luoribund. 
thanks  to  the  poison  which  the  Liberalism  of  Blanco,  the 
"  Protector  of  the  Masonic  Order  in  the  Re})ublic,"  allowed 
them  to  administer  to  the  people.  Under  date  of  March  29, 
1874,  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Venezuela  sent  "  to  all  the  Lodges 
in  its  jurisdiction  "  a  circular,  the  barefaced  mendacity  of 
which  has  rarely  been  excelled  in  any  of  the  documents 
which,  after  the  dagger,  have  ever  been  the  chosen  weapons 
of  South  American  Masonry  in  its  campaigns  of  "  popular  in- 
struction." We  shall  quote  a  few  gems  from  this  official 
pronouncement.  "  Having  been  called  to  regenerate  Ven- 
ezuela, and  being  filled  with  faith  in  the  principles  of  Ma- 
sonry, Brother  Guzman  Blanco  has  resolved  to  take  the  Ma- 
sonry of  Venezuela  as  his  co-operatrix,  and  he  presents  him- 
self as  its  declared  and  decided  protector.  .  .  .  The  Grand 
Lodse  regards  as  enemies  of  Masonry  all  who  make  war  on 
Masonic  associations  ;  all  who  do  not  respect  the  dignity  of 
the  country  ;  all  who  try  to  sufibcate  the  reason  of  man  ;  all 
who  try  to  dominate  by  means  of  ignorance;  all  irlio  foment 
fanaticism  and  superstition.  .  . .  Masonry  holds  that  truth 
rests  on  science,  and  on  science  alone ;  Masonry  repels 
absolutely  all  fanaticism  and  superstition,  warring  on  them 
inexorably  by  means  of  instruction.  .  . .  He  is  not  a  true 
Freemason  who  does  not  support  the  government  which  repre- 
sents the  people  of  Venezuela  in  the  combat  against  tlie preten- 
sions of  the  Vatican  to  a  sovereignty  on  Venetian  soil — a  sover- 
eignty which  would  be  superior  to  that  of  the  Venezuelans 
themselves.  The  question  is  as  to  whether  Venezuela  is 
bound  to  receive  the  inspirations  of  the  Vatican — of  that  pow- 
er which  recently  ordered  its  representative  in  Paris  to  see 
that  mall  the  churches  of  France  prayers  ivere  addressed  to 
the  Supreme  Being  for  the  ruin  of  the  Bepuhlic  and  the  restor- 
ation of  the  Monarchy ;  of  that  power  which  has  always 
insisted  on  ignorance  as  the  principal  support  of  the  Holy 
See  and  of  all  thrones.  . . .  You  pei'ceive  how  detrimental  to  all 
its  servants  this  influence  of  the  Vatican  must  be,  since  it  leads 
them  to  the  most  criminial  perjury.  . . .  The  great  majority  of 
Freemasons  are  faithful  Christians,  fulfilling  all  the  duties 
which  the  Church  imposes  on  them,  although  they  do  not  re- 


80  STUDIES    m   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

nounce  the  exercise  of  their  reason,  since  tliat  reason  is  sacred 
to  them,  being  an  emanation  from  tlie  Supreme  Being.  . . .  Dur- 
ing many  centuries  the  Church  of  Rome  prevented  the  diffusion 
of  knowledge,  and  punished  as  heretics  all  who  penetrated  the. 
secrets  of  nature,  and  revealed  those  secrets  to  other  men. 
During  many  centuries  the  Church  of  Rome  denounced  tJie 
education  of  the  masses  as  prejudicial  to  both  ecclesiastical 
and  civil  tyranny ;  and  the  Holy  See  appealed  to  all  sov- 
ereigns, in  the  name  of  their  own  existence,  to  combat  liber- 
al principles.  .  .  .  Against  this  injustice  Masonry  has  fought 
from  the  first  days  of  its  existence,  and  the  hour  has  now 
struck  for  all  our  Brethren  to  work  for  the  manifestation  of 
truth  in  its  entirety."  With  the  President  of  the  Republic 
(we  should  say,  its  dictator)  as  the  gracious  Protector  of  Ven- 
ezuelan Masonry,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  Venezuelan  peo- 
ple were  afflicted,  during  the  entire  period  of  their  suffering 
under  the  incubus  of  Guzman  Blanco,  with  laws  which 
"  manifested  (Masonic  travesty  of)  truth  in  its  entirety  "  ; 
and  that  the  usual  Masonic  persecution  of  the  clergy  became 
the  order  of  the  day.  Only  one  of  the  Venezuelan  bishops 
was  derelict.  Mgr.  Guebara,  archbishop  of  Caracas,  having 
refused  to  swear  fidelity  to  the  Masonico-Febronian  enact- 
ments, was  exiled,  and  his  see  was  offered  to  the  bishop  of 
Guayana,  an  aged,  weak,  but  ambitious  prelate,  who  signified 
his  willingness  to  commit  spiritual  bigamy.  Pope  Pius  IX., 
under  date  of  July  8,  1874,  wrote  to  the  unfortunate  man  a 
strong  but  fatherly  reproof,  dwelling  on  the  wickedness  of 
the  new  laws  to  which  the  bishop  of  Guayana  had  sworn 
fidelity,  and  stigmatizing  the  hypocrisy  with  which  the  weak- 
ling had  assured  the  Holy  See  that  "  he  would  have  liked  to 
refuse  the  archiepiscopal  dignity  on  account  of  his  age  and 
feebleness."—"  One  fact  modifies  our  grief,"  said  the  Pontiff; 
"  you  have  not  yet  consummated  the  proposed  usurpation ; 
you  have  caused  a  great  scandal,  but  you  have  not  yet  become 
formally  an  intruder.  You  remind  us  that  you  are  an  old  man. 
Think,  therefore,  of  the  judgment  which  you  must  soon  un- 
dergo. What  will  you  reply  to  Jesus  Christ,  when  He  de- 
mands an  account  of  your  stewardship  and  upbraids  you  for 
having  rended  His  seamless  garment  ?  .  .  .  Dignities,  wealth, 


FREEMASONRY    IN    LATIN   .VMERICA.  81 

the  favor  of  the  powerful,  form  a  vain  para})lierniilia  which 
will  soon  be  taken  from  you ;  reflect  on  the  punishment  that 
awaits  you,  if  you  persist  in  preparing  the  way  for  schism 
and  apostasy.  .  .  .  Hasten,  venerable  brotJier,  by  a  public 
and  immediate  retractation  of  your  wicked  oath,  to  remove  the 
stumbling-block  of  scandal  which  you  have  placed  in  the  path 
of  the  faithful ;  hasten  to  redeem  your  lamentable  weakness 
by  an  apostolic  firnmess  of  soul  and  by  an  intrepid  defense  of 
the  rights  of  the  Church." 

Peru  has  suffered  much  anxiety  because  of  the  intrigues 
of  Masonry,  supported  by  the  funds  at  the  disposal  of  the 
so-called  "  missionary  "  bodies  which  are  so  plentifully  en- 
dowed by  gullible  Protestants  in  the  United  States  ;  but  of 
open  persecution  Peru  has  experienced  but  little.  During 
the  first  years  of  the  pcmtificate  of  Pius  IX.,  the  Masons 
endeavored  to  incite  a  war  with  the  Holy  See  on  the  subject 
of  episcopal  and  parochial  appointments  ;  but  in  1874  the 
Pontiff  checkmated  the  Brethren  by  according  to  the  pres- 
idents of  Peru  the  right  of  patronage  which  his  predecessors 
had  granted,  in  the  olden  time,  to  the  kings  of  Spain  :  "  Pius, 
Bishop,  Servant  of  the  Servants  of  God,  for  the  imperishable 
remembrance  of  this  matter :  Among  the  singular  favors 
which  God  has  conferred  on  the  Peruvian  nation,  none  is  so 
striking  as  the  gift  of  Catholic  truth  which  the  Peruvians 
have  carefully  preserved  from  the  day  when  they  first  re- 
ceived it  from  the  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  and  which  they 
have  cultivated  so  well  that  from  among  them  have  risen 
several  heroes  whom  the  Church  has  regarded  as  worthy  of 
the  honors  of  her  altars.  . . .  To  this  zeal  in  preserving 
Catholic  unity  have  been  added  many  other  acts  })erformetl 
by  the  governmental  authority.  Thus  the  endowments  of 
dioceses  already  existing  have  been  liberally  augmented,  and 
those  of  new  dioceses  have  been  readily  accorded  ;  aid  has 
been  given  to  the  seminaries,  and  to  the  colleges  which 
missionaries  have  founded  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith  ; 
similar  generosity  has  been  exhibited  in  providing  for  the 
diffusion  of  sound  doctrine  b}'  the  endowment  of  parishes 
among  those  (savages)  who  have  been  converted  to  the  faith  ; 
and  finally,  consideral)le  sums  have  been  expended  in  the 


82'  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

restoration  and  ornamentation  of  old  churches,  and  in  the 
erection  of  new  ones.  . . .  Wherefore,  wishing  to  condescend 
to  the  prayers  whicli  the  Peruvian  government  has  addressed 
to  us  through  its  representative,  and  following  the  example 
of  our  predecessors  who  have  ever  granted  special  favors  to 
those  who  have  deserved  well  of  Christendom,  we  have  re- 
solved, after  consultation  with  certain  cardinals  of  the  Holy 
Koman  Church,  to  concede  by  our  Apostolic  authority  that 
hereafter  the  President  of  the  Republic  of  Peru,  and  his 
successors,  shall  enjoy  that  right  of  patronage  which,  by  the 
favor  of  the  Apostolic  See,  the  kings  of  Spain  enjoyed  in 
Peru  before  that  country  was  sej^arated  from  the  rule  of  the 
Spanish  crown.  . . .  The  President  of  the  Republic  of  Peru, 
and  his  successors,  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  presenting  to  the 
Apostolic  See,  whenever  an  archiepiscopal  or  episcopal  see 
is  vacant,  the  names  of  certain  fit  and  worthy  ecclesiastics  ; 
so  that,  according  to  the  regulations  prescribed  by  the  Holy 
Canons,  the  canonical  institution  may  be  effected.  . . .  Never- 
theless, the  candidates  thus  presented  shall  enjoy  no  right 
of  episcopal  administration,  until  they  shall  have  received 
the  Apostolic  Letters  conferring  their  institution.  . . .  The 
said  President  shall  also  enjoy  the  right  of  presentation  to 
canonicates  de  officio,  and  to  parishes,  providing  that  the 
canonical  regulations  concerning  concursus  and  examination 
shall  have  been  observed.  . .  .  Finally,  the  Presidents  of 
Peru  shall  receive,  in  all  the  churches  of  the  Republic,  the 
same  honors  which  were  formerly  accorded  to  the  kings  of 
Spain,  because  of  the  right  of  patronage  which  was  granted 
by  this  Holy  See."  Hitherto  the  exercise  of  this  right  of 
patronage  seems  to  have  prevented  any  extraordinary  mani- 
festations, on  the  part  of  the  Peruvian  government,  of  greed 
for  ecclesiastical  property,  or  of  jealousy  of  ecclesiastical 
privileges. 

At  the  present  moment,  no  country  of  Latin  America  is  so 
subjected  to  the  nefarious  influences  of  Masonry  as  is  our 
neighbor,  the  Republic  of  Mexico.  In  1867,  the  Freemason's 
Journal  of  Leipsic  published  a  correspondence  from  this 
sectary-ridden  land,  which  ascribed  to  the  votaries  of  the 
Dark  Lantern  the  "  credit  "  of  all  the  revolutions  whicli  have 


FREEMASONRY    IN    L.VTIN    AMERICA.  83 

cursed  the  country  ever  since  the  "  yoke  "  of  Spain  was 
discarded  (1).  lu  fact,  the  Masonic  writer  gave  a  mere 
paraphrase  of  the  report  "  On  the  Form  of  Government 
which  Mexico  Ought  to  Ado})t,"  which  was  accepted  by  the 
Assembly  of  Notables  which  undertook,  in  18G3,  to  give  to 
their  country  some  semblance  of  a  stable  and  Christian 
government  (2).  Whatever  may  be  our  opinion  concerning 
French  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  Mexico,  or  concerning 
the  weak  scion  of  the  Hapsburgs  who  vacillated  between  the 
conservatives  and  the  "  liberals  "  until  resolution  was  of  no 
use,  who  condescended  to  humor  Masonry  by  signing  a 
Concordat  which  the  Holy  See  was  obliged  to  condemn, — it 
is  certain  that  the  Assembly  of  Notables  represented  all 
that  was  respectable  in  Mexico,  both  for  morality  and  for 
education.  The  solemn  utterances  of  such  a  body,  spoken 
in  the  face  of  expectant  America  and  Europe,  are  worthy  of 
attention.  Alluding  to  the  separation  from  the  mother 
country,  the  notables  insisted  that  "  if,  at  that  time,  Mexico 
had  not  forgotten  her  ancient  institutions,  undoubtedly  she 
would  have  reached  the  height  of  prosperity ;  but  she  knew 
not  how  to  profit  by  her  emancipation,  and  she  abused  her 
independence."  The  Federal  Constitution,  "  an  imperfect 
imitation  of  that  of  the  United  States,"  contended  the 
notables,  "  proved  to  be  the  ruin  of  Mexico  "  ;  but  the  evil 
was  increased  and  confirmed  "  by  the  establishment  of  Ma- 
sonic Lodges  " — those  of  the  Scotch  Rite  and  of  the  Rite  of 
York.  "  These  secret  societies,  by  their  conspiracies,  and  by 
means  of  poison  and  the  dagger,  decided  the  destiny  of  the 
country,  and  played  with  the  lives  of  the  citizens."  It  was  be- 
cause of  the  inspiration  of  the  Lodges,  declared  the  notables, 
that  in  1828  the  city  of  Mexico  beheld  the  governmental  au- 
thorities supervising  the  pillage  of  the  Grand  Bazaar,  sanc- 
tioning attacks  against  private  property.  "  From  the  Lodges 
came  the  iniquitous  laws  of  banishment  decreed  against  all 
persons  of  Spanish  birth  "  ;  laws  which  affected  so  many  inno- 
cent persons,  which  destroyed  commerce  by  banishing  capital, 
and  which  ended  in  the  public  sale  of  exemptions  from  the 

(1)  This  correspondence  was  reproduced  in  Le  Monde  of  July  14, 1867. 

(2)  This  report  was  published  in  the  Paris  Moniteur  of  Sept.  13, 1863. 


84  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

decree  of  exile.  "  The  highest  positions  in  the  republic  are 
frequently  occupied  by  common  highwaymen.  The  public 
treasury  is  constantly  depleted.  The  property  of  the  Church 
is  wickedly  confiscated,  and  with  no  profit  to  the  country.'' 
With  the  fall  of  Maximilian  came  dark  days  indeed  for  the 
Catholics  of  Mexico ;  but  not  until  November  24,  1874,  was 
the  "  Separation  of  Church  and  State  "  effected  in  a  manner 
which  was  calculated  to  satisfy  Masonry  while  it  waits  for 
the  moment  when  it  will  be  able,  as  it  fondly  trusts,  to  sweep 
from  Mexican  soil  the  last  trace  of  Catholicism.  By  the 
new  law,  which  has  hitherto  been  inexorably  enforced,  no 
officer  of  the  government  (civil  or  military),  no  body  of 
troops,  no  corporation  of  any  kind,  can  assist  officially  at  any 
religious  service.  No  holidays,  save  the  purely  civil,  are 
recognized  by  the  State  ;  but  "  Sunday  may  be  observed  as 
a  day  of  rest  from  labor."  All  religious  instruction  and  all 
acts  of  religious  worship  are  prohibited  in  every  establish- 
ment of  the  State.  "  No  act  of  worship  or  of  a  religious 
nature  can  be  performed  outside  of  the  churches,  under  pain 
of  a  fine  of  from  10  to  200  piastres,  or  of  imprisonment  for 
from  two  to  fifteen  days.  A  fine  of  from  100  to  200  piastres 
is  incurred  by  an  ecclesiastic  every  time  that  he  appears  in 
public  (outside  a  church)  in  an  ecclesiastical  dress,  or  with 
any  insignia  of  his  office.  All  services  in  the  churches  are 
to  be  constantly  under  the  eyes  of  the  police."  No  religious 
institution  can  acquire  real  estate  or  capital  which  is  de- 
rived from  real  estate.  By  the  nineteenth  article  of  this  law 
even  the  Sisters  of  Charity  were  attacked  ;  they  were  forbid- 
den to  wear  any  distinctive  costume,  or  to  live  in  community  (1). 

(1)  In  Feb.,  1899.  we  learned  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  of  Columbia  had 
recently  so  far  abjured  connection  with  Masonry  as  to  officially  proclaim  the  Supreme 
Sovereignty  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  May  the  spirit  of  Garcia  Moreno  continue  to  animate 
the  lawgivers  of  the  land  in  which  Bolivar  could  discern  no  germ  of  political  salvation  ! 
The  decree  of  the  Columbian  Congress  reads  as  follows  :  "  Article  1.  The  Republic  of 
Columbia,  at  the  termination  of  the  century  in  which  it  achieved  its  national  freedom  and 
sovereignty,  but  fulfils  its  duty  in  recognizing  in  an  explicit  manner  the  divine  and  social 
authority  of  .lesus  Christ  and  in  rendering  thanks  to  Him  for  the  benefits  it  has  received 
from  His  hands  :  and  by  means  of  the  medium  of  this  law  so  attests.  Article  2.  In  testi- 
mony of  this  acknowledgment,  a  monument  shall  be  erected  in  the  Cathedral  of  Bogota 
with  ecclesiiistical  permission."  By  way  of  counterbalance  to  the  consolation  experienced 
because  of  th's  decree,  we  read  in  the  Chicago  Record  of  Aug.  8,  1899,  the  following 
illustration  of  the  monumental  ignorance  of  our  Protestant  countrymen  concerning 
aft  lirs  In  Latin  America.    Mr.  Curtis,  a  staff  correspondent  of  the  Record,  thus  speaks 


THE    CLEiaCAL    VICTIMS    OF   THE    CUMMUNE    0¥    1871.         85 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CLERICAL  VICTIMS  OF  THE  COMMUNE  OF  1871. 

When  the  last  act  of  the  Franco-German  war  of  1870- 
71  had  closed,  and  Paris,  conquered  by  famine,  had  agreed 
on  an  armistice  with  the  Teuton  on  Jan.  29,  1871,  a  National 
Assembly,  elected  on  Feb.  8,  entrusted  the  executive  power 
to  Thiers,  with  the  understanding  that  peace  was  to  be  se- 
cured. When  the  harsh  conditions  had  been  accepted  by 
the  Assembly,  and  the  Germans  had  retired  to  the  districts 
which  they  were  to  occupy  until  France  would  have  paid  the 
last  sou  of  the  live  milliards  of  francs  by  way  of  indemnity, 
the  new  government  fixed  its  seat  at  Versailles,  in  order  to 
be  free  from  the  danger  of  a  coup  de  main  on  the  part  of 
the  revolutionists,  native  and  foreign,  with  whom  the  capi- 
tal was  thronged.  The  wonted  buoyancy  and  energy  of 
the  French  soon  renewed  the  march  of  commercial  and 
industrial  activity,  and  the  outer  world  was  congratulating 
the  sorely-tried  nation  on  its  new  lease  of  prosperity,  when 
it  was  afflicted  by  an  insurrection  which  reminded  humanity 
of  the  horrors  with  which,  in  1793,  the  first  acclairaers  of 
Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity,  signalized  their  accession 
to  power.  The  government  had  made  the  grievous  mis- 
take of  not  disarming  the  National  Guard  ;  and  the  dominant 
revolutionary  element  in  that  body  waited  for  an  occasion 
to  challenge  the  comparatively  conservative  power  of  Ver- 
sailles. This  occasion  was  furnished  when  Thiers  ordered 
the  removal  of  certain  cannons  to  the  arsenals.  The  mob 
arose  ;  some  of  the  troops  fraternized  with  the  new  sans- 
culoffes  :   Generals  Lecomte  and  Thomas   were  murdered ; 

of  ex-President  Camaano,  of  Equador :  "  He  was  a  devout  adherent  of  the  Church  and  a 
believer  in  the  ancient  policy.  When  he  came  to  Washington  in  1889  as  a  delegate  to  the 
international  American  conference,  lie  hrcmght  uith  him  a  written  Tnduloence  from  the 
Archbishop  nf  Quito  for  all  the  sitis  he  might  commit  for  twelve  yeurs.  This  extra- 
ordinary advantage  over  the  reM  of  mankind  was  given  as  a  reward  for  hxH  devotio" 
to  the  Church,  and  was  mwh  envied  by  the  delegates  from  other  countries." 


86  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

and  Thiers,  not  wishing  to  deluge  the  streets  of  Paris  with 
fraternal  blood,  withdrew  all  the  troops  to  Versailles,  saving 
only  those  in  garrison  at  Mi  Valerian.  Then  came  the  pro- 
clamation of  the  Commune,  effected  by  men  who  were  the- 
dregs,  not  only  of  France,  but  of  Italy,  Germany,  Russia, 
and  America  ;  as  even  the  arch-revolutionist,  Jules  Favre, 
complained  to  the  representatives  of  the  European  pow- 
ers :  "  All  the  wretches  of  Europe  were  gathered  in  Paris  ; 
the  gapital  was  the  rendezvous  for  every  wickedness  on 
earth  "  (1).  This  Commune  of  Paris  was  to  be  the  model  for 
all  France  ;  the  new  republic  was  to  consist  of  a  federation  of 
40,000  communes  ;  but  how  different  they  were  to  be  from 
those  mediaeval  Italian  republics  which  first  rendered  that 
form  of  government  historical !  A  mockery  of  an  election 
was  held ;  and  the  destinies  of  the  secular  capital  of  civ- 
ilization were  entrusted  to  such  apostles  of  anarchy  as 
Delescluze,  Felix  Pyat,  Eaoul  Rigault,  Vermorel,  Ferre, 
Courbet,  etc., — men  whose  hatred  of  society  was  as  intense 
as  their  contempt  for  religion.  The  army  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Commune  numbered  150,000,  all  well  provided  with  mu- 
nitions of  every  sort,  including  artillery  ;  and  at  the  very  birth 
of  the  movement,  it  had  obtained  possession  of  all  the  forts 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine,  excepting  Mt.  Valerien,  thus  fit- 
ting itself  with  strength  to  withstand  a  long  siege.  The 
greater  part  of  the  generals  of  the  Commune  were  foreigners 
— men  to  whom  the  designation  of  filibusters  would  have 
been  a  fulsome  flattery  ;  more  than  twenty  thousand  of  the 
same  ilk  were  in  the  ranks ;  the  distinguishing  features  of 
all  were  irreligion,  immorality,  pillage,  and  diabolical  cruelty. 
When  a  number  of  citizens  attempted  to  make  a  demonstra- 
tion in  favor  of  order  on  the  Place  Vendome,  the  troops  of 
the  Commune  dispersed  them  with  fusilades.  The  Sisters 
of  Charity  and  Christian  Brothers  were  expelled  from  their 
schools,  and  persons  without  any  conception  of  morality 
were  appointed  to  teach  the  rising  generation ;  of  course  the 
crucifix  was  torn  from  the  wall  of  every  school-room,  and 
every  mention  of  the  name  of  God  was  prohibited.  Both 
public  and  private  property  were  pillaged,  and  every  form  of 

(1)  Circular  to  the  Foreign  Ambassadors  and  Ministers  ;  June  6,  1871. 


THE    t'LElUC.VL    VICTIMS    OF   THE    COMMUNE    OF    1871.         87 

disorder  made  the  once  beautiful  capital  a  hell  ou  earth. 
Finally,  hoping  to  thus  escape  from  the  vengeance  of  at  least 
human  law,  the  Communist  leaders  ordered  the  seizure  of 
the  archbishop  of  Paris,  a  number  of  clergymen,  and  several 
eminent  seculars,  who  were  to  be  held  as  security  for  the 
absolute  pardon  of  such  of  themselves  as  would  fall  into  the 
power  (^f  the  government  of  Versailles.  On  May  21,  after 
two  months  of  regular  siege,  the  national  troops,  commanded 
by  Marshal  MacMahon,  who  had  recovered  from  the  wound 
received  at  Sedan,  entered  Paris  by  the  gate  of  Aiiteuil  ;  and 
then  ensued  a  frightful  street  battle  during  eight  days  and 
eight  nights, — no  parallel  to  which  can  be  found  in  modern 
history.  Already  the  madmen  of  the  Commune  had  pulled 
down  the  great  column  of  Napolecm  in  the  Place  Vendome, 
heedless  of  the  fact  that  the  Germans  outside  the  city  must 
have  rejoiced  at  the  disappearance  of  a  monument  wiiich 
commemorated  so  many  of  their  crushing  defeats  at  the 
hands  of  the  French ;  and  now  the  hellhounds  determined 
to  destroy  Paris  itself.  While  the  national  troops  were 
fighting  their  way,  inch  by  inch,  into  the  heart  of  the  city, 
organized  hordes  fired  the  Tuileries,  the  palace  of  the  Min- 
istry of  Finance,  that  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  the  Cour  des 
Comptes,  the  Palace  of  Justice,  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  many  mag- 
azines, and  entire  blocks  of  residences.  Many  churches, 
notably  Notre-Dame  and  the  Sainte-Chapelle,  and  very  many 
celebrated  monuments,  had  been  specially  marked  for  visi- 
tation by  the  j)elroUurs  and  pefroleuses  of  every  age  (for  even 
little  children  were  pressed  into  this  service)  ;  but  fortunately 
the  rapidity  of  the  Versaillais  advance  prevented  the  actua- 
tion of  the  design.  Shortly  before  the  advent  of  the  Com- 
mune, one  of  its  coryphees,  that  Cluseret  who  afterward  tried 
to  belittle  the  courage  and  talent  of  the  American  generals 
under  whom  he  was  supposed  to  have  learned  some- 
thing of  the  art  of  war,  had  written  to  his  friend,  Varlin,  of 
the  Department  of  Finance  in  the  Commune  :  •'  I  do  not  know 
whether  we  shall  ever  possess  Paris  ;  but  if  we  do  have  it,  we 
must  blow  it  up."  Providence  had  decreed  that  utter  male- 
diction should  not  be  the  lot  of  the  city  that  it  had  chastised  ; 
and   the  homeward   route   was  now  taken  by  the   500,000 


88  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

citizens  who  had  fled  from  the  pestilential  breath  of  the 
children  of  the  "  International."  To  saj  nothing  of  the  loss 
of  life  which  the  short  reign  of  the  Commune  cost  the  city  of 
Paris,  the  pecuniary  damage  which  it  entailed  on  the  citi- 
zens was  thirty  times  greater  than  that  which  had  accrued 
from  their  resistance  to  the  Germans  ;  for  the  indemnities 
paid  by  the  muuicij)ality  for  losses  under  the  Commune 
amounted  to  nearly  seventy-five  millions  of  francs,  while  the 
losses  caused  by  the  German  guns  were  covered  by  a  little 
over  two  millions  (1).  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  detail  the 
horrors  of  the  Commune  ;  the  student  will  expect  from  us  no 
more  than  a  succinct  narrative  of  the  murder  of  Mgr.  Darboy 
and  of  the  other  priests  who  merited  from  heaven  the  same 
blessing.  Having  given  that  narrative,  we  shall  show  that 
Freemasonry  is  pre-eminently  responsible  for  what  was  one 
of  the  most  salient  crimes  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

"  What  can  you  do  to  me  ?  Take  my  furniture  ?  It  is  not 
mine  ;  it  belongs  to  the  State.  Take  my  books  ?  Well,  they 
are  mine,  and  they  are  my  dearest  possessions  ;  but  I  can 
do  without  tliem,  and  they  will  scarcely  profit  you  greatly. 
Take  my  life  ?  If  you  kill  me,  you  will  not  destroy  the 
principle  which  I  represent;  you  will  simply  strengthen  it." 
Such  were  the  intrepid  w^ords  wliicli  Pierre-Georges  Darboy, 
archbisho])  of  Paris,  addressed  to  the  revolutionary  mob 
which  invaded  his  residence  after  the  catastrophe  of  Sedan  ; 
and  content  with  the  manifestation  of  their  insolence,  the 
future  Communists  retired  from  the  episcopal  presence. 
And  when  the  insurrection  of  March  18,  1871,  had  raised 
the  Jacobins  to  power,  and  a  band  of  pillagers  and  cutthroats, 
fresh  from  the  sacking  of  the  School  of  the  General  Staff, 
forced  an  entrance  into  his  palace,  the  prelate  calmly  asked  : 
"  What  do  you  desire,  my  friends  ?  My  head  ?  Here  it  is." 
Again  the  partisans  of  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity  re- 
tired ;  but  in  a  few  days  all  Paris  knew  that  the  Commune 
had  decreed  the  imprisonment  of  its  archbishop.  On  April 
4,  the  Tuesday  of  Holy  Week,  the  prelate  presided  at  the 
weekly  meeting  of  his  council ;  and  when  the  business  had 
been  transacted,  he  remarked  :  "  Whenever,  after  our  sessions. 

(1)  See  the  Report  of  tlie  Prefect  of  Police,  in  the  ^nii  dn  Pcvph\  May  25,  1873. 


THE     CLERICAL    VICTIMS    OF   THE    COMMUNE    Ol'    1871.        89 

Ave  have  beeu  about  to  se})iinite,  p;pntlenion,  I  have  uhvuys 
siiid  :  '  We  shall  meet  next  week,  if  we  are  still  here  below.' 
To-day  I  may  repeat  the  proviso  with  more  earnestuess 
than  i  have  heretofore  ftdt."  The  words  were  scarcely  ut- 
tered, when  two  officers  of  the  Commuue  appeared  iu  the 
room,  and  oue,  a  captain  named  Revol,  shouted  to  the  arch- 
l)ishop  :  "Follow  us  ;  you  must  answer  for  a  volley  of  mus- 
ketry that  has  just  been  fired  on  one  of  our  i)atrols  from  the 
house  of  the  Jesuits."  Accompanied  by  his  vicar-general, 
the  Abbe  Legarde,  the  destined  martyr  was  conducted  to  the 
Prefecture  of  Police,  where,  as  His  Grace  afterward  narrated 
in  his  prison,  the  following  "  interrogatory "  was  held. 
"  For  more  than  eighteen  hundred  ^^ears,"  growled  llaoul 
Rigault,  the  procurator  of  the  Commune,  "  you  people  have 
been  crushing  freedom  of  thought  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Now  the  turn  of  free  thought  has  come."  Then  the  arch- 
bishop learned  that  he  was  charged  with  having  "  mon- 
opolized "  the  jDroperty  of  the  people.  "  What  property?  " 
asked  the  prelate.  "  The  churches,  man  !  "  replied  the  pro- 
curator ;  "  the  ornaments,  the  vases,  and  all  that."  Then 
Rigault  made  out  the  form  of  commitment,  designating  the 
prisoner  as  "  ex-archbishop  of  Paris."  Mgr.  Darboy  refused 
to  recognize  the  qualification  by  appending,  as  was  custom- 
ary, his  signature  to  the  document.  "  You  can  no  more 
unmake  an  archbishop,"  he  insisted,  "  than  you  can  make 
one.  Even  though  I  were  in  Pekin,  I  would  still  be  arch- 
bishop of  Paris  ;  therefore  forty  Communes  can  never  make 
me  sign  that  paper."  Then  the  prefect  erased  the  obnoxious 
term,  and  substituted  "  Mr.  Darboy,  wlio  styles  himself  arch- 
bishop of  Paris."  On  the  night  of  Holy  Thursday  our  pre- 
late was  transferred  to  the  prison  of  Mazas,  where  he  was 
destined  to  remain  for  forty-six  days.  A  few  days  after  the 
arrest.  Dr.  Demarquay,  a  surgeon  whose  devotion  to  the 
soldiers  had  won  for  him  such  love  as  the  Communists  were 
capable  of  cherishing,  appealed  to  Rigault  for  the  freedom 
of  the  archbishop  ;  but  the  savage  replied :  "  Impossible, 
citizen-doctor!  The  criferium  of  our  revolution  is  '  Death 
to  the  priests  ! '  "  And  when  the  surgeon  persisted,  Rigault 
cried  :  "  Enough  !     I  know  you  to  l>e  an  excellent  physician ; 


90  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

but  if  you  continue  to  interest  yourself  in  these  rascals,  I 
shall  have  you  shot "  (1). 

Visiting  his  archbishop  one  day  at  Mazas,  the  Abbe  Bajde 
remarked  that  if  His  Grace  Avas  put  to  death  by  the  Commune; 
he  would  be  regarded  as  a  martyr  ;  that  the  Church  had 
proclaimed  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  a  martyr,  and  there 
was  as  much  of  politics  in  the  case  of  the  English  prelate  as 
in  that  of  His  Grace  of  Paris.  "  One  thing  is  certain," 
replied  Mgr.  Darboy  ;  "  If  I  am  condemned,  it  will  not  be 
as  an  individual,  but  as  archbishop  of  Paris."  But  the 
Commune  pretended  that  our  prelate,  and  also  all  the  other 
"  hostages  "  who  were  arrested  at  the  same  time,  were  to  be 
executed  in  retaliation  for  alleged  massacres  of  Communist 
prisoners  taken  by  the  national  forces.  This  calumny  was  re- 
peated by  the  Judseo-Masonic  press  of  all  Europe ;  and 
re-echoed  by  nearly  all  the  secular  and  Protestant  journals  of 
America,  ever  ready  to  palliate,  if  not  to  justify,  the  crimes  of 
the  priest-eaters.  When  our  archbishop  was  informed  of  this 
atrocious  invention  of  the  Commune,  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
Thiers,  protesting  against  the  execution  of  Communist 
prisoners,  if  such  execution  had  occurred.  The  Commune 
allowed  the  letter  to  be  carried  to  its  destination  by  one  of 
the  priestly  hostages,  the  Abbe  Bertaux,  cure  of  Saint-Pierre 
de  Montmartre,  on  condition  that  the  messenger  would  re- 
turn to  his  cell  and  to  his  probable  death.  Bertaux  was 
faithful  to  his  promise  (2),  and  brought  the  reply  of  Thiers, 
which  declared  most  solemnly  that  the  accusation  of  the 
Commune  was  "  absolutely  false  "  (3).     Of  course  the  Official 

(1)  Lamazou  ;  The  Place  Vendome  and  La  Roquette.    Paris.  1880. 

(2)  The  Abbe  Bertaux  owed  his  escape  from  death  at  the  hands  of  the  Commune  to  the 
eflforts  of  Mile,  le  Marasquier,  a  simple  but  valiant  dressmaker  whom  the  abb^  had  ed- 
ucated. Alone  and  with  no  other  protection  than  that  of  heaven,  she  ventured  to  appeal  to 
Rigault;  and  either  by  her  eloquence,  or  by  her  modest  assurance,  or  by  force  of 
her  beauty,  she  obtained  the  freedom  of  her  friend.  Shortly  afterward,  however,  the  abb^ 
died  from  the  effects  of  his  imprisonment.  Ravailhe  ;  A  Week  of  the  Communeof  Paris. 
Paris.  1880. 

(3)  We  subjoin  this  correspondence.  The  letter  of  Mgr.  Darboy,  dated  at  Mazas,  April  8, 
is  as  follows :  "  Mr.  President,  yesterday,  after  an  interrogatory  in  this  my  prison  at 
Mazas,  my  questioners  assured  me  that  in  the  recent  combats  the  national  troops  had 
committed  acts  of  barbarity  on  the  National  Guards  (the  Communist  forces) ;  that  wound- 
ed men  were  killed,  and  prisoners  massacred.  And  when  I  hesitated  to  credit 
these  assertions,  I  was  told  that  they  were  based  on  official  information- 
Therefore  I  wish,  Mr.  President,  to  draw  your  attention  to  a  matter  of  grave  moment 
which  perhaps  is  unknown  to  you,  and  to  beg  you  to  see-what  can  be  done  in  such  la- 


THE   CLERICAL   VICTIMS   OF   THE   COMMUNE   OF    1871.         91 

Jonrnal  of  the  Coniniuno  published  neither  the  hotter  of  Mgr. 
Darboy,  nor  that  of  Thiers — au  abstention  which  may  have 
been  au  excuse  for  the  silence  of  the  sympathizing  journals 
of  foreign  lands.  On  April  18,  Mr.  Washburne,  Minister  of 
the  United  States  of  America  to  France,  received  the  follow- 
ing note  from  Archbishop  Chigi,  the  papal  nuncio,  who, 
like  all  the  other  ambassadors  and  ministers  to  France, 
Mr.  Washburne  alone  excepted,  then  resided  at  Versailles, 
the  seat  of  the  legitimate  government  of  the  republic  (1)  : 
"  My  dear  colleagiie,  allow  me  to  ask  you  in  confidence  to 
receive  kindly  the  four  canons,  ecclesiastics  of  the  metro- 
politan church  of  Paris,  who  will  call  upon  you  in  order  to 
entreat  yoa  to  protect  their  archbishop  who  is  now  impris- 
oned by  the  insurgents  of  Paris.  Permit  me  to  join  my 
prayer  to  that  of  these  good  priests,  and  to  assure  you  of 
my  gratitude  for  all  that  you  may  feel  yourself  able  to  at- 
tempt for  the  preservation  of  the  life  of  Mgr.  Darboy." 
Mr.  Washburne  accordingly  waited  on  Cluseret,  then  Min- 
ister of  War  for  the  Commune.  In  his  recital  of  his  experi- 
ences during  the  Commune,  Mr.  Washburne  tells  us  that 
Cluseret  expressed  his  sympathy  for  the  archbishop  (?) ;  but 
at  the  same  time,  said  the  Communist,  so  great  was  the  ex- 
asperation of  the  Parisians  at  that  time,  that  no  one  would 

mentable  circumstances. .  .  .No  one  can  flnfi  fault  with  me  for  interceding  with  tliose  wlio 
can  moderate  or  terminate  the  present  contest.  Humnuity,  religion,  both  cotinstil  and  com- 
mand my  interference  ;  but  I  can  interfere  only  by  supplication,  and  I  do  address  you  with 
confidence.  My  prayer  goes  forth  from  a  heart  which  has  pitied  many  miseries  during  the 
last  few  months  ;  it  goes  forth  from  a  French  heart  which  bleeds  on  account  of  my  suffer- 
ing country  ;  it  goes  forth  from  a  priestly  and  episcopal  heart  which  is  ready  for  every  sac- 
riflce,  even  for  that  of  life,  in  favor  of  those  whom  God  has  given  to  me  as  compatriots  and 
diocesans.  I  conjure  you,  Mr.  President,  to  use  all  your  influence  to  terminate  our  civil 
war;  and  at  any  rate,  to  moderate  its  features  to  the  utmost  of  your  power."  The  reply 
of  Thiers,  dated  at  Versailles,  April  U,  is  as  follows  :  "  My  Lord.  I  have  received  the  let- 
ter which  you  sent  me  by  the  hands  of  the  cxoc  of  Montmartre ;  and  I  hasten  to  reply  with 
that  sincerity  which  I  shall  ever  practice.  The  assertions  mentioned  by  you  are  absolute- 
ly false  ;  and  I  am  astonished  that  soenlightened  a  prelate  as  yourself.  My  Lord,  i-ould  have 
given  any  credence  to  them  even  for  one  Instant.  Our  army  has  never  committed,  and 
never  will  commit,  the  hideous  crimes  which  are  imputed  to  It  by  men  who  either  are  con- 
scious calumniators,  or  are  blinded  by  the  atmosphere  of  mendacity  surrounding  them 

I  repel  these  calumnies.  My  Lord:  I  declare  that  our  soldiers  have  killed  no  prisoners. 
.  .  .  Receive,  My  Lord,  the  expression  of  my  respect,  and  of  my  grief  because  of  your  be- 
luga victim  of  that  system  of  hostages  which  is  borrowed  from  the  Terror."  Guili.krmin  : 
Li/c  of  Mgr.  TMirhinj,  Put  to  Dmth  in  Ifntnil  of  the  Faith.     Paris.  18S8. 

(1)  Mr.  Washburne  had  transferred  his  legation  to  Versailles,  placing  it  in  charge  of 
Mr.  Hoffman,  his  secretary.  His  reason  for  remaining  in  Paris  was  found  in  the  manj 
American  interests  then  In  the  capital. 


92  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

dare  to  propose  the  liberation  of  the  prelate.  The  Ameri- 
can protested  against  "  the  barbarity  of  imprisoning  a  man 
like  the  archbishop  who  was  accused  of  no  crime,  and  of 
allowing  no  friend  to  go  near  him."  Then  Mr.  Washburne- 
demanded  permission  to  visit  the  prelate,  to  inquire  into 
his  needs,  and  to  provide  for  them.  The  result  of  this  ac- 
tion of  Mr.  Washburne  was  a  permission  accorded  by  Ri- 
gault  for  the  Minister  "  to  communicate  with  Citizen  Darboy, 
archbishop  of  Paris."  This  privilege  was  accorded  in  the 
morning  of  April  23,  and  Mr.  Washburne  immediately  re- 
paired to  Mazas.  He  found  the  prelate  unshaved,  haggard 
from  sickness,  but  cheerful  and  prepared  for  the  imminent 
catastrophe.  Not  a  word  of  bitterness  did  the  archbishop 
utter  against  his  persecutors ;  on  the  contrary,  writes  the 
Minister,  he  implied  that  they  were  not  as  bad  as  some 
painted  them.  He  said  that  he  awaited  patiently  "  the  logic 
of  events."  Mr.  Washburne  observes  that  his  visit  was 
the  first  that  Mgr.  Darboy  had  been  allowed  to  receive  since 
his  incarceration.  When  the  Minister  had  dejjarted,  the 
archbishop  wrote  a  letter  which  he  enclosed  in  another  to 
Mr.  Washburne,  thanking  him  for  his  visit,  and  requesting 
him  "  to  send  the  accompanying  missive  to  its  destination  by 
means  of  his  secretary,  who  was  going  to  Versailles.  The 
address  of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  written  will  be  furnished 
by  His  Excellency  the  apostolic  nuncio,  or  by  the  bishop  of 
Versailles.  If  the  indicated  person  has  already  left  Ver- 
sailles for  Paris,  the  secretary  of  the  American  Minister 
will  please  destroy  the  letter,  or  bring  it  back  to  me  when  he 
returns  to  Paris."  This  important  letter  was  meant  for  the 
Abbe  Lagarde,  vicar-general  of  the  archbishop ;  and  it  was 
connected  with  a  matter  which  sheds  much  light  on  the 
identity  of  those  who,  after  the  Masonic  conspirators  of 
Paris,  were  responsible  for  the  murder  of  the  hostages.  It 
ordered  the  vicar-general  to  return  immediately  to  Mazas, 
"no  matter  what  was  the  state  of  the  negotiations  with 
which  he  had  been  charged"  ;  and  it  complained  that  "  ten 
days  were  more  than  sufficient  to  enable  the  government  (of 
Thiers)  to  decide  whether  it  would  agree  to  the  proposed 
exclip.nge      The  delay,  added  the  prelate,  "  compromised  him 


THE  CLEUIC/VL  VICTIMS  OF  THE  COMMUNE  OF  1871.  03 

seriously,  ami  mijj;lit  entail  fatal  consequeiu'es."  The  reader 
must  kuow  that  oii  March  19,  the  ideal  coryi)hee  of  the  Com- 
mune, the  iufamous  Blauqui,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
Versaillais  ;  and  that  a  month  afterward  the  Coninianist  lead- 
ers had  otlered  to  exchange  him  for  the  archbishop  and  four 
other  hostages  (1).  Thiers  had  submitted  the  Blanqui  mat- 
ter to  his  ministers,  and  the  offer  of  exchange  had  been  re- 
jectetl.  Writing  to  Mr.  Washburne  on  May  12,  the  nuncio 
says  that  Thiers  "had  declared  that  although  he  would  like 
to  see  the  archbishop  and  the  Abbe  Deguerrj-  (the  <-«rc  of 
the  Madeleine)  restored  to  liberty,  he  could  not  assume  the 
responsibility  of  exchange.  He  added  that  Blanqui  was  to 
be  judged  again,  and  that  if  a  sentence  of  death  was  passed, 
the  president  might  commute  it ;  but  that  it  was  beyond  his 
power  to  grant  the  liberty  of  the  prisoner,  especially  before 
the  trial.  This  reply  to  Mgr.  Darboy  was  reduced  to  writing 
three  weeks  ago,  and  the  Abbe  Lagarde  was  requested  to 
carry  it  to  His  Grace,  sealed  as  it  was  ;  but  the  yicar-general 
postiyely  refused  to  carry  it  in  that  condition,  sajing  that  he 
could  not  bear  a  sealed  reply  to  a  letter  which  he  had 
brought  unsealed.  Therefore  the  reply  of  M.  Thiers  is 
still  in  the  office  of  the  Minister  of  Worship  ;  they  will  not 
send  it  by  any  other  than  the  Abbe  Lagarde,  and  he  will  not 
take  charsce  of  it.  M.  Thiers  assures  me  that  there  is  no 
danger  to  the  liyes  of  the  archbishop  and  the  other  eccle- 
siastics ;  but  I  do  not  share  his  confidence  on  that  point."  On 
May  10,  not  knowing  the  state  of  the  negotiations  with 
Thiers  in  reference  to  an  exchange,  Mr.  Washburne  sug- 
gested to  the  archbishop  that  he  should  write  to  the  presi- 

(1)  On  this  oerasion  Mgr.  Darboy  wrote  to  Thiers  ttie  followinft  letter:  "  Mr.  President, 
I  have  the  honor  to  lay  before  you  a  cominuQication  which  I  received  la.st  evening,  and  I 
ask  you  to  accord  it  t\w  iiiiinediate  utteiitioa  which  your  humanity  and  wisdom  will  deem 
appropriate.  A  man  of  pn-at  iiilluence,  one  who  is  bound  by  political  ties  and  by  an  an- 
cient friendship  to  M.  Blanqui,  is  endeavoring  to  effect  his  liberation.  For  this  purpose  he 
has  su'imitted  to  the  commissioners  the  following  arrangement.  If  M.  Blnnqui  is  freed, 
liberty  will  be  accorded  to  the  archbishop  of  Paris,  to  his  sister,  to  the  president  Bonjeaii, 
to  theciirf'ot  the  Madeleine,  and  to  the  Abbe  Lagarde,  vicar-general  of  Paris,  the  l>earer 
of  this  letter.  The  proposition  has  been  accepted  (by  the  Commune),  and  I  have  been 
asked  to  recommend  its  acceptance  by  you.  Although  my  interests  are  involved  in  the  mat- 
ter, I  venture  to  submit  it  to  your  favorable  consideration.  Now  that  there  exist  too 
many  causes  of  dissension  among  us.  and  since  there  is  presented  an  occasion  for  a  com- 
promise which  regards  persons  and  not  principles,  would  It  not  be  well  m  thuscoDtrlhnte 
to  peace  ?  " 


94  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

dent  an  argument  for  the  compromise.  The  prelate  accord- 
ingly drew  up  a  "  Memorandum  "  based  on  the  dictates  of 
prudence  and  of  common  sense,  from  which  we  extract  the  fol- 
lowing passage  :  "  The  present  question  is  not  one  between  the 
government  and  the  Commune  ;  it  is  between  the  government 
and  the  above-mentioned  persons  (the  intermediaries). 
These  latter  have  agreed  that  freedom  shall  be  granted  to 
the  archbishop,  and  to  four  or  five  other  prisoners — to  be 
designated  by  M.  Thiers— if  the  release  of  M.  Blanqui  is  as- 
sured ;  and  this  assurance  is  to  be  guaranteed  by  the  Minis- 
ter of  the  United  States,  authorized  thereunto  by  M.  Thiers. 
In  regard  to  the  liberation  of  M.  Blanqui,  would  it  not  be 
feasible,  instead  of  ordering  it  officially,  to  furnish  him 
with  the  means  of  escaping,  it  being,  of  course,  understood 
that  he  will  not  be  again  molested,  unless  he  should  com- 
mit some  new  crime.  By  such  a  procedure  the  government 
would  avoid  official  relations  with  the  Commune."  Through 
the  intermediary  of  the  American  Minister,  this  "  Mem- 
orandum," and  accompanying  letters  from  the  archbishop 
and  the  Abbe  Deguerry,  were  received  by  Archbishop  Chigi, 
and  by  him  were  delivered  to  Thiers  ;  but  they  efi'ected  no 
change  in  the  mind-  of  the  president,  and  the  nuncio  so  in- 
formed Mr.  Washburne,  conveying  to  him  at  the  same  time, 
conformably  to  the  orders  of  Cardinal  Antonelli,  "the  heart- 
felt thanks  of  the  Holy  Father  for  all  that  he  had  done,  and 
all  that  he  had  wished  to  effect,  in  favor  of  the  unjustly  afflict- 
ed archbishop."  On  May  19,  Mr.  Washburne  again  visited 
the  illustrious  victim,  and  informed  him  of  the  failure  of  the 
negotiations.  He  found  the  prelate  suffering  from  an 
attack  of  pleurisy ;  but  good  humor  and  resignation  still 
neutralized  the  poverty  of  the  miserable  cell. 

Various  judgments  have  been  emitted  by  competent 
and  unbiassed  minds  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  Thiers  in 
this  matter.  It  seems  certain  that  Mgr.  Darboy  himself 
charged  the  president,  rather  than  the  Commune,  with  the 
guilt  of  his  murder.  An  officer  of  the  Commune  who  assist- 
ed at  the  execution,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  Abbe  Moreau  (1)^ 
told   the   Abbe   Crozes   that   at   the   very    moment  of   the 

(1)  Moreau  ;  EecoUectlmis  of  the  Little  and  the  Great  Roquette.    Paris,  1882. 


THE  CLERICAL  VICTIMS  OF  THE  COMMUNE  OF  1871.  95 

catastrophe,  the  archbishop  remarked  to  M.  Bonjean,  point- 
iiig  to  the  Coinmuuist  sohliers  :  "  Those  meu  are  not  the 
most  guilty  ;  Thiers  is  the  culprit."  General  Ambert  after- 
ward wrote :  "  The  first  duty  of  the  government  was  to 
protect  the  lives  of  the  priests.  It  should  have  accepted  all 
the  exchanges  proposed.  We  were  assured  that  we  would 
have  the  last  word,  and  we  needed  to  fear  no  consequences. 
Under  various  pretexts  the  clergy  were  abandoned  to  the 
Commune  "  (1).  Maxime  du  Camp  says  :  "  All  was  in  vain  ; 
there  was  an  obstinacy  which  the  event  showed  to  be 
culpable.  The  head  of  the  government  insisted  that  he 
could  not  parley  with  the  insurgents,  and  that  besides,  the 
lives  of  the  hostages  were  in  no  danger — an  opinion  which 
was  not  shared  by  either  Mgr.  Chigi  or  Mr.  Washburne. 
The  dismissal  of  Blanqui  would  have  added  no  new  perils 
to  the  situation ;  he  would  have  been  merely  one  fool  the 
more  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville  which  was  already  a  madhouse  "  (2). 
And  Emile  Ollivier  opined :  "  The  release  of  Blanqui 
would  not  have  augmented  the  forces  of  the  insurrection. 
There  was  no  question  of  a  negotiation  between  a  regular 
government  and  a  horde  of  bandits — a  thing  which  could  not 
be  considered ;  Mr.  Washburne  would  simply  have  taken 
Blanqui  into  his  carriage,  and  would  have  returned  with 
the  archbishop.  Thiers,  with  an  inexplicable  hardness  of 
heart,  refused  to  allow  this  arrangement ;  in  spite  of  all  the 
representations  of  Mgr.  Chigi  and  of  Mr.  Washburne,  he 
affected  to  believe  that  Mgr.  Darboy  was  in  no  danger  "  (3). 
"  Do  not  reject  the  Cross ! "  Archbishop  Darboy  had 
written  in  one  of  his  admirable  works  :  "  It  is  the  mystery 
of  salvation.  If  you  have  not  the  courage  to  seek  it,  at 
least  accept  it  when  it  is  sent  to  you.  You  will  find  happi- 
ness in  it.  By  sheer  force  of  gazing  on  it,  you  will  under- 
stand it ;  if  you  carry  it,  you  will  love  it ;  and  loving  it,  you 
will  find  Jesus  Christ.  To  find  Jesus  Christ  is  to  find  a  joy 
which  neutralizes  every  sorrow ;  a  consolation  which  assuages 
every  pain  ;  a  treasure  which  recompenses  for  all  misery  ;  a 

(1)    HeroUin  in  Snutanf.    Paris,  1876. 

(2>    The  ("otiviilsioivi  of  Paris.      Puris,  1883. 

(3)    Tlic  CInuch  and  the  State  at  the  Vatican  Council.    Paris,  1878. 


96  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

source  of  bliss  which  destroys  all  cajDability  of  suffering  "  (1). 
And  when,  on  the  evening  of  May  22,  the  prelate  and  the 
other  hostages  had  been  transferred  to  the  prison  of  La  Ro- 
quette,  he  drew  a  representation  of  the  cross  and  the  other 
instruments  of  the  Passion  on  the  door  of  his  cell,  inscrib- 
ing underneath  :  "  Rohivr  mentis  virlsalus — Jesus  crucified  ; 
behold  the  'strength  of  the  soul,  the  salvation  of  man'  "  (2). 
On  May  23  and  24,  His  Grace  enjoyed,  for  the  first  time 
since  his  arrest,  the  company  of  his  priestly  companions  ; 
and  when  the  physician  of  the  prison  proposed  to  effect  his 
removal  to  the  infirmary,  adding  that  perhaps  he  would  then 
be  in  less  danger,  he  begged  to  be  left  with  his  brethren. 
On  May  24,  Father  Olivaint  carried  the  Blessed  Eucharist 
to  the  archbishop,  and  the  other  priests  communicated  each 
other.  As  oul}-  a  very  few  of  the  Sacred  Particles  could  be 
smuggled  into  the  prison,  the  lay  hostages  perforce  contented 
themselves  with  Spiritual  Communion  (8).  Meanwhile,  the 
mob  of  Paris,  furious  because  of  the  continued  triumphs  of 
the  National  army,  were  clamoring  for  vengeance  on  the 
hostages.  The  leaders  of  the  Commune  had  abandoned  the 
Hotel  de  Yille,  and  such  of  them  as  did  not  flee  from  the 
city — Delescluze,  Eanvier,  Ferre,  etc. — readily  gave  the  or- 
der for  the  massacre  of  six  of  the  condemned.  At  half-23ast 
seven  in  the  evening,  the  noise  of  a  platoon  grounding  arms 
was  heard  at  the  door  of  La  Eoquette ;  and  a  rough  voice  ex- 
claimed :  "  Attention,  citizens  !  Let  each  one  of  you  answer 
to  his  name !  Citizen  Darboy  !  "  The  archbishop  calmly  re- 
plied :  "  Present "  ;  his  door  was  unlocked,  and  he  confronted 

(1)  Reflections  on  the  Imitation  of  Chr'tgt,  Bk.  iii.,  ch.  56.    Paris.  1852. 

(2)  Du  Camp  ;  hic.  cil.,  i.,  p.  321. 

(3)  From  the  flrst  day  of  their  arrest  the  hostages  had  been  forbidden  to  hold  any  relig- 
ious exercises  ;  but  while  this  prohibition  debarred  the  priests  from  a  celebration  of  the 
Mass,  it  did  not  prevent  several  of  them  from  confessing.  At  length  the  devotion  of  a 
pious  heroine.  Mile.  Delmas,  directress  of  the  Home  lor  Abandoned  Children,  procured 
for  the  destined  martyrs  the  Bread  of  the  Soul.  Having  heard  of  their  need.  Mile.  Delmas 
obtained  permission  to  augment  their  starvation  rations  by  a  gift  of  some  fresh  rolls ;  and 
in  one  of  these  a  prif  st  found  a  paper,  on  which  was  written  :  "  Courage  !  To-morrow  you 
will  receive  the  Supreme  Consolation.  You  will  receive  a  pitcher  of  cream,  and  at  the 
bottom  of  the  pitcher  you  will  find  what  you  desire."  On  May  15,  the  pious  ingenuity  of 
the  maiden  succeeded  for  the  first  time.  She  had  unfolded  her  design  to  a  priest,  and 
had  received  from  him  a  tin  box,  hermetically  sealed,  and  containing  several  consecrated 
Hosts  ;  and  she  consigned  the  precious  gift,  hidden  in  the  cream,  to  the  hands  of  Father 
Ducoudray,  who  had  been  summoned  to  receive  the  refreshments. 


THE  CLEiaC.VL  VICTIMS  OF  THE  COMMUNE  OF  1871.  97 

his  assassius.  Then  tlie  same  scene  was  enacted  successively 
at  the  cells  of  President  IJonjean,  the  Abbe  Degueny,  the 
Jesuits  Clerc  and  Ducoudiay,  and  tlu^  Abbe  AUard.  When 
all  the  victims  were  assembled,  the  archbishop  prayed  ou 
his  kntM^s  for  a  moment,  and  then  gave  his  blessing  to  his 
companions.  The  order  to  march  was  given  ;  and  amid  the 
howlings  and  blasphemies  of  a  mob  which  the  Communist 
guards  did  not  pretend  to  repress,  the  road  to  the  place  of 
execution  was  traversed.  At  one  moment  of  the  journey, 
Mgr.  Darl)oy,  whose  sickness  had  rendered  him  very  weak, 
began  to  walk  rather  slcnvly  ;  and  one  of  the  guards  clubbed 
him  with  the  butt-end  of  his  musket  so  s^jverely,  that  only 
the  arm  of  M.  Bonjeau  saved  him  from  falling  to  the  gnmnd. 
Finally  the  fatal  spot  was  reached ;  and  while  the  })riests 
were  giving  the  last  absolution  to  each  other,  the  guards 
hurried  them  into  line.  There  w%as  one  volley  from  a 
platoon  ;  then  some  isolated  shots  ;  and  the  sacrifice  was  con- 
summated— another  instance  of  the  degree  of  blind  ferocity 
to  which  men  may  degrade  themselves,  when  they  bid  fare- 
well to  every  sentiment  of  religion.  Mgr.  Darboy  was 
assassinated  in  the  name  of  liberty  ;  and  on  his  way  to  death, 
among  the  insults  which  were  hurled  at  Jiim,  he  heard  in- 
sensate invocations  of  that  frecpiently  prostituted  bless- 
ing. Well  did  he  rei)ly :  "  Do  not  profane  that  word!  We 
are  the  friends  of  liberty  ;  we  who  die  for  the  faith  and  for 
liberty."  From  among  the  many  orations'  which  this  sad 
but  glorious  event  occasioned  in  Christendom,  we  sub- 
mit to  the  reader  the  following  reflections  by  Mgr.  (after- 
ward Cardinal)  Pie,  bishop  of  Poitiers  :  "  Wlien  po])ular  fury 
fell,  in  other  times,  ou  men  of  the  sanctuary,  a  pretext  for 
that  fury  might  have  l)een  found  in  the  fact  that  those  men 
were  involved  in  the  social  dissensions  of  tlieir  day.  For 
instance,  when,  in  the  Middle  Age,  Gualderic,  bishop  of 
Laou,  was  murdered  by  rebels  to  the  cry  of  '  The  Commune ! ' 
an  explanation — not  an  excuse — for  the  crime  was  found  in 
the  extreme  ardor  displayed  by  the  prelate  in  his  personal 
resistance  to  the  citizens.  But  in  this  case,  the  victims  were 
of  such  a  character  that  in  the  person  of  each  one  of  them, 
just  as  in  the  person  of  their  Divine  Master,  were  accom- 


98  STUDIES  IN  CHUECH  HISTORY. 

plished  the  words  of  Scri2:)ture  :  '  Odio  me  habuerunt  gratis* 
Those  humble  religious,  those  charitable  priests,  had  not 
appeared  on  the  battle-field  or  on  the  theatre  of  civil  dis- 
cord, unless  in  order  to  succor  the  wounded  and  assuage  the 
suffering  of  all  alike  ;  the  praise  of  their  devotedness  was 
on  every  tongue.  The  archbishop  never  pronounced  other 
than  words  of  moderation  and  of  paternal  indulgence  in  re- 
gard to  those  of  his  children  who  wandered  ;  he  ever  insisted 
that  they  were  more  unfortunate  than  culpable.  . . .  But 
wherever  human  perversity  intrudes  itself,  we  can  discern  the 
economy  of  the  divine  intentions.  It  was  necessary  that  all 
this  carnage  should  be  raised  to  the  height  of  a  sacrifice  ; 
and  in  order  to  have  a  sacrifice,  a  priest,  a  sacrificer,  is  neces- 
sary. Listen  to  the  beautiful  words  of  St.  Eucherius,  bishop 
of  Lyons,  as  he  speaks  of  the  martyrdom  of  his  predecessor, 
St.  Pothinus :  '  Divine  Providence  has  ordained  that  in  the 
great  sacrifices  of  our  country,  a  pontiff  shall  never  be  want- 
ing.' Modern  nations  are  daughters  of  Calvary  ;  they  can  be 
redeemed  again  only  by  the  merits  of  a  redeeming  blood. 
Recently  there  was  a  question  of  the  fate  of  France  ;  it  was 
necessary,  therefore,  that  the  other  victims  of  the  fold  should 
be  joined  by  him  who  offered  daily  the  sacrifice  of  the  Body 
of  the  Saviour,  and  that  having  been  dragged  before  profane 
tribunals,  he  should  offer  a  new  sacrifice  to  Christ  in  his 
own  person.  . .  .  And  since  all  were  murdered  in  hatred  of 
God  and  of  Christian  truth,  as  the  accusers  and  assassins 
declared  without  equivocation  ;  and  since  the  victims  offered 
the  homage  of  their  lives  to  God  and  Jesus  Christ ;  all 
Arose  with  the  same  palm  in  their  hands,  and  with  the  same 
crown  on  their  brows." 

The  next  clerical  victims  of  the  Commune  were  the  Do- 
minicans of  Arcueil.  For  several  years  the  College  of  Albert- 
le-Grand,  conducted  by  the  Teaching  Third  Order  of  St. 
Dominic  which  had  been  founded  by  Father  Francois-Eugene 
Captier  at  the  instigation  of  Lacordaire,  had  enjoyed  a  reputa- 
tion inferior  to  that  of  no  French  institution  of  secondary 
education.  Three  hundred  students  were  being  trained  in 
the  ways  of  science  and  religion  ;  in  the  paths  of  good 
citizenship  for  France,  and  in  those   which  lead  to   man's 


THE  CLERICAL  VICTIMS  OF  THE  COMMUNE  OF  1871.  99 

eternal  happiness ;  when  the  war  with  Germany  caused 
Father  Captier,  then  the  pritn-  of  Arciieil,  to  dismiss  his 
studeuts,  and  to  ofter  his  college  as  a  military  hospital  to 
the  government.  Three  of  his  Dominican  })rofeKsors  joined 
the  armies  in  the  tield  as  nurses,  while  the  others  remained 
at  Arcueil  as  aggregates  to  the  General  Societ}^  f(jr  Aid 
to  the  Wounded.  During  the  siege  of  Paris,  these  Domini- 
cans of  Arcueil  received  and  nursed  over  twelve  hundred  of 
their  wounded  countrymen,  rivalling  even  the  Brothers  of 
the  Christian  Schools,  whose  heroism  and  patience  amid  the 
woes  of  the  capital  excited  the  admiration  of  infidel  as  well 
as  Christian.  Studies  were  resumed  at  Arcueil  when  the 
German  war  had  terminated  ;  but  the  advent  of  the  Com- 
mune again  suspended  the  courses,  and  once  more  the  zeal 
of  the  Dominicans  was  directed  to  a  mitigation  of  the  evils 
of  war.  The  insurrection  had  entered  on  its  third  month 
of  rapine  and  slaughter,  when  a  battalion  of  Communists 
fixed  its  quarters  in  the  chateau  of  the  Marquis  de  la  Place, 
adjoining  the  College  of  Albert-le-Grand.  On  May  17,  the 
chateau,  which  had  been  transformed  into  a  liell  of  baccha- 
nalia  rather  than  into  a  barrack,  burst  into  flames ;  and  the 
colonel,  one  Serisier,  a  drunken  journeyman-currier,  pro- 
claimed that  the  fire  must  have  been  caused  by  Versaillais 
agents,  and  that  none  other  than  the  Dominicans  of  the  col- 
lege could  have  been  those  agents.  On  May  19,  two  battalions 
surrounded  the  college ;  and  Serisier,  accompanied  by  a 
Prussian  named  Thaller  and  two  other  Communist  officers, 
forced  their  way  to  the  presence  of  Father  Captier,  announc- 
ing the  arrest  of  the  entire  community.  Summoning  to  his 
side  all  of  his  fellow-Dominicans,  the  auxiliary  profess(n-s, 
the  Sisters  of  St.  Martha  who  had  charge  of  the  domestic 
arrangements  of  the  institution,  the  lay  servants,  and  the 
few  students  who  had  chosen  to  remain  in  the  college  to 
aid  in  caring  for  the  Communist  wounded,  the  prior  thus 
addressed  these  last  :  "  My  sons,  you  perceive  wliat  awaits 
you.  You  will  be  interrogated  ;  but  3'ou  will  certainly  reply 
with  the  same  sincerity  that  you  would  use  toward  your 
parents.  Remember  what  your  parents  recommended  to 
you  when  they  confided  you  to  our  care ;  and  whatever  may 


100  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

happen,  remember  that  you  must  become  men  who  can  live 
and  die  like  Frenchmen  and  Christians.  Farewell!  May  the 
blessing  of  God  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
descend  upon  you,  and  remain  with  you  forever,  forever  ! '• 
The  prisoners  were  soon  ordered  to  set  forth  ;  the  Sisters 
and  otlier  women  were  packed  into  the  carriages  and  wagons 
belonging  to  the  college,  and  were  taken  to  the  prison  of 
Saint-Lazare ;  the}'  were  ordered  to  say  nothing  on  the 
journey,  to  make  not  even  a  sign  to  the  spectators  of  their 
misery,  under  pain  of  being  immediately  shot.  The  priests, 
lay  professors,  and  male  servants,  were  marched  to  the  fort 
of  Bicetre  between  two  detachments  of  soldiers ;  then  they 
were  searched  and  interrogated  amid  derisive  and  revoltingly 
obscene  outbursts  on  the  part  of  the  "  apostles  of  human- 
ity "  ;  and  at  length  they  were  confined  in  a  casemate,  where 
they  remained  for  six  days  without  beds  and  with  very 
little  bread  and  water,  and  subjected  to  the  continuous 
insults  of  human  demons  who  succeeded  each  other  at  the 
window.  During  the  night  of  May  24,  the  garrison  of 
Bicetre  spiked  the  guns  of  the  fort,  and  retired,  having 
perceived  that  the  Nationals  were  advancing  steadily  in  their 
direction.  The  hope  that  this  movement  excited  in  the 
minds  of  the  prisoners  was  soon-  dissipated  ;  for  early  in 
the  morning  of  the  25th,  a  Communist  officer  ordered  them 
to  join  a  column  which  was  about  to  retire  to  Paris.  When 
they  arrived  at  the  Gobelins,  they  were  kept  for  an  hour 
in  a  courtyard  in  which  shells  from  the  Nationals  were  fre- 
quently dropping  ;  but  as  the  Gobelins  proved  untenable, 
they  were  conducted  by  their  retreating  guardians  to  the 
disciplinary  prison  in  the  Avenue  d'ltalie.  Here  they  met 
again  their  original  jailer,  the  ferocious  Serisier,  who  start- 
ed them  on  the  road  to  a  neighboring  barricade,  with  a 
determination  to  force  them  to  fight  for  the  Commune. 
Rifles  were  tendered  to  them ;  but  Father  Cotrault  cried  : 
"  We  cannot  bear  arms,  for  not  only  are  we  priests,  but  we 
are  neutrals,  because  of  our  status  as  hospitalers."  The 
blasphemies  of  Serisier  were  checked  b}^  an  advance  of  the 
Nationals  on  the  barricade  ;  the  order  to  retreat  to  the  next 
barricade  was  given,  and  the  Dominicans  were  sent  back  to 


THE    CLERICAL   VICTIMS   OF   THE   COMMUNE   OE   1871.       lOl 

the  prison  iu  the  Aveuue  d'ltalie.  All  Paris  knew  at  this 
time  that  iu  a  few  hours  the  reigu  of  the  Comuiuue  would 
termiuate  ;  but  Father  Captier  aud  his  coinpanious  felt  that 
they  would  stand  before  their  Eternal  Judge  before  the  happy 
moment  arrived.  Therefore  they  confessed  to  each  other, 
and  serenely  waited  for  death.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, a  cry  arose  outside  the  prison  that  the  regular  army 
was  in  sight ;  and  the  voice  of  Serisier  was  heard  crying  for 
"  volunteers  to  smash  the  skulls  of  those  priests."  A  row  of 
murderers,  male  and  female,  was  immediately  formed  on 
each  side  of  the  avenue ;  and  Bobeche,  a  thief  whom  the 
Commune  had  made  chief-keeper  of  the  prison,  was  told  to 
send  the  victims  into  the  street.  The  order  was  given,  and 
crying  to  his  brethren  "  AUons,  mes  amis,  ponrle  hoii  Dien!'' 
Father  Captier  moved  to  the  door.  But  Father  Ootrault 
had  already  gone  forth,  and  had  fallen  under  the  fusilade, 
ere  his  superior  succumbed.  Three  other  Dominicans, 
Fathers  Bourard,  Delhorme,  and  Chatagneret,  met  succes- 
sively the  same  fate  ;  and  they  were  followed  on  the  road 
to  heaven  by  six  secular  employees  of  their  college.  By 
some  means  several  of  the  servants  succeeded  in  escaping 
into  the  neighboring  houses  (1).  "Why  was  it,"  demands 
Pellissier,  "  that  cruel  hands  dragged  a  religious  from  his 
modest  refuge  ?  How  was  it  that  men  could  interrupt  the 
work  of  a  humble  educator  of  youth,  whose  presence  in  the 
little  village  of  Arcueil  was  an  honor  and  a  benefit  to  all  of 
its  inhabitants '?  What  was  there  in  the  austerity  of  re- 
ligious life  to  provoke  envy  and  rage  ?  Had  the  Dominicans 
ever  insulted  the  miseries  of  the  people  by  their  luxiiry 
or  pompousness  ?  Did  poverty,  sickness,  the  miseries 
caused  by  war,  ever  encounter  more  ready  and  presever- 
ing  sympathy  than  that  displayed  by  these  friars  ?  To  all 
these  questions  drunken  and  ferocious  assassins  coukl  make 
no  answer ;  and  therefore  they  retorted  with  outrage,  blows, 
and  death.  But  to  all  these  questicms  reason  and  morality 
give  a  reply    Avliich  Ave    must  record   and  remember.     The 

(1)  Leccyer;  Tlic  Martiin  af  Arcueil.  Paris,  1871.  — Perravd  ;  Fuiirml  Orntunt  dh 
Father  Cajitier.  Paris.  1H82.— Pellissier  ;  T/if  Glories  of  ('hrixtuin  France.  Parii, 
183).— D'ARSAC  ;  History  of  the  Connimuc  of  1871.    Paris,  1«85. 


102  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

spirit  of  the  Revolutiou  is  tlie  spirit  of  evil ;  it  lias  a  horror  of 
good  in  all  its  forms.  Order  is  a  good  ;  religious  education 
is  a  good  ;  charity  and  prayer  are  good.  Whenever  the 
spirit  of  the  Kevolution  does  not  encounter  the  material  ob-. 
stacle  of  armed  force,  it  must  destroy  and  murder ;  it 
changes  its  name  without  changing  its  nature,  now  calling 
itself  Jacobinism  and  then  the  Commune  ;  it  excited  a  thirst 
for  blood  equally  in  the  Cabochians  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, in  the  knitting-women  of  the  guillotine,  and  in  the 
petroleuses  of  1871.  It  profits  us  nothing  to  close  our  eyes 
so  that  we  may  not  see  ;  we  can  only  fall  the  sooner  under 
the  blows  of  the  spirit  of  the  Eevolution,  the  devourer  of 
men,  and  the  destroyer  of  states.  Tigers  are  not  tamed  ; 
they  are  entrapped  and  caged.  Let  us  do  even  better. 
Since  God  has  made  man  a  curable  being,  let  us  not  wait  until 
rage  has  attained  its  culminating  point ;  let  us  devote  our- 
selves to  the  child  who  may  become  an  honest  man  ; 
education.  Christian  education  by  means  of  the  priest,  is  the 
infallible  remedy  for  the  evils  from  which  we  suffer — from 
which  perhaps  France  will  die  "  (1). 

We  have  already  seen  how  two  Jesuits,  Fathers  Ducoudray 
and  Clerc,  received  their  palm  at  the  time  when  Archbishop 
Darboy  was  similarly  rewarded ;  now  we  shall  speak  of  the 
murder  of  three  other  sons  of  St.  Ignatius,  Fathers  Olivaint 
Caubert,  and  De  Bengy,  who,  together  with  eight  secular 
priests  and  forty-one  laymen,  were  immolated  by  the  Com- 
mune on  the  day  following  that  on  which  the  Dominicans  of 
Arcueil  suffered  (2).  "  Shall  I  term  him  a  martyr  ?  An  en- 
tire panegyric  is  found  in  that  appellation."  Such  was  the 
climax,  borrowed  from  St.  Ambrose  of  Milan,  of  an  histor- 
ical article  on  the  Jesuit,  Andrew  Bobola,  written  by  Father 
Olivaint  in  1854 ;  and  only  a  few  years  were  to  pass,  ere  the 
panegyrist  furnished  to  Catholics  a  reason  for  the  same 
question  in  regard  to  himself.     On  April  4tli,  Father  Oli- 

(1)  VUsvpra.p.  3S3. 

(2)  For  details  of  this  act  of  the  tragedy,  see  the  Acts  of  the  Captivitu  and  Death  of 
Fathers  P.  Olivaint,  L.  D^wmulra]!,  J.  Caubert,  A.  Clerc,  and  A.  De  Bengy,  of  the 
Societv  of  Jesti,i.  By  Armaxd  de  Ponlevoy,  of  the  Same  Soricf  i/.  Paris,  1894.  Sixth 
TAiUon.— Peter  Olivaint,  of  the  Society  of  JcjaiLt,  Hii^  Life,  Worhs,  and  Martyrdom. 
By  Mme.  M.  M.  Chatillon.  Paris,  1876.— Peter  Olivaint,  Priest  of  the  Society  of 
Jesiis^    By  Charles  Clair,  of  the  Same  Society.    Paris,  1878. 


THE    CLERICAL    VICTLMS    OF   THE    COMMUNE    OE    1871.      103 

vaiut,  sui)oric)r()l'  tlie  Jesuit  liouse  iu  the  Rue  de  Sevres,  was 
semi-offieiully  warned  by  a  member  of  the  Commuue  to  whom 
he  had  doue  some  pecuuiary  favors,  that  his  iustitution 
would  soon  be  visited  by  officers  of  the  insurgent  ^overumeut, 
who  would  search  the  establishment  for  hidden  arms  and 
ammunition.  He  immediately  ordered  the  removal  of  the  two 
Sacred  Particles  still  remaining  iu  the  tabernacle,  all  the 
other  Hosts  having  been  consumed  that  morning  in  antici- 
pation of  the  Communist  inroad  ;  and  the  two  Particles  thus 
reserved  were  placed,  with  accompanying  lights,  one  each 
in  the  cells  of  Fathers  Olivaint  and  Lefebvre,  to  satisfy  the 
devotion  of  the  community,  and  perhaps  to  serve  as  Viati- 
cum fen-  some  of  the  members.  As  the  community  was  about 
to  partake  of  the  evening  Lenten  "  collation,"  there  appeared 
at  the  portal  a  commission  from  the  Commune,  with 
orders  for  a  search  of  the  house.  Rushing  to  their  cells, 
Fathers  Olivaint  and  Lefebvre  immediately  concealed  their 
Viaticum  on  their  bosoms,  and  then  faced  the  investigators. 
Of  course  the  search  was  futile:  but  the  Communist  dele<xato 

^  CD 

shouted:  "We  are  cheated;  but  we  understand  these  Jesuit- 
ical tricks.  Therefore,  you,  M.  the  superior,  and  3'ou,  M. 
the  procurator,  are  arrested  by  order  of  the  Commune.  I 
give  you  only  time  enough  to  take  from  your  rooms  what  is 
necessary."  Father  Lefebvre  wished  to  accompany  his  breth- 
ren, Olivaint  and  Caubert,  to  the  Conciergerie ;  but  the 
delegate  ordered  him  to  remain  in  guard  of  the  house  "  in 
the  name  of  the  Commune."  While  confined  in  the  Conci- 
ergerie, Olivaint  and  Caubert  were  allowed  no  communica- 
tion with  each  other ;  but  they  had  the  great  consolation  of 
receiving  the  Holy  Communion  on  April  13th,  owing  to  an 
enterprise  like  that  which  we  have  already  described  as 
being  accomplished  afterward  at  Mazas.  On  April  1-1, 
Olivaint  and  Caubert  were  transferred  to  Mazas,  where  they 
were  subjected  to  the  strict  cellular  sj-stem,  with  the  sole  al- 
leviation of  being  allowed,  after  May  5th,  to  rea'i  +he  Journals 
which  were  authorized  by  the  Commune.  On  Ma}  22,  our  two 
Jesuits  were  sent  to  La  Roquette,  and  two  days  aiterward 
they  congratulated  Mgr.  Darboy  as  lie  walked  forth  t/»  mar- 
tyrdom.    On  May  26tli,  together   w  itli  f  a^iiei-  de  liengy,  a 


104  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

Jesuit  whom  they  had  found  in  La  Roquette  on  their  arrival 
eight  secular  priests  {!),  and  forty-one  laymen,  they  were 
led  to  the  street.  Surrounded  by  gens  tT  amies,  the  proces- 
sion was  ordered  to  march  to  Belleville,  and  it  obeyed  wit}i 
alacrity  until  it  arrived  at  the  Rue  de  Puebhi.  Here  there 
were  assembled  hundreds  of  armed  rufhaus,  female  as  well 
as  male,  most  of  the  latter  either  fresh  from  the  galleys  or 
deserters  from  the  National  army,  and  all  drunk  unto  mad- 
ness. With  cries  of  *'  Give  us  those  calothis  1 "  (2),  this 
horde  joined  the  guards  of  the  Commune,  and  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  blasphemies  which  have  seldom  been  heard 
outside  of  hell,  the  victims  arrived  at  the  Mairie  of  the 
twentieth  orrondlssement.  Here  a  halt  was  ordered  for 
twenty  minutes,  "so  that  the  clericals  might  make  their 
wills,"  as  Gabriel  Ranvier,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  mob, 
told  his  followers,  to  their  inexpressible  glee.  The  twenty 
minutes  having  elapsed,  the  Communist  guards  and  the  fur- 
ious mob  arranged  a  kind  of  triumphal  march,  and  pushed 
the  calot'nis  along  the  Rue  de  Paris ; a  female  creature,  dressed 
as  a  vivandiere,  now  headed  the  procession  with  drawn 
sword,  trum})ets  sounded  the  charge,  and  young  men  played 
with  their  rifles  after  the  fashion  of  a  theatrical  drum-major. 
Nearly  all  the  la^-meu  among  the  doomed  were  soldiers  of 
the  National  army  ;  and  to  a  man,  they  conducted  themselves 
in  a  dignified  manner,  being  cool  and  collected  as  though  they 
were  under  the  eyes  of  their  own  officers,  and  all  listening 
eagerly  to  the  encouragement  which  their  priestly  com- 
j)anions  tenderetl  to  them  unto  the  last.  At  the  intersection 
of  the  Rue  de  Paris  with  the  Rue  Haxo,  the  energumens 
began  to  slap  the  faces  of  their  victims,  and  even  to  spit  on 
them,  and  to  crush  their  features  with  stones.  Suddenly  a 
Imtcher,  Victor  Benot,  colonel  of  the  guards  of  Bergeret,  the 
chief  incendiary  of  the  Tuileries,  shouted  :  "  Kill ! "  ;  and  the 
massacre  begau.  The  first  man  to  fall  was  an  old  priest  who 
flung    himself    in  front  of  a  soldier,  in  order  to    intercept  a 

(1)  Riidigue,  Tuffler.  Rouehouse,  and  Tardieu,  of  tbe  Congref?ation  of  Picpus  ;  Plan- 
chat,  chiiplain  of  the  (Eiivrc  du  Pa1rima<je  ;  Sabatier,  Vic-ar  of  Notre-Daine  de  Lorrette  ; 
the  Ahhe  Seignert-t  of  Saint-Sulpice,  and  the  Abbe  Benoist. 

(2)  Alluding  t.)  the  skulleup  (calotte)  which  is  sometimes  worn  by  tonsured  persons, 
when  they  preserve  the  tonsure,  and  fear  to  catch  coW. 


THE   CLERICAL    VICTLMS    OF   THE    COMMUNE    OF    1H71.      105 

hayouet-thrust  that  was  aimed  at  the  youth.  Most  of  the 
military  vit-tims  ol)eyed,  wheu  they  received  the  order  to 
jump  over  a  low  wall,  so  that  the  Commuuists  mi<^ht  have 
the  excitement  of  shooting  them  in  the  act ;  but  the  })riests 
cahuly  refused,  as  one  of  them  protestetl,  "  to  play  the 
mountebank  while  dying,  although  they  were  ready  to  die  for 
their  faith."  The  massacre  lasted  a  full  hour.  On  the  fol- 
lowing day,  the  Commune  was  definitively  vanquished. 

Had  the  Catholics  of  France  been  in  the  least  remiss  in 
an  exhibition  of  patriotism  during  the  German  invasion,  the 
senseless  rage  of  the  Commune  against  the  clergy  would 
have  been  less  inex})licable  ;  but  nothing  was  more  certain, 
as  Jules  Simon  was  constrained  to  admit,  "  than  the 
devotedness  and  self-abnegation  manifested  by  the  clergy 
during  the  recent  trials  of  France."  Gueroult,  the  editor  of 
the  anti-clerical  journal,  L'Opi)}io>i  Naii(»iale,  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  avow  :  "  Whatever  may  be  our  philosophical  and 
religious  opinions,  it  is  but  just  to  admit  that  in  the  present 
crisis  the  Catholic  clergy  have  shown  themselves  national 
and  patriotic.  Those  cxres  of  Brittany  avIio  accom})Hnied 
and  encouraged  their  parishioners  on  the  Held  of  battle , 
those  chaplains  who  succored  the  wounded  under  the  tire  of 
the  enemy  ;  were  good  Frenchmen,  worthy  citizens.  Certain- 
ly this  is  not  the  time  for  us  to  outrage  their  dearest  senti- 
ments." Even  the  Voltairian  Co}if>tifntiotniel  drew  this 
l)arallel  between  the  faithful  and  the  disciples  of  the  Sage 
of  Ferney  :  "  In  the  front  ranks  of  the  army,  at  the  advanced 
posts,  in  the  very  face  of  the  cannons,  whose  bravery  was 
the  most  marked  ?  Who  marched  to  the  assault  of  Ville- 
juif,  at  Cliatillon,  at  Bourg,  at  Montretout  ?  Who  consoled 
France  for  the  disasters  of  the  Army  of  the  Loire  ?  It  was 
the  brave  men  of  Brittany,  the  Yendeans,  the  Poitevins,  the 
peasants  of  Perigord  and  the  Gircmde,  the  Pontifical  Zou- 
aves— sons  of  our  old  French  families,  n)en  nourished  in 
the  respect  for  God  and  for  Christianity.  Priests  and  Sis- 
ters of  Charity  were  mentioned  in  the  orders  of  the  day  ; 
and  the  troops  were  told  to  look  upon  Charette,  Catheliueau, 
Dam|)ierre,  Saillard,  etc.,  as  examples  of  courage.  Let 
Materialism  show   its    heroes !  "     And   even    lienau    thus 


106  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

eulogized  his  Catholic  adversaries  :  "  The  Legitimist  and' 
Clerical  party  has  given  us  a  good  example.  It  could  have 
felt  little  sympathy  for  the  government  which  vi^as  born  of 
the  revolution  of  the  Fourth  of  September  ;  but  nevertheless-, 
it  rushed  bravely  to  arms,  and  it  served  that  government 
because  of  its  essential  object,  national  defense.  All  the 
factions  of  the  republican  party  have  not  slioAvn  the  same 
spirit  of  abnegation."  The  authority  of  Bismarck  in  the 
premises  may  be  questionable ;  but  since  he  was  tlien  pre^ 
paring  his  "  "War  for  Civilization,"  the  pretext  for  whicli 
he  exhibited  in  the  alleged  impossibility  of  true  patriotism 
in  a  Catholic  breast,  we  may  adduce  this  observation  .- 
"  The  republican  party  is  the  least  patriotic  of  all  the  par- 
ties in  France.  Influenced  by  the  International,  the  idiots 
proclaim  the  world  as  their  country.  During  ine  siege  of 
Pans,  the  ferocious  republicans  of  Belleville,  of  Montmar- 
tre,  and  of  Menilmontant,  were  a  real  type  of  cowardice. 
In  the  whole  war,  not  one  notable  republican  was  hit  by 
our  bullets.  If  men  like  Flourens  and  Delescluze  were 
killed,  it  was  while  fighting  against  their  fellow-countrymen. 
On  the  contrary,  men  like  De  Luynes,  Chevreuse,  Dampierre,. 
the  Pontifical  Zouaves,  the  mobiles  of  Brittany,  resisted 
us  heroically  "  (1).  In  fact,  as  M.  Saint-Genest  remarked  : 
"  Under  the  sway  of  Gambetta,  all  parties  fought  except  the 
friends  of  Gambetta  ;  every  party  fought  to  the  bitter  end,. 
except  that  party  which  had  invented  the  phrase  '  guerre  d 
oiUrance .' '  "  (2).  Since  we  have  touched  on  this  contrast 
between  the  patriotic  acts  of  the  Catholic  party  in  France 
and  the  inane  mouthings  of  the  so-called  republicans,  it  may 
be  well  to  note  that  theselatter  gentry  prevented  the  success 
of  each  sortie  which  the  besieged  army  of  Paris  made 
against  the  Germans  ;  for  less  than  a  half  of  that  army  was 
at  the  disposal  of  General  Trochu,  it  being  necessary  to 
retain  more  than  half  of  it  to  hold  the  traitors  in  check  (3). 
Nor  can  we  forget  than  when  Thiers,  on  Oct.  31,  thought 
that  he  was  about  to  save  the  integrity  of  French  territory, 

(1)  Letter  to  a  Baron,  Nov.  16th,  1871.  (2)  In  the  Figaro.    Paris,  July  3d,  1875. 

(3)  Constitutionnd—Jnvrnal  ties  Debats,  Nov.  13th,  1870.— Cowrie?-  de  Lyon,  Dec, 
.5th.  1870,  and  March  Hth,  1871. 


THE   CLERICAL    VICTLMS    OF   THE    COMMUNE    OE    1871.      107 

Bismarck,  liaviii<;  in  miiul  the  cloinugof^ic  runibliiif^'s  in 
Paris,  sarc-astically  asked  him  :  "  In  the  name  of  what 
government  do  you  speak — in  /In-  inline  of  that  of  to-day,  or 
of  the  one  of  to-morrow  ?  "  Finally,  General  Troohu  de- 
clared to  all  France  :  "  It  is  a  matter  of  public  notoriety 
that  the  Germans  had  accepted  the  conditions  of  the  Govern- 
ment for  the  National  Defense  in  reference  to  the  armistice 
proposed  by  the  neutral  powers,  when  the  fatal  and  abject 
events  of  Oct.  31  restored  hope  to  the  Prussian  polic}', 
and  thus  compromised  a  situation  which  was  honorable  and 
worthy  "  (1). 

Now  for  a  brief  account  of  the  connection  of  Freemasonry 
with  the  Commune.  In  the  Inquiry  into  the  Acts  of  tlie 
Government  Established  for  the  National  Defense  (Gambetta's), 
which  was  undertaken  by  a  parliamentary  commission,  and 
the  results  of  w^liich  were  published  to  the  world,  we  read 
(Vol.  iv.,  p.  538)  the  following  testimony  of  M.  Bonrgoin  : 
"  It  appears  to  me  that  three  elements  impeded  the  national 
defense  from  the  very  beginning,  and  finally  prepared  the 
events  of  March  18  (the  explosion  of  the  Commune).  These 
three  elements  were  the  Masonic  Lodges  of  Paris  ;  the  So- 
cialists known  as  Positivists  ;  and  the  International The 

Freemasons  introduced  themselves  into  all  the  commissions, 
even  among  the  delegates  of  the  butchers  ;  they  perorated  in 
the  Lodges,  they  paraded  at  funerals,  they  sat  in  the  muni- 
cipal and  governmental  commissions.  Every  thou'dit  of 
national  defense  was  laid  aside."  But  in  spite  of  the  Ma- 
sonic activity,  the  elections  of  February  8,  1871,  resulted  in 
the  assemblage  in  Bordeaux  of  a  large  majority  of  Cinistian 
and  royalist  deputies — a  fact  which  indicated  the  probabilitv 
of  a  restoration  of  the  legitimate  njonarchy  in  the  person 
of  Henry  v.,  the  single-minded  prince  whose  rovaltv  was  ol)- 
scured  under  the  title  of  Comte  de  Chambord.  This  probabil- 
ity was  a  menace  to  all  the  conquests  of  the  Revolution ; 
and  all  of  its  coryphees,  no  matter  of  what  faction,  from  the 
Jacobin  masters  of  Paris  to  Thiers  and  Bismarck,  conspired 
to  avert  it.  The  explosion  of  March  18,  says  Deschamps, 
"was  undoubtedly  the  work  of  the  Jacobins  and  Socialists  ; 

(1)  Proclavxation  of  General  Tmchii.  Nov.  14th.  18(i,. 


108  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH   HISTORY. 

but  it  received  tlie  immediate  support  of  all  the  Masons  of 
Paris  and  of  the  provinces,  who  designed  to  profit  by  this 
movement  in  order  to  deprive  the  National  Assembly  of  its 
power,  or  at  least  to  obtain,  as  a  kind  of  compromise,  a  de- 
finitive proclamation  of  the  Kepublic  "  ('2).  On  April  26, 
when  the  Commune  was  in  full  blast,  a  large  assembly  of 
Masons  was  held  at  the  Chatelet ;  and  having  chosen  the 
famous  rioqnet  as  "  orator,"  the}^  voted  this  resolution  : 
"  Having  exhausted  every  means  of  concilation  with  the  gov- 
ernment of  Versailles,  the  Masonic  Order  has  determined  to 
plant  its  banner  on  the  ramparts  of  Paris  ;  and  if  one  ball 
touches  that  banner,  the  Masonic  brethren  will  march  with 
one  accord  against  the  common  enemy."  Then  the  assembly 
proceeded  to  the  street,  where  it  was  jcuned  by  ten  thousand 
other  Masons,  all  wearing  the  regalia  of  the  order ;  and 
marching  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  they  there  saluted,  by  the 
mouth  of  their  "  orator,"  Thirifocque,  the  government  of  the 
insurrection  in  these  words  :  "  The  Commune  is  the  grand- 
est revolution  that  the  world  has  ever  Mdtnessed ;  it  is  the 
New  Temple  of  Solomon,  the  defence  of  wliich  is  the  duty 
of  Freemasonry."  Then  the  citizen  Lefran9ais,  a  member 
of  the  Commune,  harangued  the  brethren,  stating  that  for 
many  years  his  heart  had  been  thoroughly  Masonic,  since 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Scotch  Lodge  No.  133,  one  of  the 
most  republican  Lodges  in  the  order  ;  for  a  long  time  he 
had  known  that  the  object  of  the  order  was  identical  with 
that  of  the  Commune."  Then  a  delegation  of  the  members 
of  the  Commune  solemnly  accompanied  the  triumphant 
adepts  to  the  "  temple  "  in  the  Rue  Cadet.  On  May  5,  after 
Thiers  had  received  the  Masonic  delegates,  and  had  refused 
to  recognize  the  government  of  the  Commune,  the  "  Con- 
federation of  the  Freemasons  of  Paris  "  addressed  the  follow- 
ing manifesto  to  the  brethren  :  "  Brothers  in  Masonry  ! 
Now  we  can  resolve  on  nothing  else  than  to  fight,  and  to 
cover  the  cause  of  right  with  our  sacred  gegis.  Arm  your- 
selves for  defence !  Save  Paris,  France,  and  humanity ! 
Paris,  ever  at  the  head  of  human  progress,  in  this  its  supreme 

(1)  Tlte  Secret  Sockties  and  Society  ;  or,  the  Philosophy  of  Contemporary  History, 
Vol.  ii.,  p.  421.    Avignon,  1882. 


THE    (.LEHUU,    VICTIMS    OF   THE    COMMUNE    OF    1871.      109 

crisis  culls  on  all  the  Masons  throughout  the  world  in  these 
wonls  :  '  Aid  me,  ye  sous  of  the  widow!'  This  appeal  will 
be  heeded  by  ever}'' Freemason  ;  all  will  unite  in  coniinou 
acticMi,  protostiu;^  aujainst  the  civil  war  which  has  been  in- 
sti<ijated  by  the  supporters  of  monarchy.  . .  •  Masons  !  You 
have  deserved  wtdl  of  the  Uuiversal  Couutry  ;  you  have  as- 
sured the  happiness  of  the  peoples  in  all  future  time.  Live 
the  llepublic !  Live  the  Communes  of  France  federated 
with  that  of  Paris !  "  It  is  true  that  a  few  members  of  the 
Grand  Orient  emitted  an  equivocal  and  faint-hearted  protest 
against  the  overt  acts  of  the  Lodges  of  Paris,  alleging  the 
brazen  and  ridiculous  lie  that  Masonry  never  interfered  in 
politics ;  but  the  perfunctory  utterance  was  evidently  made 
by  way  of  precaution  against  the  consequences  of  failure, 
and  its  effect  on  the  brethren  is  well  evinced  by  a  note  in  the 
Official  JoiiriKtl  of  ilte  (Jominuno,  published  during  the  first 
days  of  Ma}',  stating  that  "  The  Freemasons  intend  to  see 
that  the  decrees  of  the  Commune  are  strictly  obeyed  ;  a  bu- 
reau has  been  established  in  each  mairieS'  In  fact,  just  as 
in  the  days  of  the  Terror,  all  the  Lodges  of  Paris  were  trans- 
formed into  so  many  Jacobin  Clubs  and  Committees  of  Pub- 
lic Safety.  And  when  the  National  army  had  entered  Paris, 
and  the  Commune  had  resolved  to  leave  to  France  only  the 
ruins  of  her  capital,  there  appeared  the  following  exhorta- 
tion, addressed  on  May  22,  in  the  name  of  the  Grand  Orient, 
to  all  the  adepts  :  "  Freemasons  of  all  the  rites  and  of  every 
graile !  The  Commune,  the  defender  of  your  sacred  prin- 
ciples, called  you  to  her  aid  ;  you  obeyed  the  summons,  and 
your  venerated  standards  have  been  torn  by  the  bullets  and 
shells  of  their  enemies  ;  you  replietl  heroically.  Continiie 
with  the  aid  of  all  our  brethren  and  of  all  of  our  apprentices  ; 
the  instructions,  which  you  have  received  in  our  venerated 
Lodges,  dictate  to  each  one  of  you  the  sacred  duties  which 
he  must  fulfil.  Happy  are  they  who  die  gloriously  in  this 
lioly  strui'irle."  Finally,  for  many  years  after  the  fall  of  the 
Commune,  the  Masonic  powers  in  other  countries  oi)euly 
manifested  their  sympathies  with  the  defeated  Communists 
f)f  France.  Thus,  we  read  in  that  superexcellent  Masonic  au- 
thority, the  Chdinc  d  Union  (May,  1872)  that  on  the  preced- 


]10  STUDIES   IX   CHURCH    HISTORY, 

ing  April  17,  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Loudon  gave  a  banquet  in 
honor  of  the  fallen  Commune,  at  which  attended  the  famous 
Bradlaugh  among  other  notable  English  brethren,  and 
La  Cecilia  among  several  distinguished  Italian  adepts  (1). 
When  many  of  the  captured  Communists,  condemned  to  de- 
portation by  the  national  government,  arrived  in  New  Cale- 
donia, they  found  consolation  in  the  Masonic  Lodge  i'  Union 
CaUdonieiine,  which  had  been  founded  in  the  time  of  the 
empire  by  the  governor,  Guillain.  It  was  through  means  of 
this  Lodge,  tolerated,  asserts  Deschamps,  by  secret  instruc- 
tion from  Thiers,  that  Rochefort  made  his  escape.  The  in- 
quiry into  the  evasion,  made  by  Admiral  Eibourt,  proved 
that  the  necessary  funds  had  been  furnished  by  the  Lodges 
to  one  of  the  brethren  who  was  an  employee  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  colony.  Concluding  these  reflections,  we 
would  observe  that  uncertainty  still  reigns  concerning  the 
extent  of  the  sympathies  and  relations  of  Bismarck  with  the 
Commune  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  leaders  of  the  Commune 
made  many  offers  of  service  to  the  enemy  of  France, 
if  he  would  engage  to  support  their  desperate  cause.  The 
following  remark  of  Cluseret  to  Hatzfeld,  an  agent  of  the 
German  chancellor,  found  in  the  relation  which  the  Com- 
munist general  himself  published,  is  certainly  suggestive  : 
"  Let  us  put  aside  the  affair  of  the  archbishop,  and  speak 
only  of  the  interests  which  your  government  has  in  common 
with  the  Commune  of  Paris.  If  the  government  of  Ver- 
sailles triumphs,  there  will  be  a  desperate  effort  to  re-estab- 
lish the  monarchy  ;  and  no  monarchy  could  even  attempt  to 
maintain  itself  in  France,  without  promising  revenge  on 
you  "  (2). 

(1)  Under  date  of  June  11,  1871,  the  London  Correspondent  of  the  Monitenr  Universel 
spoke  of  the  sympathy  entertained  for  the  defeated  Communists  by  a  very  large  portion  of 
the  English  people ;  and  he  added :  "  One  would  have  a  very  incorrect  idea  of  the 
propaganda  of  the  International,  were  he  to  suppose  that  it  succeeds  only  in  the  lower 
strata  of  English  society.  In  many  literary  circles  the  doctrines  of  the  Commune  find 
defenders,  and  especially  among  the  adepts  of  Positivism." 

(2)  Cited  by  the  Gazette  de  France,  May  30,  1873, 


THE    FRENCH    KErUBUC    A  rEllSECUTOli   OF   THE    CHUKCII.    Ill 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  TH1K»  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  AS  A  PERSECUTOR   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

"  The  republican  form  of  government  is  that  which  diviih^s 
us  the  least,"  said  Thiers  in  the  first  days  of  1871.  A  bit- 
ter enemy  of  the  legitimate  royalty,  and  therefore  unwilling 
to  play  the  game  of  aMonck  ;  an  inveterate  skeptic,  and  there- 
fore unable  to  puse  as  a  Washington  ;  entertaining  a  velleity  in 
favor  of  the  younger  and  traitorous  brancli  of  the  Bourbons — 
the  so-called  House  of  Orleans — because  its  cause  was  that 
of  an  alliance  between  the  Revolution  and  a  veneer  of  re- 
spectability ;  the  ex-Orleanist  Minister  should  rather  have 
avowed  that  he  advocated  the  republican  system,  because  it 
alone  then  furnished  him  an  opportunity  of  becoming  the 
head  of  tlie  State.  Daring  the  entire  political  career  of  this 
chamelion-like  statesman,  if  the  grandeur  and  prosperity  of 
France  ever  engaged  his  attention,  it  was  after  a  merely  sec- 
ondary fashion ;  power  for  himself,  to  be  attained  by  any 
and  every  means — no  matter  how  iniquitous  and  disgrace- 
ful, was  the  sole  end  of  his  policy.  With  reason  did  Lamar- 
tine  thus  apostrophize  him  :  "  In  you  there  is  no  principle  ; 
but  there  is  a  passion— the  passion  to  govern,  to  govern 
alone,  to  govern  always,  to  govern  with  and  against  all,  to 
govern  at  any  price."  It  was  this  unscrupulous  lust  of  pow- 
er (it  was  too  ignoble  to  merit  the  name  of  ambition)  that  led 
Thiers  to  associate  himself  with  men  whom  he  had  hitherto 
termed  "  furious  madmen  "—men  whose  alliance,  as  he  said, 
could  be  nothing  else  than  "  a  cheating  game  on  both  sides  ; 
a  game  in  which  each  player  was  a  liar  in  the  mind  of  his 
neighbor  ;  a  compromise  which  rendered  all  engaged  in  it  un- 
worthy of  public  respect."  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  when, 
on  May  24,  1873,  Thiers  tendered  his  resignation  of  the 
presidency  to  the  National  Assembly,  hoping  that  it  would 
not  be  accepted,  this  truly  able  man,  after  forty  years  of  gov- 
ernmental experience  which  could  not  endow  him  w  ith  the 


112  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

faculty  of  orgauization,  was  relegated  to  private  life  (1). 
When  the  reins  of  jDower  were  assumed  by  Marshal  Mac- 
Mahon,  eleven  hours  after  the  resignation  of  Thiers,  the  lov- 
ers of  law  and  order  conceived  great  hopes  for  France  ;  and 
the  ever-sanguine  partisans  of  Legitimacy  fancied  that  Henry 
V.  would  soon  mount  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  The 
trust  of  the  Legitimists  seemed  well-founded  indeed,  when, 
on  Aug.  5,  the  Comte  de  Paris,  head  of  the  hitherto  rebel- 
lious  Orleans  branch  of  the  Bourbons,  repaired  to  Frohsdorff, 
the  residence  of  the  Comte  de  Chambord,  and  formally  ac- 
knowledged that  prince  as  King  of  France  and  Navarre,  thus 
tendering  an  amende  for  the  treachery  of  Philippe  Egalite, 
and  for  the  usurpation  of  Louis  Philippe.  It  is  generally  sup- 
posed that  the  failure  of  these  royalist  anticipations  was  due 
to  the  too  straightforward  letter,  in  which  the  Comte  de 
Chambord  declared  that  he  would  never  ascend  the  throne 
as  "  King  of  the  Kevolution  ";  that  he  would  decline  a  scep- 
tre which  would  be  a  symbol  of  principles  which  he  detest- 
ed. It  is  certain  that  this  letter  caused  a  division  in  the 
royalist  ranks  ;  that  the  so-called  "  Liberal  "  Catholics  could 
not  bring  themselves  to  place  principle  above  fancied  utility. 
But  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  failure  of  the  royalist 
restoration  was  chiefly  due  to  the  machinations  of  Bismarck 
and  of  the  Masonic  Order  (2).     The  administration  of  Pres- 

(1)  Thiers  died  suddenly,  while  seated  at  dinner  with  his  wife,  on  Sept.  3, 1877.  Whether 
he  had  ever  made  his  First  Communion,  is  doubtful.  Certainly  during  the  greater  part  of 
his  life  he  was  an  avowed  Deist,  somewhat  after  the  fashion  of  Voltaire.  However,  in 
his  later  years  he  frequently  insisted  on  his  Catholicism  ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  his  last 
will  and  testament  these  words  were  written  :  "  1  am  a  Catholic,  and  wish  to  die  a  Catho- 
lic." Therefore,  when  Mme.  Thiers  requested  that  a  Christian  funeral  should  be  accorded 
to  her  husband,  no  objection  was  made  by  the  authorities  of  the  Church.  Ville- 
franciik;  Adolphr.  TJiiers,  in  the  TUustrunts  Persons  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
Paris.  1883. 

(2)  The  publication  of  the  Arnim  documents  showed  that  Bismarck  regarded  it  as  the  in- 
terest of  Germany  to  prevent  a  coronation  of  Henry  V.  as  king  of  France  ;  that  the  astute  and 
phenomenally  unprincipled  chancellor  felt  that  with  the  restoration  of  her  legitimate  mon- 
archy France  wonld  recover  her  ancient  glory.  In  the  despatches  revealed  by  the  Arnim 
affair,  we  read  that  "  Germany  need  fear  nothing  from  either  the  Republic  ortheF.mpire"  ; 
that  "  it  is  to  the  interest  of  Germany  that  France  remain  weak  and  without  allies  "  ;  that 
"  the  Republic,  and  if  not  the  Republic,  the  Empire,  will  furnish  the  least  probability  of  a 
resurrection  for  France"  ;  that  "a  monarchical  France  would  be  a  danger  for  Germany." 
Dr.  Busch  tells  us  that  Bismarck  exclaimed  to  him  one  day  at  table  :  "  No  Bourbons  or 
Orleans  in  France  !  "  The  action  of  Freemasonry  in  this  matter  of  Henry  V.,  is  scarcely 
regardi^d  by  the  Masonic  powers  as  a  secret.  The  Masonic  .Journal  La  Revohition  Fran- 
cai.se.  May  13,  187'.t,  says  that  when  there  was  a  probability  of  the  acclamation  of  Henry  V., 
"  Gambetta  prepared  and  organized  throughout  all  t^rance,  and  even  in  the  army,  an  in- 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  A  rERSECUTOH  OF  THE  (HriJCH.  113 

ident  Miic'Malu)n,  ulthough  supported  by  ii  Conservative  ma- 
jority in  the  Senate,  was  iu  continual  warfare  witli  the  Radical 
majority  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  which  foHowed  the 
lead  of  Gambetta.  And  this  Iladical  majority  of  the  lower 
hcuse  was  persistently  encouraged  l)y  all  the  "  offic- 
ious "  journals  of  Germany,  and  by  the  entire  Masonic 
press  of  the  world.  In  1877,  wlien  monarchical  hopes 
were  again  reviving,  the  subsidized  Bismarckian  jour- 
nals continually  insisted  that  France,  not  yet  recovered 
from  her  wounds  of  1870-71,  would  feel  the  effects  of 
another  German  invasion,  if  the  imminent  election  should 
be  favorable  to  the  marshal's  policy ;  and  all  these  articles 
were  carefully  detailed  to  the  voters  by  the  sectarian  agents. 
Ten  days  after  the  triumph  of  the  Radicals  at  the  j3olls,  that 
is,  on  Oct.  24,  1877,  the  Supreme  Council  of  the  Scotch  Rite 
of  Masons  gave  a  grand  banquet  to  all  the  brethren  wholiad 
been  sent  by  their  respective  Lodges,  in  every  land,  to  con- 
gratulate the  adepts  of  France.  Brother  Jules  Simon  offered 
a  toast  "  to  the  triumphant  Republic  advancing  iu  the  future 

surrection.  In  comparison  with  which  that  of  March  18  would  have  been  mere  child's 
play."  It  was  proved,  before  the  tribunals  of  Aiitun  and  Dijon,  that  during  the  monarchi- 
cal agitation  of  1873  the  Masons  of  Saone-et-Loire  planned  to  kidnap  the  Marchioness  de 
MacMahon,  a  relative  of  the  marshal-president,  and  to  hold  her  as  a  hostage  for  the  per- 
manence of  his  republicanism.  The  chief  of  this  conspiracy  was  Boysset,  Venerable  of  the 
Lodge  in  Chalons,  and  a  deputy  in  the  National  Assembly.  This  latter  fact  prevented  his 
trial.  In  the  Kvlio  de  Saonc-ct-Lohr.  Oct.  1.5, 1874,  we  read  that  two  of  the  conspirators 
the  brothers  Bonteraps,  who  were  leaders  in  the  International,  were  vvilllng  to  promole  the 
advent  of  a  spurious  monarchy,  rather  than  the  legitimate  one  of  the  elder  Bnurbous  ;  and 
that  accordingly  they  tendered  their  services  and  that  of  their  fellow-sectatians  to  the 
Orleans  princes.  The  Masonic  Chaine  tV  Union,  Jan.,  1871,  cites  ihe  Munthln  Bulletin  of 
Italian  Masonry,  issued  by  the  Italian  Grand  Orients,  as  having  recently  said,  when 
treating  of  a  probable  restoration  :  "  We  can  perceive  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  Importance 
that  all  the  Masonic  societies  be  subjected  to  a  uniform  impulse  and  discipline,  so  that  they 
may  act  more  efficaciously  in  the  Interests  of  right  and  of  liberty."  The  .same  Masonic 
CJiaine  iV  Union,  to  which  we  are  deeply  grateful  for  so  much  of  our  information  concern- 
ing its  supporters,  gives  us  in  its  issue  of  July,  1883,  a  discourse  pronounced  in  the  Lodge 
Free  Tlnniyht  of  Aurilhic  cm  March  -4,  from  which  we  cull  these  morsels:  "You  know 
that  it  is  to  the  grand  Revolution  of  178fl  that  we  owe  the  political  reforms  which  have 
changed  the  face  of  not  only  Europe,  but  of  the  entire  univer.se  (sir).  But  who  prepared, 
who  directed  ;  in  a  word,  who  made  that  Revohition  ?  You,  gentlemen,  you— PYeema.sonry, 
the  daughter  of  the  Reformation.  ...And  after  the  Revolution  and  the  Empire,  Free- 
masonry (ontinueil  the  work  of  the  liberation  of  the  peoples.  Persecuted  by  the  Restor- 
ation, it  was  not  unconcerned  with  the  Revolution  of  18.30.  Then  It  fought  Louis  Philippe, 
who  was  to  be,  as  Lafayette  said,  the  best  of  republicans,  but  who  was  merely  the  king  of 
the  upper  h'ntrgfoiair.  ...Finally,  on  May  IH  (1877),  I  see  you  again  at  work.  When 
treason  had  rhiseil  to  power  the  enemies  of  the  Republic,  you  rushed  into  the  breach,  and 
you  fought  the  foe  fiiot  by  foot,  forcing  him  finally  to  a  capitulation  iu  which  you  buried 
all  hopes  of  a  monarchical  restoration." 


114  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

withont  impediment."  Brother  Van  Humbeck,  Grand-Mas- 
ter of  the  Belgian  Masonry,  and  Minister  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion in  his  then  sorely-tried  country,  "  congratulated  France 
on  the  point  at  which  she  had  arrived  "  (1).  And  what  was 
this  point?  In  October,  1872,  a  year  before  there  was  any 
talk  of  a  monarchical  restoration,  there  iiad  been  held  in 
Locarno  a  "  convent"  of  the  representatives  of  Continental 
Masonry.  The  Orient  of  Rome  was  represented  by  Filippo 
Cordova  ;  that  of  Naples  by  Franchi ;  that  of  Palermo  by 
La  Vaccara ;  that  of  Florence  by  Andrea  Giovauelli ;  that  of 
Turin  by  Alberto  Mario ;  and  that  of  Genoa  by  Quadrio. 
The  Lodges  of  France  were  represented  by  Felix  Pyat ;  those 
of  Hungary  by  Kossuth  ;  those  of  Switzerland  by  Klap- 
ka  ;  and  those  of  Prussia  by  General  Etzel.  The  questions 
for  consideration  were  proposed  by  the  Prussian,  who  presid- 
ed at  the  sessions  :  1.  Would  democracy  be  benefited  by  a 
war  between  the  France  of  Thiers  and  Italy  ?  2.  How  could 
a  provisional  government,  under  the  dictatorship  of  Gam- 
betta,  be  established  in  France  ?  3.  What  new  religion  ought 
to  be  substituted  for  Catholicism  ?  (2).  It  is  evident,  there- 
fore, that  five  years  before  the  electoral  condemnation  of  the 
policy  of  MacMahon,  Freemasonry  had  decreed  the  eventual 
supremacy  of  its  protegee  and  tool,  Gambetta  ;  and  certainly 
the  phrase  "  provisional  government  under  the  dictatorship 
of  Gambetta  "  fitted  well  the  course  of  that  disciplined  parlia- 
mentary majority  which  neutralized  such  good  intentions  as 
President  MacMahon  may  have  entertained.  After  a  multi- 
tude of  concessions  to  the  Masonico-Radical  spirit  of  the 
deputies,  MacMahon  finally  refused  to  accept  a  measure 
which  would  have  disorganized  the  army ;  and  when  his 
determination  was  met  with  the  cry  "  submit  or  resign,"  he 
chose  the  latter  course  on  Jan.  30,  1879.  With  the  advent 
of  Grevy  as  President,  the  French  Republic  entered  on  a 
new  phase  of  existence  ;  the  comparatively  conservative  cab- 
inet of  MacMahon  was  dismissed,  and  in  the  new  one  the 
Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  was  assigned  to  Jules  Ferry. 
On  March  15,  Ferry  laid  before  the  deputies  two  bills  which 

'D  Chained' Union,  Jiov.,  1878. 

(2)  L'l'Tiivers.  Nt-v.  12, 1M2.— Pachtler  ;  War  Against  TJirone  and  Altar,  p.  158. 


THE  FRENCH   REriTBIJC   A  TEHSECUTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH.    115 

were  jiiinod  at  an  entire  destruetiou  of  that  Freedom  of  Edu- 
cation, for  whielithe  Catholics  of  France  had  so  persistently 
foupjht,  as  will  be  remembered  by  the  reader  who  has  ac- 
com])anied  us  in  our  studies  on  Lacordaire,  Ozauum,  and 
Montalend)ert.  One  of  these  bills  modified  the  composition 
and  the  duties  of  the  Superior  Council  for  Public  Instruc- 
tion, and  of  the  Academic  Councils,  inasmuch  as  it  conferred 
on  the  State  all  authority  in  the  matter  of  teaching.  The 
other  bill,  which  directly  concerned  freedom  in  the  matter 
of  imparting  secondary  and  superior  instruction,  accorded 
to  the  State  an  exclusive  right  to  examine  candidates  for  aca- 
demic degrees  ;  it  deprived  all  private  institutions  of  the 
title  and  privileges  of  a  University  ;  and  by  one  of  its  articles, 
the  celebrated  Article  VII.,  it  pretended  to  take  the  right  of 
teaching  from  every  religious  congregation  which  was  not 
"  authorized  "  by  the  government. 

The  Ferry  Laws,  as  history  will  term  these  tyrannous 
measures  which  signalized  the  accession  of  Grevy  to  the 
French  presidency,  were  merely  the  result  of  the  work  un- 
dertaken by  the  Ligne  de  V Enseujvemcnt  or  Educational 
Association  which  had  been  founded  in  1866  by  Jules  Mace, 
with  the  active  support  of  Robert,  director-general  under 
Duruy,  then  the  imperial  Minister  of  Public  Instruction. 
The  object  of  this  league  was  to  render  all  instruction  gra- 
tuitous, obligatory,  and  above  all,  secular ;  the  modicum  of 
freedom  of  instruction  then  subsisting,  a  privilege  which  the 
laws  of  1833  and  1850  had  allowed  the  Catholic  institutions  to 
exercise  in  their  brave  endeavors  to  compete  with  a  govern- 
mental University  which  enjoyed  a  revenue  of  fifty-eight 
millions  of  francs,  was  to  be  entirely  abrogated.  This  as- 
sociation numbered  among  its  active  members  not  only  near- 
ly all  the  professors  of  the  University,  but  also  a  majority  of 
the  imperial  prefects,  procurators,  and  other  functionaries. 
Mace  proclaimed  that  his  league  "  would  reduce  to  practice 
the  principles  proclaimed  in  the  Lodges  "  ;  and  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  three  years  afterward,  in  the  Masonic 
Congress  of  Metz,  it  was  this  same  Mace  who  moved  that  the 
name  of  God  should  be  expunged  from  the  statutes  of  Ma- 
sonry  a  project  which  was  finally  actuated  by  the  Grand 


116  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

Convent  held  in  Paris  on  September  14, 1877,  after  consulta- 
tion with  all  the  Lodges  in  the  obedience  of  the  French 
Grand  Orient  (1).  Shortly  after  the  birth  of  the  league,  the 
Monde  Blaionnique  (April,  1867)  said  :  "We  are  happy  to  be 
able  to  announce  that  the  league  founded  by  Brother  Jean 
Maco,  and  also  the  project  of  a  statue  to  Brother  Voltaire, 
have  excited  the  sympathies  of  all  our  Lodges.  Certainly 
no  two  subscriptions  could  be  more  in  agreement  than  that 
in  favor  of  Voltaire,  which  means  the  destruction  of  preju- 
dice and  superstition,  and  that  for  the  league,  which  means  a 
new  society  founded  only  on  science  and  instruction.  All 
the  brethren  understand  this."  And  in  his  circular  of  July 
4,  1870,  the  Grand-Master  Babaud-Laribiere  said  :  "  We  are 
all  of  one  mind  in  regard  to  the  principle  of  gratuitous, 
obligatory,  and  lay  instruction."  On  September  24,  1878,  at 
the  banquet  given  by  the  Grand  Orient  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Universal  Exposition,  the  Adjunct-Grand-Master  of  the  Bel- 
gian Grand  Orient,  Bourland,  thus  perorated  amid  universal 
applause  :  "  The  obstacle  to  the  intellectual  development  of 
France,  that  which  is  killing  her,  that  wdiich  is  killing  us, 
that  which  is  killing  the  entire  world,  is  ignorance  and 
fanaticism — the  idea-  that  the  world  should  belong  to  him 
who  is  most  daring  in  weakening  the  intellectual  faculties,  in 
brutalizing  man.  Let  us  arise  against  this  pretension ! 
Kome,  together  with  Ultramontanism,  ignorance,  and  all  else 
that  comes  from  Rome,  must  perish,  because  of  a  develop- 
ment of  an  education  ivhich  ivill  lead  to  moraliiy  "  (2).  In 
order  to  obtain  funds  for  their  campaign  against  all  religious 
teaching  in  schools,  the  Masons  organized  the  CEuvre  du  Soir 
des  Ecoles  or  School-Penny  Collection  throughout  the  repub- 
lic ;  and  in  order  to  inspire  the  people  with  an  enthusiasm 
which  would  result  in  contributions,  every  kind  of  festivity 
was  brought  into  requisition.  Thus  at  the  grand  festival 
given  by  the  Lodges  of  Bordeaiix  in  the  public  gardens  on 
June  24,  1879,  as  we  learn  from  the  Monde  Maro)niique, 
"  Just  as  the  last  banners  of  the  processions  (of  Corpus 

(1)  The  statutes  of  the  Grand  Orient  of  France  had  hitherto  given  as  the  basis  of  Masonry 
"  the  existence  of  God,  the  study  of  morality,  and  the  practice  of  all  virtues."  The  new 
statute  assigned  :  "  Absolute  freedom  of  conscience  and  human  solidarity." 

'2)  Mimde.  Ma^oimiqxn:,  November,  1878,  p.  34G. 


THE   FRENCH    UKl'UBLIC    A  PEIISECUTOU   OF   THE    CIU'liCH.    117 

Christi)  were  re-eutering  their  respective  sacristies,"  the  cere- 
monies of  irreligiou  were  begun ;  and  in  the  evening  the 
adepts  exhibited  a  piece  of  tire-works  "  which  presented 
'  The  Works  of  Masonry  '  as  its  title,  and  reminded  the 
17,000  spectators  of  the  object  being  pursued  by  the  Order." 
Quite  properly,  therefore,  had  Maci'  said  in  a  general  meet- 
ing of  his  league  on  January  18,  1879  :  "The  destiny  of  our 
association  is  so  intimately  united  with  that  of  the  republic, 
that  the  sole  imminence  of  that  senatorial  majority,  which 
was  to  consecrate  republican  institutions  definitively,  suffices 
to  precipitate  the  movement  which  is  directed  principally  by 
us."  The  movement  was  precipitated  on  March  7  by  the 
proposition  of  the  laws  prepared  by  Jules  Ferry,  a 
Masonic  luminary  whose  brutal  materialism  liad  been  mani- 
fested two  years  previously  when  the  Lodge  Clrnir))fe 
Amitit'  of  Paris  gave  a  banquet  in  honor  of  the  anniversary 
of  the  reception  of  Littre  and  Wyrouboff  into  its  bosom : 
"  The  Masonic  fraternity  is  something  superior  to  all  dogmas, 
to  all  metaphysical  conceptions,  and  not  only  to  all  religions, 
but  to  all  philosophies.  I  mean  that  sociability  is  sufficient 
unto  itself ;  that  social  morality  has  its  guarantees  and  its 
roots  in  the  human  conscience;  that  it  can  live  by  itself; 
that  at  length  it  can  throw  away  its  theological  crutches, 
and  march  untramelled  to  the  conquest  of  the  world.  You 
are  the  most  precious  instruments  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
social  sentiment,  for  the  development  of  social  and  laij  mor- 
ality. ...  It  is  of  the  essence  of  Masonry  to  free  man  from  the 
fear  of  death.  To  this  so-ancient  fear,  to  this  slavery  which 
it  is  so  hard  to  crush,  you  oppose  the  strengthening  and  con- 
soling sentiment  of  the  continuity  and  perfectibility  of  the 
human  species.  .  .  .  When  one  is  animated  by  this  conviction, 
one  has  conquered  for  himself  every  liberty  "  (1).  Scarcely 
had  Ferry  presented  his  bills  in  the  Chamber,  when  Masonic 

(1)  (TTiaiNf  (rfdiod,  187".  p.  181.— These  remarks  of  Ferry  remind  us  of  the  Italian 
sectarian  utterances  of  Brother  Mauro  Macchi,  deputy  in  the  Italian  Parliament  and  a 
member  of  the  Supreme  Council  of  the  Italian  adepts,  wlien  he  wrote  to  the  ^fasom'c 
Review  in  February,  1874  :  "  The  key-stone  of  the  system  which  opposes  Masonry  has  al- 
ways been  and  is  the  ascetic  and  transcendental  sentiment  which  turns  the  attention  of 
mf  n  beyond  this  life,  and  induces  them  to  consider  themselves  as  mere  travellers  on  earth. 
ur(?ing  them  to  sacrifice  everything?  for  a  happiness  tliat  will  bepin  In  the  graveyard. 
Until  fhis  system  is  destroyed  by  the  mallet  of  Masonry,  society  w'll  be  mainly  composed  of 
poor  waaklings  who  think  of  nothing  but  happiness  In  a  future  life." 


118  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

Conferences  were  convened  throughout  the  republic  for  the 
purpose  of  creating  or  augmenting  a  popular  yearning  for 
the  blessings  of  irreligious  education.  At  the  Conference 
held  in  Marseilles  on  April  5,  Brother  Gambini,  Venerable 
of  the  Lodge  La  Parfaite  Sincerite,  drew  the  attention  of  his 
frenzied  brethren  to  :  "  Brother  Jules  Ferry,  Minister  of  Pub- 
lic Instruction,  endeavoring  to  render  education  essentially 
laic,  although  he  is  surrounded  by  nameless  intrigues  and 
assaults  on  the  part  of  the  clerical  hordes. . .  .  But  if  Brother 
Jules  Ferry  is  accomplishing  a  work  which  is  essentially 
Masonic,  it  is  the  duty  of  us  Masons  to  aid  him  in  the  ful- 
filment of  his  mission.  Let  him  know  that  he  is  sustained 
b}^  an  army  in  reserve  which,  although  it  is  calm  because  it 
is  conscious  of  its  power,  is  ready  nevertheless  to  defend  his 
work  with  its  life  "  (1).  During  the  summer  of  1879,  Ferry 
made  a  tour  through  the  south  of  France,  in  order  to  enable 
the  Brethren  of  the  Three  Points  to  incite  popular  demon- 
strations which  might  neutralize  the  opposition  of  all  that 
was  sensible  and  religious  to  his  projects.  Having  read  the 
many  addresses  which  were  ostentatiously  presented  to  him 
by  the  Lodges,  we  quote  as  representative  of  them  all,  some 
passages  from  that  of  the  Lodges  of  Toulouse  :  "  The  Masons 
of  Toulouse  extend  to  you  a  welcome,  and  tender  the  senti- 
ments of  respect  which  they  feel  for  a  Minister  who  sustains, 
with  persistent  courage,  so  difficult  a  combat  against  the 
eternal  enemies  of  civil  society.  Democratic  France,  laboring 
France  is  with  you  ;  and  Freemasonry  cannot  forget  that  the 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction  is  one  of  her  most  distin- 
guished sons.  Freemasonry  will  assist  you,  dear  brother, 
with  all  the  means  in  her  power  ;  for  she  well  understands 
that ...  it  is  necessary  that  French  youth  be  delivered  from 
the  schemes  of  the  Jesuits. . .  .  Inform  the  government, 
dear  brother,  that  especially  in  this  matter,  the  Masonry 
of  Toulouse  is  on  its  side." 

The  introduction  of  the  second  of  the  Ferry  Laws,  that 
which  practically  suppressed  the  free  Faculties  and  Univer- 
sities created  in  virtue  of  the  law  of  1875,  excited  sentiments 
of  horror  and  indignation  among  the  Catholics  of  France. 

(1)  Chaine  cfUnion,  May,  1879. 


THEFllENCH   REPUBLIC   A  PERSECUTOR  OF    J'HE   CHURCH.  119 

Wlieu  it  was  discussed,  during  June  und  jjait  of  July,  elo- 
quent voices    pleaded  for  freedom    of  teaching  and  of  the 
religious  orders  ;  but  hatred  of  religion  led  the  deputies  to 
pass  Article  VII.  by  a  vote  of  31)0  out  of  515,  and  to  j)ass  the 
law  as  an  entirety  by  a  vote  of  362  out  of  521.     In  the  Senate, 
however,  the  propriety  and  justice  of  Ai'ticle  VII.  were  fiercely 
contested  ;  and  the  Catholic  cause  was  reinforced  by  the  very 
unclerical  Jules  Simon  and  Laboulaye.     The  senatorial  vote 
could  not  be  taken  before  March  9,  1880;  and   then  the 
iniquitous  article  was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  19,  the  rest 
of  the   law   being  accepted.      The   deputies   adopted   the 
amendment  of  the  Senate.     The  law  concerning  the  Superior 
Council  and  the  Academic  Councils  had  been  slightly  modi- 
fied, and  then  passed  in  February.     The  rejection  of  Article 
VII.,  as  the  reader  may  easily  have  foreseen,  had  not  been 
regarded  by  the  Masons  and  other  radicals  with  equanimity. 
Determined  to  withdraw  the  youth  of  France  from   "  the 
clutches  of  the  Jesuits  and  other  teaching  orders,"  they  re- 
suscitated the  memory  of  several  laws  which  had  fallen  into 
desuetude — laws  which  were  even  contrary  to  the  so  much 
vaunted  principles  of  1789,  and  which  had  been  abolished 
by  non-use  and  by  a  law  of  1850.     On  March  29, 1880,  there 
appeared  decrees  of  the  president,  based  on  laws  of  1790  and 
1792,   on  the  Napoleonic  Concordat,  and  on  the  Organic 
Articles   ^vhich   Napoleon   had  added   to   that   Concordat. 
These  decrees  accorded  to  that  "  non-authorized  "  association 
which  "  was  styled  '  of  Jesus '  "  a  delay  of  three  months, 
within  which  term  it  was  to  withdraw  from  all  establishments 
that  it  occupied  on  French  territory.     A  similar  delay  of 
three  months  was  granted  to   all   other   "  un-authorized " 
organizations,  during  which  said  bodies  "  might  apply  to 
the  government  for  an  approbation  of  their  statutes  and 
rules,  and  for  a  legal  recognition  of  their  establishments 
wdiich  then  existed  de  facto.'''     The  execution  of  these  decrees 
began  on  June  30,  the  officers  having  received  instructions 
to  finish  their  work  beforfe  November.     However,  several  of 
the  affected  colleges  continued  to  exist,  despite   these  en- 
actments, owing  to  the  zeal  of  wealthy  Catholics  who  bought 
the  confiscated  properties,  and  installed  therein  professors 


120  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

who  were  not  congreganisfes  or  members  of  any  order,  but 
who  were  devoted  to  the  sacred  cause  of  religious  education. 
By  the  procedure  of  March  29,  1880,  the  French  Kepublic 
dechired  open  war  on  the  Catholic  Church  ;  and  why  should 
it  not  have  so  done,  when  the  Lodges  pronounced  the 
incompatibility  of  Catholicism  and  Republicanism  ?  On 
May  9,  Courdavaux,  professor  in  the  Faculty  of  Letters  at 
Douay,  gave  a  Conference  on  the  Sacred  Scriptures  (!)  before 
the  Lodge  LEtoile  da  Nord  of  Lille,  in  which  he  said  :  "  The 
distinction  between  Catholicism  and  Clericalism  is  purely 
official,  a  subtle tj'  necessary  for  the  exigencies  of  the  platform ; 
but  here  in  the  Lodge,  we  may  proclaim  the  truth  that 
Catholicism  and  Clericalism  are  one  and  the  same  thing. 
And  let  us  add  this  conclusion.  No  man  can  be  both  Catholic 
and  Republican;  it  is  impossible"  (1).  It  is  refreshing  to 
note  the  attempted  justification  of  the  cabinet  to  which  he 
belonged,  made  by  Cazot,  then  Minister  of  Justice.  In  an 
address  to  the  Lodge  U^clio  du  Grand-Orient  of  Nimes, 
Cazot  said :  "  According  to  a  phrase  that  is  familiar  to  you, 
we  have  entered  on  an  era  of  difficulties.  It  is  not  yet  closed. 
We  have  many  combats  before  us  ;  for  instance,  the  magis- 
tracy is  to  be  reformed,  so  that  it  may  be  neither  servile 
nor  factious.  The  law  must  be  respected  by  all,  and  espec- 
ially by  those  who,  under  the  vain  pretext  of  defending  a  re- 
ligious liberty  whose  founders  and  apostles  we  are,  and  of 
which  they  are  the  worst  enemies,  pretend  to  obey  only  a 
foreign  sovereignty,  refusing  to  bow  before  the  sovereignty 
of  their  country  "  (2).  We  must  not  forget,  however,  that 
for  a  moment  after  the  first  enforcements  of  the  decrees 
against  the  "  un-authorized  "  teaching  orders,  there  seemed 
to  be  promised  an  escape  from  the  storm.  The  superiors  of 
the  afflicted  communities  had  sent  to  the  government  a 
declaration  couched  in  very  moderate  terms,  and  approved 
by  the  French  episcopate  ;  and  Grevy,  supported  by  Frey- 
ciuet,  then  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  and  President  of  the 
Council,  had  shown  a  disposition  to  be  contented  with  that 

(1)  The  r/ianie  (VUnion  of  June,  1880,  published  this  Couference  as  worthy  of  the 
highest  praise. 
'21  Chnine  d' Union,  1880,  p.  237. 


THE  FUENCH  REPUBLIC  A  PERSECUTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH.  121 

Declaratiou,  The  debates  on  this  subject  occupied  the  cabi- 
net ou  Sept.  10,  17,  and  18  ;  and  precisely  on  those  days  the 
Orand-Orient  was  in  solemn  session.  The  consequence  of 
this  coinoidenee  was  narrated  by  the  Mo)iiteiir  Uiiivcrscl  ou 
Sept.  22  :  "  One  of  the  Masons  of  the  '  Convent '  (of  the  Grand- 
Orient)  was  told  last  Saturday  al)out  the  negotiations  whii'h 
M.  de  Freyoinet  had  held  Avith  the  Vatican  concerning  the 
Declaration  of  the  congregations.  He  replied  :  '  If  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Council  has  negotiated  with  the  Pope,  he  will 
leaye  the  cabinet.'  And  on  the  next  day,  as  the  Mason  had 
prophesied,  M.  de  Freycinet  was  forced  to  resign  his  port- 
folio." Ou  Sept.  23,  a  new  cabinet  was  formed,  and  Jules 
Ferr}-  w^as  constituted  its  head.  The  war  against  everything 
religious  continued.  The  hospitals  were  deprived  of  the 
services  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  ;  a  law^  establishing  divorce 
was  introduced  in  the  Chamber  ;  cemeteries  were  secularized  ; 
military  chaplaincies  were  abolished  ;  it  was  proposed  to 
subject  seminarians  to  military  service ;  public  religious 
processions  were  prohibited  ;  new  laws  were  enacted  for  the 
purpose  of  concentrating  more  thoroughly  in  the  State  all 
instruction  of  youth.  The  enforcement  of  the  Ferry  Laws, 
primarily  directed  against  the  Jesuits,  but  applied  also  to 
the  other  orders  whose  members  devoted  themselves  to 
teaching  the  young,  was  an  occasion  for  the  most  revolting 
abuses  of  the  governmental  authority  ;  in  many  instances, 
even  the  honor  of  the  army  was  compromised  by  its  use  in 
the  siege  of  convents  and  monasteries.  Under  the  influence 
of  the  emotions  excited  by  these  scandals,  many  French  Cath- 
olics were  then  disposed  to  find  fault  with  Pope  Leo  XIIL 
on  account  of  his  silence  in  the  premises  ;  many  blamed  the 
Pontiff  for  his  sympathy  with,  if  not  his  instigation  of 
the  conciliatory  Declaration  emitted  by  the  superiors  of  the 
persecuted  communities.  But  let  us  remember  that  from  the 
very  beginning  of  the  anti-Catholic  campaign  undertaken 
by  the  Third  Republic,  the  Holy  See  had  realized  that  the 
circumstances  were  such  as  called  for  a  persistent  exercise 
of  the  patient  prudence  which  is  the  most  salient  characteris- 
tic of  the  Papal  Court.  Let  us  remember,  with  one  of  the 
most  judicious   of   the  critics    of   the  pontificate   of   Leo 


122  STUDIES    IN    CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

XIII.  (1),  that  His  Holiness  had  deemed  it  wise  to  abstain- 
from  anj  demonstration  which  might  have  compromised  the 
interests  of  the  Church  in  France,  by  throwing  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  the  relatively  conciliatory  advances  which  Freycinet 
seemed  to  be  ready  to  make.  "  But  the  Pontiff  had  emitted 
his  complaints  and  protests  in  a  diplomatic  manner  ;  and  he 
was  about  to  repeat  them  in  a  more  solemn  style,  when 
there  appeared  the  semi-official  projDosition  in  regard  to  the 
Declaration  (of  the  religious  superiors).  As  for  that  docu- 
ment, there  was  no  reason  for  disapproving  it ;  not  only  did 
it  contain  nothing  contrary  to  principle,  but  it  gave  rise  to  a 
hope  that  the  persecution  would  terminate.  "When  these 
anticipations  failed  of  realization,  and  when  the  Pontiff  per- 
ceived that  reticence  was  no  longer  a  duty,  he  issued  his 
eloquent  letter  to  Cardinal  Guibert,  dated  Oct.  22,  1880." 
In  this  letter,  Leo  XIII.  gave  great  praise  to  the  conduct  of 
the  French  Catholics,  both  clerical  and  lay,  and  he  lauded 
the  heroism  of  the  hundreds  of  French  magistrates  who  had 
abandoned  their  positions,  rather  than  execute  the  decrees 
of  the  persecutors.  In  reference  to  the  Declaration  of  the 
superiors,  he  reminded  the  supei'fluously  zealous  among  the 
Catholics  that  it  ought  to  be  sufficient  for  them  to  know 
that  "  the  Declaration  had  been  prepared  by  the  authority, 
by  the  instigation,  or  at  least  by  the  permission  of  their 
bishops."  Then  the  Pontiff  recalled  for  the  benefit  of  the 
zealots  the  principles  on  which  the  permissibility  of  the  Dec- 
laration was  based  ;  that  is,  the  well-understood  fact  that 
the  Church  is  opposed  to  no  form  of  government — that  the 
Church  seeks  only  the  good  of  religion  in  all  of  her  rela- 
tions with  the  civil  power.  "  No  one  can  deny,"  added  the 
Pope,  "  that  in  all  things  which  are  not  unjust,  the  powers 
that  exist  are  to  be  obeyed,  so  that  there  may  result  a  pre- 
servation of  that  order  which  is  the  source  of  public  se- 
curity." The  Pontiff  was  careful  to  observe,  however,  that 
from  what  he  had  presented  as  the  duty  of  Catholics  toward 
the  republican  government  of  France,  "  it  did  not  follow  that 
in   obeying   the  existing   powers,  they  should   necessarily 

(1)  T'Serclaes  ;  Pope  Leo  XIII;  His  Life,  His  Religious,  Political,  and  Social 
Acts.    Paris,  1894. 


THE    FRENCH    RErUBLIC    A  PEKSECUTOU    OF    J  HE    CHLKCII.    1'23 

approve    whatever  might  be  wrong  in  the   constitution  or 
administration  of  the  government." 

On  March  28,  1882,  tliere  was  promulgated  a  hiw  concern- 
ing primary  instruction  which  rendered  tliat  instruction 
obligatory  in  the  case  of  all  children  who  were  between  six 
and  thirteen  years  of  age  ;  but  the  instruction  was  not  neces- 
sarily to  be  received  in  the  institutions  of  the  State — a 
privilege  which  favored,  of  course,  only  those  Catholics 
whose  pecuniary  condition  enabled  them  to  patronize  the 
private  schools,  which  received  no  subsidies  from  the  govern- 
ment. During  the  discussion  of  this  law  in  the  Senate, 
Jules  Simon,  ultra-radical  though  he  was,  was  sufficiently 
generous  to  venture  to  move  an  amendment  to  the  effect 
that  the  children  of  the  State  schools  should  be  taught 
"  their  duties  to  God  and  their  country  "  ;  but  the  president 
•of  the  commission  charged  with  the  examination  of  the  law, 
one  Schaelcher,  cried :  "  I  cannot  accept  that  amendment, 
since  I  am  an  atheist."  The  Catholics  of  the  smaller  towns 
and  villages  frequently  succeeded  in  partially  obviating  the 
curse  of  the  prohibition  of  religious  instruction  in  their 
public  schools ;  the  Municipal  Councils  enjoyed  the  right 
of  naming  the  members  of  the  School  Commissions,  and  they 
often  named  ecclesiastics  as  such  members.  The  cabinet 
of  Freycinet  was  replaced  during  seven  months  by  that  which 
Avas  organized  by  Duclerc ;  and  Duvaux,  its  Minister  of 
Pul)lic  Instruction,  was  apparently  content  ^\■itll  what  his 
predecessors  had  effected  to  the  detriment  of  the  Church. 
But  on  Feb.  21, 1883,  President  Grevy  assigned  to  Ferry  the 
task  of  forming  a  new  Ministry,  and  of  course  the  champion 
priest-eater  hastened  to  resume  his  favorite  occupation  (1). 

(1)  As  a  Minister  of  Piiblio  Instruftion,  Ferry  possessed  strariKe  notions  roncerninif  the 
moral  needs  of  tlie  daiiphters  of  France.  Whereas  most  of  the  giants  of  his  school  ever 
desired  that  their  wives  and  daughters  should  be  relisiioiis  women.  Ferry  took  care,  when 
re-organizing  the  Normal  School  for  Girls  at  Versailles,  to  not  only  appoint  as  Its  president 
a  Protestant  (the  widow  Jules  Favre».  but  also  to  establish  as  its  professor  of  Moral  Science 
a  notorious  infldel.  Joseph  Fabre.  In  his  Elf  meutx  of  PhU<»*(>phu  iMsirainer  i)t  future 
wives  and  mothers  wrote  :  "  Morality  can  and  ought  to  be  taught  independently  of  God 
'd-  2.58). .  .  .  The  contrary  doctrine  would  Justify  the  poisoning  of  Socrates  ;  it  would  lenew 
■•be  great  scandal  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  ;  It  would  exalt  Nero  and  Doniltian  ;  it  would  re- 
kindle the  pyre  of  Giordano  Bruno  ;  It  would  repeat  the  horrors  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day 
(p.  260).  .  .  .  The  pretended  demonstrations  of  the  existence  of  a  God  are  Insufficient " 
<p.  Xu). 


124  STUDIES    IN    CHURC^H    HISTORY. 

Throughout   France,    innumerable    pastors    were    deprived 
of  their  "  salaries,"  merely  because  some  informers,  perhaps 
notorious  liars,  had  denounced  them  as  violators   of   unjust 
laws.     The  cross  was  torn  from  the  gates  of  the  cemeteries 
in  Paris,  and  in  many  of  the  other  large  cities.     Since    the 
Masonic    designs    were   often   thwarted   by   the   "  undue " 
moderation  of  some  magistrates  in  applying  or  interpreting 
the  persecuting  enactments.  Ferry  engineered  through  the 
Chamber  a   law   which   suspended   for  three   months   the 
irremovability  of  the  judges  ;  and  immediately  their  office  was 
taken  from  all  the  magistrates  whose  integrity  and  indepen- 
dence gave  umbrage  to  the  Lodges.     More  than  six  hundred 
magistrates  were  thus   dismissed.     During  1^84  the  eccle- 
siastical budget,  never  too  large,  since  it  was  equal  to  about 
the  half  of  one  per  cent,  on  the  value  of  the  property  stolen 
from  the  Church,  was  greatly  diminished ;   the   Chapter   of 
Saint-Denis  was   suppressed ;   and   the   allowances   of   the-- 
archbishop  of  Paris  and  of  many  other  prelates  were  reduced 
to  derisory  amounts.     The   year   1885   wdtnessed   no  new 
persecutions,  other  than  the  withdrawal  of  "  salaries  "  from 
some  hundreds  of  pastors  who  were  accused   of   influencing^ 
their  voting  parishioners  at  the  previous  elections.     In  1886, 
however,  the  work  of  the  Educational  League  was  completed. 
We  have  seen  that  the  Ferry   Laws    of    1879   banished   all 
members  of  religious  organizations  from  the  teaching  staff 
of  the  secondary  and  superior  schools  ;  it  remained  for  Paul 
Bert  to  deliver  what  was  perhaps  the  most   effective    of   all 
blows  against  Catholicism  in  France,  by  means  of  an  elab- 
orate bill  which  completely  laicized  primary  education.     Bert 
had  always  frankly  avowed  his  object.     During  the  discus- 
sion on  the  Ferry  projects  in  1879,  he  had  been  appointed  to 
draw  up  a  report  for  a  commission  which  rejoiced    in    such 
members  as  the  Masonic  luminaries,  Louis  Blanc,  Lockroy,. 
Lacretelle,   Constans,    SpuUer,    Floquet,    and   Duvaux.     In 
this  report  he  had  said  :     "  Instruction  must  be  laic,    exclu- 
sively laic :  no  teacher  can  be  taken  from  among  the  members 
of  any  religious   association,    whether   that   association  be 
authorized  or  not.  . .  .  The  commissioners    have    not  wished 
to  trouble  themselves,  as  legislators,  with    the    eternal    dis- 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  A  PERSECUTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH.  125 

putes  of  inetapliysieians  (on  sucli  subjects  as  God,  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  etc.). .  . .  We  have  concerned  oxir- 
selves  principally  with  the  discipline  of  intelligence,  being 
sure  that  when  natural  science  has  taught  the  child  how  to 
observe,  when  physical  science  has  taught  him  how  to  prove, 
when  mathematical  science  has  taught  him  how  to  draw  con- 
sequences, we  shall  have  formed  a  mind  which  will  be 
free  from  prejudices,  and  one  not  easily  seduced  by  s<a-cerie8 
and  superstitions.  By  the  study  of  natural  phenomena,  the 
child  will  be  superior  to  foolish  terrors,  and  to  unworthy 
credulities  (such  as  belief  in  future  punishment) ...  he 
will  never  hope  for  a  sudden  miracle  to  cure  the  evils  of 
society,  any  more  than  he  would  ask  it  to  cure  his  physical 
troubles.  The  saviours  will  never  seduce  him  "  (1).  When 
Bert's  bill  on  primary  education  had  been  presented  to  the 
deputies,  such  orators  as  the  Count  de  Mun,  Lamarzelle, 
and  Bishop  Freppel,  combatted  it  most  vigorously,  and  as 
a  last  resort  endeavored  to  draw  some  of  its  p»)ison  by  ap- 
posite amendments  ;  but  tiie  Chamber  passed  the  measure 
as  the  Lodges  had  drafted  it.  The  Senate  modified  it 
but  slightly ;  and  when  the  law  was  promulgated  on  Oct.  30, 
1886,  it  M'as  found  that  all  members  of  a  religious  com- 
munity  were  to  disappear  from  the  primary  schools,  as  they 
already  had  been  expelled  from  the  others  ;  and  that  there- 
after no  religious  could  teach  in  a  public  school.  Such 
was  the  remedy  which  Bert  and  his  brethren  prescribed  for 
a  society  which  was  afflicted  with  the  disease  of  Catholicism. 
Article  YII.  had  failed  ;  but  the  Bertian  substitute  was  a 
preventative,  said  its  author,  "  against  the  phylloxera  of 
modern  society."  'Iherefore  it  was  that  at  a  banquet  of  the 
General  Council  of  Yonne,  he  offered  the  toast;  "  1  drink  to 
the  inventor  who  gave  us  the  sulphate  of  carbon  to  banish 
the  phylloxera  of  the  vine ;  and  I  also  drink  t<^  th^  framer  of 
that  Article  VII.  which  would  banish  the  phylloxera  of 
Catholicism." 

Having   given   a   succinct    account   of    the   chief    causes 

(1>  In  this  report  Bert  proposed  that  the  following  provision  should  be  enacted  by  the 
Assembly  :  "  The  municipalities  shall  become  owners  of  all  legacies  or  donations  which 
shall  have  been  made  to  schools  or  asylums  on  condition  that  they  should  be  directed  by 
religious." 


126  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

which  have  contributed  to  render  the  name  of  the  Third 
French  Republic  so  distressing  to  the  ears  of  all  faithful 
children  of  the  Spouse  of  Christ,  we  shall  devote  a  special 
chapter  to  one  of  the  most  lamentable  features  in  the  anti- 
Catholic  legislation  of  that  government — that  which  insti- 
tuted compulsory  military  service  on  the  part  of  the  clergy. 
Now  we  would  ask  the  attention  of  the  student  to  the 
Encyclical  Nohilissima  Gallorum  Gens  v^hieh  Pope  Leo  XIII. 
issued  in  June,  1884 — a  document  which  portrays  the  history 
of  the  relations  during  the  previous  few  years  between  the 
Apostolic  See  and  France  ;  which  recapitulates  in  a  most 
solemn  manner  the  evils  inflicted  on  the  Church  by  those 
who  guide  the  destinies  of  the  Eldest  Daughter  of  the 
Church  ;  and  which  finally  indicates  the  causes  of  those 
evils,  and  assigns  their  remedies.  Naturally  the  Pontiff 
begins  by  reminding  the  world  of  the  Christian  glories 
which  have  pre-eminently  distinguished  France ;  of  the 
praises  which,  more  than  any  other  nation,  France  has  re- 
ceived from  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs  ;  of  the  gifts  which  France 
has  received  from  God  in  the  natural  order  ;  and  then  His 
Holiness  laments  that  "  sometimes  France  has  forgotten  her- 
self, and  has  neglected-  the  duties  which  God  imposed  on 
her."  However,  the  Pontiff  consolingly  remarks,  "France 
has  never  given  herself  entirely  to  such  madness,  nor  has 
she  forgotten  herself  for  a  long  time."  But  now,  we  are 
reminded,  in  the  entire  extent  of  Christendom  there  circu- 
lates the  poison  of  wicked  doctrine — a  doctrine  which  aims 
at  the  complete  destruction  of  every  Christian  institution  ; 
and  in  France  the  evil  presents  itself  in  the  guise  of  a  heter- 
odox philosophy  which  has  given  birth  to  a  spirit  of 
immoderate  liberty,  and  in  the  form  of  a  secret  society  which 
has  sworn  the  death  of  Catholicism.  The  Pope  insists  that 
"  no  State  can  be  prosperous,  if  virtue  and  religion  are 
languishing  "  ;  for  without  the  idea  of  God,  authority  and 
law  lose  their  force,  governments  become  tyrannies,  the 
governed  become  rebels — such  are  the  consequences  of  a 
forgetfulness  of  God.  Again,  unless  society  has  recourse  to 
God,  its  Protector,  it  cannot  hope  for  His  blessing.  History 
demonstrates   this   fact,   and   most   especially   is    the  fact 


THE  FRENCH    IlKrLBLIC  A  PERyEClTOH  OF   THE  (HriiCH.    127 

showu  hv  the  history  of  France  duriup;  the  last  liunilrod 
years.  Theu  the  Father  of  Christeiuloin  shows  liow  for  the 
family,  the  basis  of  society,  it  is  necessary  that  a  Christian 
education  be  given  to  the  child  ;  and  how  it  has  been  on 
account  of  this  necessity  that  the  Church  has  always  con- 
demned the  theory  of  a  "  neutral  "  education.  Uninfluenced 
by  a  belief  in  a  God  who  is  Creator,  Rewarder,  and  Punish- 
er,  the  young  will  never  bend  beneath  a  rule  that  commands 
even  a  decent  life ;  habituated  to  a  refusal  of  nothing  to 
their  passions,  the  young  will  easily  be  a  source  of  trouble 
to  the  State.  Confining  his  reflections  thenceforward  more 
especially  to  the  needs  of  the  State,  the  Pontiff  reminds  us 
that  among  men  there  are  two  societies  which  are  thorough- 
ly independent,  each  in  its  own  sphere.  These  societies 
are  the  temporal  and  the  spiritual ;  but  we  must  not  forget 
that  there  are  certain  "  mixed  matters  "  in  which  eacli  of 
these  societies  naturally  has  an  interest,  and  concerning  a 
regulation  of  which  they  must  both  come  to  an  agreement. 
This  need  was  understood  in  France  by  the  civil  authorities, 
after  the  subsidence  of  the  revolutionary  turmoils  in  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  ;  and  therefore  the  two 
powers,  spiritual  and  temporal,  agreed  on  that  Concordat, 
in  which  Pope  Pius  VII.  showed  so  much  condescension  in 
favor  of  the  French  government.  The  results  were  happy, 
both  for  the  Church  in  a  revival  of  the  Christian  traditions, 
and  for  the  State  in  the  receipt  of  a  promise  of  tranquillity. 
Such  a  result,  remarks  His  Holiness,  is  much  to  be  desired 
in  these  days  of  revolutionary  enterprise  ;  now,  more  than 
at  any  other  time,  the  State  ought  to  ask  for  the  beneficent 
intervention  of  the  Church.  Nevertheless,  the  Head  of  the 
Church  is  compelled  to  admit  that  the  acts  of  the  French 
government  are  now  of  such  a  nature  that  they  indicate  an 
imminent  rupture  of  the  Concordat ;  and  he  calls  attention 
to  his  letters  to  Cardinal  Guibert  in  reference  to  the  per- 
secution of  the  religious  orders,  as  well  as  to  his  letter  to 
President  Grevy  on  the  general  hostility  of  the  republic  to 
the  Church.  Then  the  Pope  praises  the  courage  of  the 
French  bishops  in  the  present  circumstances,  and  he 
especially  commends  their  efforts  for  the  establishment  of 


128  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTOKiT. 

Catholic  schools,  despite  the  enormous  revenues  of  the 
governmental  establishments,  against  which  they  must  con- 
tend. He  repels  as  a  calumny  the  Masonic  assertion  that  in 
these  efforts  lies  a  proof  that  the  bishops  are  enemies  of 
France  ;  he  insists  that  in  defending  the  interests  of  souls, 
the  prelates  are  simply  performing  their  duty.  And  the 
Pontiff  grows  warm  in  his  commendations  of  the  zealous  and 
charitable  French  priesthood,  as  well  as  in  his  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  lieroic  courage  of  so  many  of  the  French  laity. 
On  June  27,  Leo  XIII.  addressed  a  Brief  to  the  bishop  of 
Perpignan,  accentuating  the  counsels  given  in  this  Encycli- 
cal, and  especially  deploring  the  political  divisions  among 
the  French  laymen — divisions  which  prevented  their  pre- 
senting a  united  front  at  the  polls,  and  thus  crushing  the 
Masonic  hydra  which  was  strangling  France.  The  so-much- 
needed  union,  says  the  Pontiff,  will  easily  be  consummated, 
if  Frenclimen  will  take  their  motives  from  the  Encyclicals 
issued  by  Pius  IX.  and  by  himself,  but  especially  from  the 
Syllabus  promulgated  by  his  predecessor.  "  Let  Frenchmen 
do  away  with  disputes,  the  objects  of  which  are  merely 
private  interests — interests  which  are  of  secondary  im- 
portance, Avhen  compared  with  matters  which  belong  to  a 
more  elevated  order."  We  shall  find  occasion  to  give  some 
attention  to  these  counsels  of  Leo  XIII.  to  the  French  laity, 
when  we  come  to  treat  of  the  general  trend  of  his  pontificate. 
It  has  been  well  said  that  the  history  of  the  modern 
Revolution  is  but  one  enormous  lie,  and  one  perpetual 
liypocrisy  ;  and  certainly  the  record  of  the  dissension  betAveen 
the  Church  and  the  Third  French  Republic  does  not  indi- 
cate that  the  latter  institution  is  an  exception.  Mendacity 
and  hypocrisy  were  needed  indeed  for  the  assertion  that  the 
persecuting  decrees  of  Ferry,  Bert,  and  Co.  were  merely 
actuations  of  -'existing  laws."  All  that  was  most  honest 
among  the  liberals  of  France  manifested  its  disgust  toward 
this  hypocrisy.  Laboulaye  cried  :  "  They  exhume  the  edicts 
of  the  olden  kings,  the  decrees  of  the  Reign  of  Terror,  those 
of  the  Caesars,  etc. . . .  All  is  acceptable  to  the  democrats, 
when  they  desire  to  strangle  liberty,  or  to  hunt  the  Jesuits. 
As  for  those    ordinances  which  recognized  liberty  of  con- 


THE  FRENCH  liEPUBLIO  A  rEUSECUTOll  OF  THE  CHUUCH.        12'J 

science,  religious  liberty,  freedom  of  teacliiug,  the  right  of 
association,  all  these  do  not  exist  for  our  democrats.  'AH 
for  them  ;  nothing  for  any  others,'  but  especially  'nothing  for 
religion  ! ' — That  is  tlieir  watchword."  And  the  injustice  of 
sucli  procedures  caused  Jules  Simon  to  say,  concerning  the 
majority  of  his  brethren:  "  To-day  the  republicans  imi- 
tate the  adversaries  whom  the}'  once  combatted ;  it  seems  to 
me  that  when  they  attain  to  power,  they  have  learned  only 
how  to  proscril)e.  . .  .  Do  not  make  us  say  that  you  do  not 
love  liberty,  whenever  it  troubles  you.  You  do  not  love  lil>- 
erty,  unless  you  are  willing  that  your  adversaries  should 
have  it.  If  you  love  liberty  only  for  yourselves,  you  do  not 
love  it,  you  do  not  even  know  what  it  means  ;  you  are  unworthy 
of  understanding  it"  (1).  It  was  an  easy  task  for  two  ver- 
itable luminaries  of  French  jurisprudence,  M.  Rousse  of 
Paris  and  M.  de  Demolombe  of  Caen,  to  demonstrate  in 
two  masterly  juridical  Consultations  on  the  decrees  of  March 
'29,  1880,  that  the  plea  of  those  decrees  being  founded  on 
"  existing  laws  "  was  a  cowardly  hypocrisy  ;  and  their  dec- 
laration was  endorsed  by  more  than  two  thousand  law^-ers, 
among  whom  were  all  of  the  most  illustri  as  and  most  dis- 
interested members  of  the  French  bar  ai^d  magistracy  (2). 
Certainly  the  Masonic  c<mspirators  against  the  Church 
could  not  have  trusted  greatly  in  any  "  existing  laws,"  when 
they  devised  their  new  Article  YII. ;  and  it  was  only  when 
the  Senate  had  rejected  that  article  as  too  despotic,  that 
men  were  informed  of  these  "  existing  laws  " — ordinances 
which  "existed"  with  so  little  of  vitality,  that  in  order  to 
give  any  force  to  them,  two  n^w  decrees  were  made  as  sub- 
stitutes for  the  condemned  Article  "'/IT.  In  their  search 
after  " existing  laws  "  which  mighi  c:,aish  the  "clericals," 
the  democratic  despots  raked  among  the  rubbish  of  fjjatpast 
which  they  continually  cursed  Tliey  seized  cii  all  the 
arbitrary  decrees  and  violent  me.'tsures  of  the  two  Napoleons, 

(1)  It  was  tliis  plea  for  true  IllHTty  that  caused  the  most  (listineulstierl  and  most  'enrnec* 
man  in  the  republican  party  to  become  an  object  of  detestation  to  his  olden  comrhdes. 
Smarting  under  their  inpratiluiie,  Jules  Simon  said  :  "  It  is  we  who  defend  the  republic— 
we  who  are  tryinjr  to  preserve  it  from  the  stain  of  despotism  ;  and  it  is  precisely  becauite 
nf  that  efTnrt  that  we  are.  I  win  rot  say  discussed,  hnt reviled  and  ou'raped." 

(2>  RiVAfx  :  (,V  Nf.sc  (>/  Eccict  iCK' Uol  UiMor'.  \>A.  ill.,  n.  C71.     P,;r:s.  ISK.^. 


130  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTOKY. 

and  hailed  them  as  proper  chastisements  for  the  slaves  of 
Rome  ;  thus,  as  some  one  wrote  at  the  time,  presenting  the 
picture  of  "  Democracy  licking  the  mud  from  the  boots  of 
the  Empire."  They  even  stirred  up  the  debris  of  the  royal- 
ist Restoration  which  they  anathematized  more  bitterly 
than  they  cursed  the  two  Empires ;  hoping  to  find  their 
hatred  justified  by  the  acts  of  a  government  which  they  pro- 
claimed as  "  clerical."  They  found  a  number  of  ordinances 
which  were  hostile  to  freedom  of  education,  and  which  the 
Universitarian  monopoly  and  the  threats  of  revolutionary  lib- 
eralism had  extorted  from  two  feeble  monarchs  ;  and  with 
these  testimonies  they  essayed  to  convince  the  world  that 
even  the  government  of  the  Restoration,  "  clerical  "  though  it 
was,  had  for  its  own  safety  been  compelled  to  restrain  the 
Jesuits  and  their  similars  (1),  Their  task  was  easy  when 
they  peered  into  the  pile  of  documents  bequeathed  to  France 
by  the  men  who  had  travestied  the  Principles  of  1789  ;  here 
they  were  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  laws  which  were 
not  only  sanguinary,  but  more  despotic  and  irreligious 
than  any  which  Satan  had  ever  breathed  into  the  mind  of 
man.  Certainly  these  records,  stained  with  the  blood  which, 
as  Taine  observed,  "  is  the  soul  of  the  Revolution,"  ought  to 
have  satisfied  the  seekers  of  "  existing  laws  "  ;  but  they  must 
needs  recur  to  the  philosophistic,  Masonic,  and  Jausenistic 
parliaments  of  the  eighteenth  century.  "  These  democrats," 
reflects  Paul  Feval,  "  experience  no  shame  in  donning  the  old 
ducal  wig  of  Choiseul,  the  favorite  and  accomplice  of  the  Pom- 
padour. They  loudly  applaud  the  judicial  crimes  ol  those 
parliaments  now  styled  by  history  '  the  parliaments  of  Ch6- 
iseul-Pompadour  '  ;  and  they  are  happy  in  being  able  to  imi- 
tate, and  to  resuscitate  those  despots  of  the  robe."  When  a 
similar  enterprise,  but  one  projected  on  a  much  smaller 
scale,  was  essayed  in  1825,  it  was  no  more  moderate  anti- 
clerical than  Pierre  Leroux,  who  said  :  "  That  man  does 
not   understand   liberty  who  demands  an   execution   of  the 

(1)  "  In  this  case  the  lie  is  so  barefaced  that  it  might  be  considered  a  wiclced  pleasantry, 
a  revolutionary  gaminerie.  For  the  revolution  was  wont  to  amuse  itself  with  its  victims. 
We  all  know  the  little  chant  sung  by  the  cannibals  in  the  Cafe  de  Foy  at  the  Paliiis 
Royal,   while  they  squeezed  the  blood  from  the  heart  of  Berthier,  and  then  drank  It  ; 

There  can  be  no  feast,  if  the  heart  is  absent.' "     Riyaux  ;  loc.  cit.,  p.  677. 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC  A  PERSECUTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH.      131 

oldeu  parliamentury  decrees  agaiust  the  Jesuits  ;  1  shall 
say  more— he  himself  is  guilty  of  Jesuitism."  Of  course, 
having  whetted  their  api)etites  with  the  morsels  dragged 
from  the  graves  of  the  Second  Emj)ire,  the  llestoration, 
Napoleon  I.,  the  Revolution,  and  Louis  XV.,  the  democrats 
of  the  Third  Kepublic  hastened  to  regale  themselves  with 
the  drippings  from  the  caldron  of  Gallicanism,  as  it  was  pre- 
pared during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  Undoubtedly  these 
gentry  had  no  more  accurate  idea  of  the  meaning  of  Galli- 
canism than  that  which  is  entertained  by  the  average  Protest- 
ant ;  but  they  knew  that  Gallicanism  had  been  used  by  the 
great  Louis  XIV.  as  an  engine  of  war  against  some  tem- 
poral claims  of  Rome,  and  therefore  they  determined  to  imi- 
tate the  prince  whom  they  especially  abhorred.  Th^n  we 
heard  of  dragoons  being  directed  against  harmless  old  men 
of  prayer  and  against  convents,  the  sole  defense  of  which 
was  the  crucifix  ;  then  we  read  of  the  siege  of  the  Abbey  of 
Frigolet,  so  bravely  conducted  by  a  republican  general. 
The  prospect  of  such  scenes  caused  that  serious  republican, 
Dufaure,  to  declare  in  full  Senate  :  "In  the  programme 
openly  displayed  by  an  eminent  republican  deputy,  a  dis- 
tinguished orator  of  the  Chamber,  I  find  that  there  are 
projected  against  the  Catholics  all  of  the  measures  indicated 
in  those  edicts  of  Louis  XIV.  which  accompanied  or  fol- 
lowed the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes."  Commenting 
on  this  appropriation  of  weapons  from  a  Gallicanism  which 
his  comrades  did  not  understand,  Jules  Simon  said  :  "  The 
Most  Christian  monarch  had  at  least  an  excuse  in  his  faith  j 
but  you,  you  who  represent  free  thought,  and  who  therefore 
do  not  claim  to  be  the  sole  depositaries  of  absolute  truth, 
you  cannot  pretend  to  share  in  a  doctrinal  unity.  It  will  be 
said  of  you  that  you  use  repression  for  the  sake  of  negation." 
But  Paul  Bert,  the  champion  of  the  Third  Republic  in  its 
deliberate  contempt  of  logic,  did  ncjt  quail  before  this  ar- 
raignment by  Jules  Simon.  With  phenomenal  cynicism  he 
accepted  the  allegation  :  "  Yes  ;  loe  are  the  negation.  Prot- 
estantism, Jansenism,  all  other  heresies,  are  merely  partial 
negations,  half-measures  of  days  long  vanished.  We  are  a 
negation  which  is  total  and  radical."     And  then,  as    though 


132  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

he  bad  heard  St.  Augustine's  cry  :  "  Catholicism  is  integral 
truth,"  that  is,  a  real  and  total  affirmation,  Bert  added : 
"  The  question  between  us  (the  Church  and  the  Third  Eepub- 
lic)  is  one  of  life  and  death."  No  wonder  that  Gambetta 
felt  that  he  was  justified  in  proclaiming  :  "  Clericalism  is 
our  enemy. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  FIGHTING  CLERGY  AND  THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  CANONS. 

In  1889  the  Third  French  Republic  resolved  to  drive 
the  clergy  into  the  army,  its  ostensible  purpose  being  an 
enforcement  of  an  equality  of  all  the  citizens  before  the  law, 
but  its  real  intention  being  to  weaken  that  "  clericalism  " 
which  Gambetta,  its  most  brilliant  champion,  had  designated 
as  "  the  enemy,"  to  be  combatted  with  tooth  and  nail.  Then 
a  novel  lesson  in  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence  was  given  to  the 
Catholic  world  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  Hitherto  it 
had  been  generally  understood  that  the  Church,  so  "  abhorret 
a  sanguine — is  so  averse  to  the  shedding  of  human  blood," 
that  she  does  not  allow  her  priests,  or  even  her  simple 
clerics,  to  enter  the  military  service,  unless  as  chaplains  or 
nurses,  or  in  similar  guise.  The  name  of  the  new  professor 
of  Canon  Law  was  Hanotaux.  According  to  this  parliament- 
ary canonist,  neither  ecclesiastical  tradition  nor  the  Canons 
are  opposed  to  the  enrolment  of  priests  and  seminarians  in 
the  fighting  ranks  of  the  army.  Does  not  the  great  Jansen- 
ist  leader,  Saint-Cyran,  so  insist  ?  Is  not  the  Abbe  Hous- 
say,  the  editor  of  that  one-time  famous  Trihiuie  of  the.  Clergy 
which  was  so  Catholic  that  the  French  bishops  were  con- 
strained to  condemn  it,  of  the  same  mind?  With  these 
"  authorities,"  then,  to  support  his  audacity,  our  deputy  pro- 
claimed to  his  amazed  but  admiring  colleagues  that  the 
Catholic  episcopate  and  priesthood  stultified  themselves 
when  they  In'anded  the  infamous  project  as  destructive  of 
clerical  discipline,  as  scandalous  and  sacrilegious,  and  as 
expressly  condemned  by  the  Canons.  In  order  to  arm  our- 
selves against  the  presumedly  effective  engines  with  wliich  the 


A   FIGHTING   CLERGY   AND   THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   CANONS.  133 

coufideut  deputy  wjis  equipped  by  Saiut-Cyiiiu  uiul  otliers  of 
that  ilk,  we  shall  open  the  immense  arsenal  of  controversial 
weapons  furnished  l)y  the  CoUerdon  of  Cioious.  IJut  first 
we  must  auti(.'i])ate  the  thought  of  the  reader,  who  probably 
has  been  recalling  to  mind  some  of  the  instances  of  cleri- 
cal, aye,  of  even  episcopal  lighting  with  the  sword  of  the 
flesh  in  the  halcyon  days  of  old.  In  the  first  place,  these 
instances  are  by  no  means  as  plentiful  as  is  frequently  sup- 
posed ;  and  even  though  they  all,  and  a  hundred  times  their 
number,  were  capable  of  verification  by  the  light  of  history, 
they  would  stand  forth,  not  as  being  in  accord  with  law  and 
custom,  but  rather  as  abnormal  examples  born  of  peculiar 
circumstances.  From  the  very  beginning  of  the  early  Mid- 
dle Age,  the  piety  of  the  great  and  wealthy  had  endowed 
the  churches  and  monasteries  with  lands  ;  the  interest  of 
sovereigns  had  prompted  them  to  give  the  rank  of  temporal 
lords  to  men  upon  whose  fidelity  they  could  depend.  There- 
fore nearly  every  bishop  and  abbot  was  a  feudal  dignitary^ 
and  subject,  as  such,  tt)  the  same  obligations,  either  person- 
ally or  by  substitiite,  as  the  secular  noble  ;  giving,  of  course, 
before  he  received  his  investure,  lioiniuiiim  or  homage  to  his 
suzerain.  Undoubtedl}"  there  were  many  inconveniences 
in  the  system,  autl  also  many  abuses  which  gave  rise,  in 
the  eleventh  century,  to  the  vexatious  question  of  Investi- 
tures ;  but  it  was  considered,  in  tlie  beginning,  that  the 
inconveniences  were  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  prelates  to  a  position  among  the  temporal  rulers 
of  the  earth.  And  in  nearly  every  case  the  obligation  of  a 
military  service  was  discharged  by  a  lay  substitute,  styled,  for 
that  purpose,  the  prelate's  "  man."  Again,  very  many  abbeys 
were  frequently  usurped  by  laymen,  who  assumed  the  title 
of  abbots,  and  personally  fulfilled  an  abbot's  temporal  duties. 
In  such  cases  it  should  not  be  surprising  to  find  a  record 
stating  that  such  and  such  an  abbot  fought  in  such  and  such  a 
campaign.  And  even  in  the  case  of  some  abbots  who  were 
cauouically  elected,  we  read  that  sometimes  they  were 
impelled,  by  the  exigencies  of  the  feudal  system,  to  provide 
themselves  with  military  protectors,  if  they  wished  to  escape 
spoliation.     Recourse,  therefore,  was  had  to  some  powerful 


134  STUDIES   IN  CHUECH   HISTORY. 

secular  lord,  who  would  lead  the  vassals  of  the  abbey  in  war, 
receiving,  in  reward,  some  of  the  abbatial  territories  in  fief, 
and  bearing  as  his  standard  the  abbatial  insignia  (1).  In 
these  instances  we  also  encounter  allegations  of  military 
experience  on  the  part  of  abbots.  Certainly  the  appear- 
ance of  clerics  in  the  military  ranks  must  have  been  quite 
exceptional,  even  in  the  early  Middle  Age,  since  the  olden 
annals  inform  us  that  veneration  for  the  sacred  character 
of  the  priesthood  caused  the  soldiers  to  flee  in  terror  from  a 
field  which  had  been  stained  by  such  a  sacrilege  as  the  kill- 
ing of  a  minister  of  God.  We  read  in  the  Capitularies  of 
Charlemagne  a  prohibition  of  soldiering  on  the  part  of  cler- 
ics, and  the  emperor  seems  to  have  thought  that  priestly 
combatants  were  not  a  source  of  strength  to  an  army : 
"  Those  nations  and  princes  have  never  been  victorious  in 
the  long  run,  who  have  allowed  priests  to  fight  in  their 
armies.  Certain  rulers  in  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Lombardy,  have 
thought  that  they  could  grant  such  permission ;  but  the  auda- 
cious sacrilege  brought  about  their  defeat  and  the  loss  of 
their  patrimonies.  I  would  rather  be  victorious  at  the  head 
of  a  few  professional  warriors,  than  be  forced  to  retreat  with 
a  large  number  of  unpermissible  soldiers." 

But  let  us  consult  the  Canons  of  the  Church,  if  we  desire 
to  penetrate  her  mind  on  this  subject.  In  the  year  453, 
the  Council  of  Aries  declared  that  clerics  who  entered  upon 
military  service  were  properly  deprived  of  their  benefices, 
that  is,  in  popular  parlance,  they  were  suspended.  Pope 
Innocent  I.  ordered  the  fathers  of  the  Council  of  Toledo,  in 
406,  to  refuse  Holy  Orders  to  all  who  had  served  in  the 
army ;  and  he  wrote  to  the  same  effect  to  Victricius,  bishop 
of  Rouen.  In  538,  the  Council  of  Orleans  excommunicated 
clerics  who,  having  doffed  the  military  insignia,  resumed 
them.  In  743,  a  German  Council,  held  at  Ratisbon,  forbade 
"  the  servants  of  God  "  to  march  against  the  enemy,  unless 
as  celebrants  of  the  Divine  Mysteries,  and  it  allowed  each 
prince  to  have  in  his  train,  for  that  purpose,  two  bishops  and 
a  certain  number  of  chaplains.  We  find  St.  Boniface  and 
Archbishop  Egbert  of  York  prohibiting,  in  747,  the  English 

(1)  BouTARic  .  Military  Listitutions  of  France.    Paris,  1863. 


A  FIGHTING   CLERGY   AND   THE   ECCLESIASIICAL   CANONS.    135 

clergy  to  bear  arms.  The  Capittdnries  of  789  iusist  tliat 
clerics  carry  no  weapons ;  even  the  array  chaplains  are  bound 
by  this  regulation  ;  the  p;iriah-])riestH  will  send  "their men" 
to  the  king's  aid,  well  equipped,  but  they  themselves  must 
be  content  with  praying  for  the  national  welfare.  In  816 
the  Council  of  Aix  pronounced  military  dignities  incom- 
patible with  the  ecclesiastical  state.  A  Council  of  Meaux 
deposed,  in  845,  every  priest  who  accepted  military  employ- 
ment. Archbishop  Herard  of  Tours  decreed  deposition  and 
imprisonment  against  any  clergyman  taking  part  in  an  armed 
sedition.  When  Charles  the  Bald  and  Louis  of  Germany 
excused  themselves  to  Pope  Nicholas  I.,  for  not  sending 
their  prelates  to  a  Council,  alleging  in  extenuaticm  of  their 
remissness  that  said  prelates  were  then  engaged  in  opera- 
tions against  pirates,  the  Pontiff  replied  :  "  The  duty  of  the 
soldiers  of  Christ  is  to  serve  Christ ;  let  the  soldiers  of  the 
world  serve  the  world."  Several  English  Councils  depose 
an  ecclesiastic  who  has  killed  a  person  ;  and  he  must  fast 
for  ten  years,  five  of  which  are  to  be  on  bread  and  Avater. 
Excommunication  is  pronounced  against  clerics  who  bear 
arms,  by  Councils  at  Rheims  in  1049,  at  Rome  in  1078,  and 
at  London  in  1175  and  1268.  The  prelates  of  Hungary, 
assembled  at  Buda  in  1279,  forbid  all  fighting  to  priests, 
unless  in  defense  of  their  churches  or  country ;  and  even  in 
those  cases,  they  must  not  attack,  and  they  must  never  com- 
bat in  person.  Finally,  the  General  Council  of  Trent  (1545- 
63)  confirmed  all  these  prohibitory  enactments,  taking  care, 
also,  not  to  recognize  in  ecclesiastics  the  right,  which  many 
canonists  have  claimed  for  them,  to  repel  force  by  force. 

No  Catholic  can  be  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  aversion 
entertained  by  the  Church  at  the  prospect  of  her  priests 
shedding  human  blood,  for  he  realizes  how  pure  should  be 
the  hands,  how  gentle  the  disposition  of  him  who  handles 
the  Body  of  Christ.  And  so  possessed  is  the  Church  by 
this  idea,  that  she  turns  aside  her  ministers  from  everything 
that  may  tend  toward  a  deadening  of  their  sensibilities. 
Thus  she  interdicts  their  presence  at  duels,  and  even  at  cap- 
ital executions,  unless,  in  the  latter  case,  they  attend  in  the 
capacity  of  strengtheners  and  consolers  of  the  condemned  in 


136  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY, 

their  dread  emergency.  Neitlier  can  tliey  assist  at  surgical 
operations,  if  curiosity  is  the  impelling  motive.  They  are 
not  even  allowed  to  hunt ;  but  the  reader  need  not  take  scan- 
dal if  he  meets,  some  day,  his  pastor  enjoying  a  bit  of  recre- 
ation with  the  aid  of  a  fowling  piece,  or  mayhap  evidencing, 
in  a  practical  way,  some  little  sympathy  with  the  joys  of  the 
gentle  Isaac  Walton.  When  the  fathers  of  certain  Councils 
prohibited  hunting  to  the  clergy,  saying  that  "Esau  was 
addicted  to  it  because  he  was  a  sinner, "  probably,  in  their 
own  minds,  they  added  the  qualifying  clause,  "  saving  all  due 
respect  to  St.  Hubert,"  whom  our  reader  knows  as  a  famous 
sportsman.  Indeed,  some  decrees  expressly  state,  and  all 
canonists  so  interpret  the  law,  that  only  hunting  cum  strepitu 
is  fox'bidden  to  ecclesiastics,  that  is,  the  species  of  danger- 
ous and  noisy  diversion  which  goes  by  the  name  of  "  the 
chase." 

But  some  innocent  may  wonder  how  we  are  to  account,  if 
the  Church  is  so  determined  in  this  matter,  for  those  Mili- 
tary Religious  Orders,  such  as  the  Templars,  the  Hospita- 
lers, the  Knights  of  Calatrava,  etc.,  which  the  Church  herself 
founded,  in  the  ages  of  faith,  for  the  defense  of  Christendom 
ao-ainst  the  ferocious  and  uncivilizing  hordes  of  Islam.  Such 
an  objection  would  betra}'  a  knowledge  of  history  such  as  is 
derived  from  the  theatre  or  the  novel,  rather  than  from 
proper  and  reliable  sources.  In  his  entrancing  novel,  The 
Talisman,  Scott  e\okeB  irom  his  imagination  the  figure  of 
a  soldier-priest,  a  grand-master  of  the  Templars  ;  and  rep- 
resents him  as  entering  upon  an  adminstration  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, when  fresh  from  the  battle-field.  This  is  but  one 
among  a  hundred  instances  of  gross  ignorance  of  Catholic 
laws  and  customs,  evinced  by  our  charming  Wizard  of  Fic- 
tion. The  Military  Religious  Orders  were  certainly  relig- 
ious organizations  in  the  str  ct  sense  of  the  term,  their  mem- 
bers being  bound  by  the  solemn  monastic  vows  of  poverty, 
chastity,  and  obedience.  But  their  fighting  members,  the 
chevaliers,  were  not  priests.  A  man  could  be  a  Templar  or  a 
Knight  of  St.  John,  or  such  like,  just  as  to-day  he  can  be  a 
Benedictine,  a  Dominican,  a  Jesuit,  or  some  other  kind  of 
religious,  without  entering  the  priesthood.     Each  of   these 


A   FIOHTING    CLERGY    AND    THE   ECCLESIASTICAL    CANONS.    137 

religious  military  associations  was  composed  of  tliroe  cbusses 
of  brethren :  the  knights,  who  performed  military  duty  ;  the 
chaplains,  who  ministered  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  com- 
munity ;  and  the  squires,  pages,  grooms,  and  menials,  who 
followed  the  chevaliers  to  the  field,  if  so  commanded  (1). 
The  Military  Religious  Orders,  therefore,  furnish  no  argu- 
ment for  those  who  contend  that  the  Church  could  consist- 
ently allow  her  priests  to  enter  the  fighting  ranks  of  an 
army.  But  do  not  the  bellicose  Pontiffs,  such  as  St.  Leo 
IX.,  and  Julius  II.,  and  the  many  scarlet-hatted  commanders, 
such  as  Yitelleschi,  Albornoz,  and  D'Aubusson,  militate 
against  our  position?  Not  at  all.  St.  Leo  did  not  himself 
draw  tiie  material  sword  when  he  fought  the  battle  of 
Civitella  in  defense  of  his  people,  and  of  the  patrimony  of  the 
(^lurch,  bvit  remained  in  prayer  on  an  eminence  overlooking 
the  field  (2).  As  to  Julius  II.  and  such  of  the  cardinalitial 
commanders  as  were  in  Holy  Orders  (for  many  of  these 
latter,  though  cardinals,  were  laymen),  we  do  not  read  that 
they  themselves  personally  entered  the  melee  ;  and  this 
absence  of  testimony  in  favor  of  the  contrary  supposition  is 
a  sufficient  justification  of  our  position. 

There  is  a  poetico-religious  aspect  in  which  one  may 
profitably  view  the  picture  furnished  us  by  the  anti-clericals 
now  dominant  in  the  government  of  France,  of  a  forced  asso- 
ciation of  priest  and  soldier  in  barrack  and  field.  There  is  a 
kind  of  natural  grandeur  in  the  idea,  but  which  the  Masonic 
lodges,  of  course,  did  not  perceive  when  they  conceived 
what  is  one  of  the  most  grotesque  efforts  of  modern  statecraft. 
Both  priest  and  soldier  are  the  most  magnificent  ideals  which 
can  be  offered  to  the  admiration  of  men  ;  there  is  a  strange 
identity  ofsulilimity  between  these  principles  apparently  so 
contrary  ;  with  both  priest  and  soldier  tlie  greatest  glory  is 
attained  by  sacrifice.  The  soldier  devotes  his  life  to  his 
country ;  the  priest  dedicates  his  to  the  good  of  souls.  Each 
is  the  protector  of  civilization.  The  soldier  is  the  apostle  of 
the  God  of  battles  ;  the  priest  is  the  apostle  of  the  God  of 

(1)  Liivs  „f  the  Grnml-MastrrK  i>f  tJu-  IJoln  Order  of  St.  John  of  Jmisalem.  irrit- 
ten  hi/  the  Knight-Cnmviauaer,  nn.ther  Jerome  MaruUi.  Naples,  16%.-See  also  the 
ffistnru  of  the  Temi'lnr^.  by  Dupiiy.    Paris,  16.30. 

(2)  See  our  Vol.  li..  ch.  10. 


188  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

peace.  But  we  are  wandering  ;  the  idea  of  a  Christian  sol- 
dier has  invaded  our  imagination,and  alas  !  not  every  French 
barrack  can  produce  a  Drouot.  And  it  is  not  a  Christian 
soldier  that  the  Third  Republic,  perhaps  in  punishment  for 
its  other  crimes,  is  ambitious  of  forming.  It  pretends  that 
the  new  law  will  render  priestly  vocations  more  sincere  ;  but 
we  do  not  know  that  the  French  Chamber  is  such  an  adept 
in  things  of  the  sanctuary,  that  it  can  truthfully  exclaim, 
"  arperto  crede,''  especially  since  it  assigns  as  a  reason  for  its 
confidence  the  belief  that  the  ecclesiastical  ranks  will  now 
lose  definitively  the  many  (?)  who  would  have  become  priests, 
merely  to  escape  the  conscription.  And  on  the  other  hand, 
this  fancied  judge  of  priestly  character  flatters  itself  that 
many  of  the  clerical  recruits  will  become  hardened  by  their 
military  experience,  and  will  therefore  adopt  what  it  styles 
"republicanism"  for  a  religion.  Let  us  hope  that  the  san- 
guine expectations  of  a  sagacious  Catholic  publicist  (1)  may 
be  realized,  and  that  though  some  of  the  clerical  conscripts 
may  become  "  hardened "  even  unto  roughness,  "  they  will 
not  adopt  the  principles  of  Masonry,  but  will  be  hardened 
in  their  faith  and  their  apostolate."  How  easy  it  would 
have  been,  had  the  anti-clericals  been  animated  by  a  mere 
modicum  of  sincerity  in  what  does  duty  for  the  heart  in 
their  breasts,  to  have  ultilized  the  pretendedly-needed  ser- 
vices of  the  few  ecclesiastical  recruits  in  a  sphere  which 
they  would  have  willingly  entered,  and  for  which  the  mili- 
tary history  of  France  has  shown  that  they  are  pre-emi- 
nently fitted !  And  for  a  time  it  did  appear  that  the  hospital 
and  ambulance  service  was  to  be  again  benefited  by  their  well- 
proven  and  admitted  devotion ;  but  at  last  the  Senate  (what 
a  grand  name  for  such  little  men  !)  determined  that  the  clerics 
should  be  soldiers,  and  the  priest-eaters  were  satisfied. 

(1)  D'Argill  ;  The  Centenary  of  1789.    Paris,  1889. 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIII,  131) 

CHAPTER  YI. 

THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIH. 

On  Feb.  18,  1878,  teu  days  after  the  demise  of  Pope  Pius 
IX.,  sixty-oue  cardinals  entered  into  Conclave  (1).     One  of 
the  first  acts  of  Their  Eminences  was  to  forward  to  each 
member  of  the  diplomatic  corps  accredited  to  the  Vatican  a 
protest  against  the    Sardinian   usurpation    of  the  Pontifical 
States,  and  against  all  of  the  necessarily  consequent    meas- 
ures  which   were   injurious  to   the   Church.     The  ensuing 
election  was  effected  with  unusual  celerity,  being  consummated 
on  the  third  ballot.     It  was  thought  by  many  that  this  haste 
was  due  to  the  determination  of  the  cardinals  to  avoid  any 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  German  and  Italian  govern- 
ments, as  well  as  to  a  wish  to  establish  a  precedent  which 
would  eventuate  in  a  disappearance  of  the  "  Ptight  of  Veto ' 
on  the  nomination  of  some  particular  candidate,  allowed  by 
the  Holy  See  to  certain  Catholic  powers.     It  is  certain  that 
Bismarck  had  conducted,  during  several  years,  diplomatic 
intrioTies  which  were  expected  by  him  to  result  in  a  subordina- 
tion of  the  freedom  of  the  electors  to  his  wishes  (2).     Nor 
were  these  intentions  of  the  German  chancellor  restricted  to 
the  confines  of  his  own  bosom,  and  to  a  participation  on  the 
part  of  his  agents  ;  many  were  the  anonymous  pamphlets 
which  then  appeared  in  Berlin,  Munich,  and  Prague,  advo- 
cating a  German  and  Italian  interference  in  the  next  Con- 
clave as  a  matter  of  right,   and  most   of   these    works   bore 
intrinsic  evidence  of  an  inspiration  from  the  cabinet  of  Ber- 

(1)  We  give  the  names  of  the  electors,  arranged  according  to  their  nationality  :  Itnliatis  : 
Amat  Di  Pietro,  Pacconi.  Guidi.  Bilio,  Morichini.  Pecci,  Asquii.i,  Carafa  di  Traeito. 
Antonucci,  Panebianco.  De  Luca.  Buonaparte.  Ferrieri,  Berardi.  M.maco  la  Valetta.  Chipi, 
Fran,  hi  Ore-lia  dl  Sant<i  Stetano.  Martinelli.  Anlici-Matiei.  (iiannelli.  Simeoni.  Bartulini. 
d'Avanzo  AI.UZZ0.  Canossa.  Seraflni,  Parocchi,  Moretli.  Merlel.  (■aterini,roni«.llni.  B-^rro- 
meo  Randi,  Pa<ca.  Nina,  Sban-tti,  Pellegrini.  Frenchmen  :  Donnet,  Regnler.  Pitra.  Bon- 
nechose.  Guibert,  Caverot.  Falloux  du  Cudray.  fipaniards:  Moreno,  Benavides,  (iarcia 
Gil  Paya  y  Rico.  Portunve.'<e :  Moraes  Cardoso.  ,.l„.sfna».v.-  Schwarzenherp,  Slmor. 
Mihalowtz.  Kutschker.  Pole:  Ledochowski.  Germans:  Hohenlohe.  Franzelin.  Del- 
(Jinji :  Dechamps.     Enffli.shmcn  :  Howard.  Manning. 

(3)  LucitTS  LECTOR  ;  The  Conclave  ;  Itn  Origin,  Histnru,  ar.d  Oraanizatvm,  ch.  13. 
Paris,  1894. 


140  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

lin  (1).  The  Bisinarckiaii  schemes  had  not  been  ignored  by 
the  semi-official  journals  and  periodicals  of  the  Vatican  ;  in 
the  Osservatore  Eoimoio  of  June  29,  1872,  we  read  :  "  We  do 
not  know  how  much  truth  there  may  be  in  the  rumors  to  the 
effect  that  the  Holy  See  has  announced  to  the  privileged 
governments  that  it  will  no  longer  tolerate  the  "Veto  "  which, 
through  sheer  condescension,  it  has  hitherto  permitted  those 
powers  to  enjoy.  If  the  reports  are  well-founded,  the 
Church  has  simply  taken  measures  of  precaution  against  the 
snares  j^repared  by  certain  of  her  enemies.  At  the  time 
when  the  Holy  See  conceded  a  limited  kind  of  '  Veto '  to 
France,  Spain,  and  Austria  (2),  the  governments  of  those 
countries  were  essentially  Catholic  ;  and  then  heresy  and 
indifferentism  were  not  regarded  by  those  cabinets  as  worthy 
of  an  equal  footing  with  Catholicism.  Can  we  supposes  that 
the  Church  will  ever  entrust  her  interests,  even  indirectly, 
to  men  like  Thiers,  Andrassy,  Zorilla,  or  to  some  more  wretched 
miscreant  (a  Bismarck,  for  instance) '?  Because  of  this 
impossibility  the  Holy  See  repulsed  the  eflForts  of  certain 
sovereigns  who  wished  to  take  part  in  the  Council  of  the 
Vatican." 

(1>  In  1888,  as  if  in  anticipation  of  the  Conclave  whicli  will  elect  a  successor  to  Leo  XUI., 
certain  German  pamphleteers  re-opened  the  agitation,  originally  txcited  by  iheir  party, 
concerning  the  "  Right  of  Veto."  In  a  series  of  documents  which  he  transcrihed  from  the 
Archives  of  the  Vatican  and  of  Vienna,  Dr.  Wahmiund  endeavored  to  find  a  basis  for  an 
opinion  to  the  effect  that  time  had  given  to  the  exercise  of  the  "  Right  of  Veto  "  the  prerog- 
atives of  a  veritable  "  right  founded  on  custom."  Such  a  pretention  found  many  valiant 
adversaries  ;  even  in  Germany,  erudites  like  Lingens  and  Ssegmuller  showed  that  the  gen- 
eral spii'it  of  Canon  Law  opposes  the  exercise  of  the  "  Veto  "  in  question,  even  when  that 
privilege  is  a  prerogative  of  truly  Catholic  princes. 

(~)  Certain  authors  have  claimed  the  right  of  the  "  Veto  "  for  Naples  and  for  Portugal. 
They  have  asserted  that  ing  John  V.  of  Portugal  (1700-1750)  obtained  it  in  a  Papal  RuU  ; 
but  no  edition  of  the  BuJlarium  contains  the  document.  The  claim  of  the  Neapolitan 
monarch  is  advocated  by  the  Germans,  Philipps  (Ch^irch  Lan\  Vol.  v.,  p.  868),  and  Schulte 
(Si/sfcm  of  Canon  Law,  p.  109) ;  but  their  theory  Is  demoli>hed  by  the  testimony  of 
King  Ferdinand  I.  In  the  instructions  given  to  Cardinal  Ruffo,  when  that  prelate  was 
about  to  depart  for  the  Conclave  of  1823,  the  monarch  wrote  :  "  Since  the  exiira^s  right  of 
exclusion  does  not  belong  to  the  crown  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  that  right  being  reserved  to 
the  courts  of  France,  Spain,  and  Austria,  we  trust  in  your  dexterity  to  use  every  means 
which  your  talents  may  suggest,  so  that  you  may  be  able  to  exercise  a  facit  exclusive,  by 
means  of  your  adherents  and  friends"  (Cipoi.i.etta  ;  Political  iVfeoui ("»>■.  p.  J38).  Prob- 
ably the  reason  for  the  advocacy  of  the  Neapolitan  claims  by  certiin  German  authors, 
some  of  whom  style  themselves  Catholics,  lies  in  the  fact  that  His  Majesty  (  f  Sardinia 
claims  the  succession  of  the  Neapolitan  Bourbons,  and  would  therefore  have  a  right  to  an 
*'  exclusive,"  in  the  event  of  the  Neapolitan  claim  being  supported.  It  is  amusing  to  hear 
the  German  Sagmu Her  proclaiming  that  the  right  of  King  Humbert,  as  well  as  that  of  tl;i 
Germsn  emperor,  to  the  "  exclusive,"  is  an   "  open  question  "  (Papal  Electioiiff.   p.   4~) 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIII.  141 

Certain  Germau  publicists  have  insisted  tliat  the  "  Ili<^ht 
of  Veto  "  is  part  of  the  "  llight  of  ll(>galia  "  whicli,  as  they 
claim,  is  inherent  in  every  civil  sovereij^nty  (1)  ;  and  they 
contend  that  sovereij^ns  have  a  special  right  to  this  "  Vt'to," 
because  of  the  dangers  that  the  election  of  a  hostile  Pope 
might  entail  upon  their  peoples.  Thus,  for  instance,  Ley,  in 
The  ErcJusive  mhich  the  Emperor  Exvrcise.s,  published  in 
Barthel's  Legal  Works  (2) ;  and  Hammer,  in  his  Rig  Jit  of  a 
Catholic  Prince  in  Sacred  Matt ers/m  Schmidt's  Treasnri/  {3). 
These  sentiments  are  mere  echoes  of  Puffeudorfian  theories, 
theories  which  ])ersistently  ignore  the  value  of  positive 
stipulations  ;  and  they  were  revived  in  a  pamphlet  published 
ill  Munich  in  1872,  entitled  T/ic  Rights  of  Riders  in  the 
Conclave.  This  pamphlet  was  generally  ascribed  to  the 
pen  of  Count  Greppi,  the  Italian  representative  at  the 
Bavarian  court.  Bismarck  had  just  begiin  his  "  War  for 
Civilization  "  ;  and  as  was  afterward  revealed  by  the  Arnim 
affair,  had  formed  the  design  of  hurling  the  forces  of 
Cfesar  against  the  Papacy.  All  the  German  governmental 
journals  acclaimed  the  just-mentioned  pamphlet ;  for  the 
death  of  Pius  IX.  seemed  then  to  be  imminent.  It  was  the 
appearance  f)f  this  incendiary  lucubration  that  impelled 
Windhorst  to  pronounce,  on  June  14,  1872,  these  words  in 
the  German  parliament :  "  It  is  now  a  question  of  life  or 
death.  They  are  trying  to  organize  a  National  Church,  to 
separate  us  Catholics  from  the  Holy  See,  and  in  the  next 
Conclave,  to  destroy  or  to  travesty  the  Papacy."  Of  course, 
in  combatting  the  Caesarian  pretensions,  some  Catholic 
authors  have  been  carried  away  by  enthusiasm,  and  have  been 
guilty  of  gross  exaggeration.  This  fault  was  especially 
noticeable  in  France,  during  and  after  the  days  of  the  great- 
est of  Bismarck's  enterprises  ;  but  the  reaction  against  the 
ideas  of  the  "  War  for  Civilization  "  produced  even  among 
Italian  Catholic  publicists  a  few^  who  were  like  the  French- 
men who  "were  more  Catholic  than  the  Pope."  This  small 
but  enthusiastic  school  discerned  in  the  "  Right  of  Veto" 
only  a  usurpation  of  the  right  of  the  Church — an  abuse  which 
the  Church  tolerated,  just  as  the  individual  often  submits  to 

a)  See  our  Vol.  iv.,  p.  211.  (2)  Bamberg,  1771.  (3)  Heldelburg,  1774. 


142  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

the  tyranny  of  superior  force.  Such  is  not  the  doctrine 
of  the  traditional  Roman  school.  This  school  denies 
that  any  sovereigns  possess,  in  the  matter  of  this  "  Veto," 
any  right,  properly  so-called  ;  but  it  admits  that  there  was 
good  reason  wherefore  the  Church  allowed  the  "  Veto " 
to  be  introduced  and  exercised  by  certain  princes.  This 
school  admits  the  right  of  a  sovereign,  one  who  is  a  true 
son  of  the  Church,  to  present  to  the  Conclave,  if  he  has 
received  the  permission,  a  "  friendly  remonstrance  "  against 
the  election  of  a  cardinal  who,  in  the  prince's  judgment, 
might  jeopardize  the  good  relations  between  that  prince  and 
the  Holy  See.  As  the  idea  is  expressed  by  Moroni,  who  is  a 
good  representative  of  Roman  ideas,  whatever  one  may  think 
of  the  Historical  Dictionary  which  was  composed  when 
historical  criticism  was  not  the  science  which  it  is  now,  the 
privileged  sovereign's  action  in  the  premises  is  a  mere 
"tolerated  custom."  In  fine,  as  the  CiviUd  Cattolica  re- 
marks, the  exercise  of  the  "  Veto  "  never  entailed  on  the 
cardinal-electors  any  obligation  in  justice  :  but  it  did  entail 
a  sort  of  obligation  in  jjrudence  (1).  Before  we  dismiss  this 
subject  of  the  "  Right  of  Exclusion,"  we  must  remind  the 
reader  that  said  privilege  is  not  founded  in  written  law ;  no 
Bull,  no  Conciliar  enactment,  no  pontifical  document,  have 
ever  been  adduced  as  its  justification.  It  became  a  custom, 
probably  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Middle  Age.  No  work 
treating  of  its  origin  is  of  earlier  date  than  that  by  Adarzo 
de  Santander,  bishop  of  Verona,  printed  in  1660 ;  and  not 
before  the  eighteenth  centurj^  were  any  really  critical  inves- 
tigations in  the  matter  undertaken. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  true  reason  for  the  brief 
duration  of  the  Conclave  of  1878,  nearly  the  shortest  in  his- 
tory, was  not  so  much  any  anticipation  of  possible  inter- 
ference on  the  part  of  the  foes  of  the  Holy  See,  as  it  was  the 
consequence  of  the  fact  that  almost  at  once  one  of  the 
preferred  nominees  seemed  to  nearly  all  the  electors  to  be 
the  choice  of  Providence.  When  the  first  ballot  was  taken 
on  the  morning  of  Feb.  19,  twenty-three  votes  were  cast  for 
Cardinal   Gioacchino   Pecci,    Camerlingo   of   Holy   Roman 

(1)  Series  viii..  Vol.  vii..  18T2. 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIU.  143 

Cliuivli,  wliile  the  next  favorite  candidate  received  only  seven. 
At  the  second  ballot,  taken  the  same  day,  the  votes  for 
Cardinal  Pooc-i  amountod  to  thirty-ei<^ht ;  and  on  the  following 
day,  the  third  ballot  showed  that  the  election  was  consum- 
mated, Pecci  having  received  forty-four  votes,  more  than  the 
necessary  two-thirds.  Cardinal  Donuet,  who  sat  by  the  side 
of  Pecci  during  the  voting,  used  to  say  that  when  the  name 
of  the  cardinal-chamberlain  was  announced  with  startling 
repetition,  the  future  Pontiff  shed  abundant  tears,  and  his 
trembling  hand  refused  to  retain  its  grasp  on  his  pen.  The 
Frenchman  picked  up  the  pen,  and  handing  it  to  his  pallid 
colleague,  he  whispered  :  "  Courage  !  This  is  not  a  question 
of  you ;  the  interests  of  the  Church  and  the  future  of  the 
w^orld  are  concerned  "  (1).  "When  the  moment  arrived  for 
his  assumption  of  the  name  by  wdiich  he  was  thereafter  to 
be  known  in  the  annals  of  the  Church,  the  new  Pontiff 
announced  that  he  assumed  the  name  of  Leo  XIII. 

Gioacchiuo  (Joachim)  Yincenzo  Eaffaele,  sixth  child  and 
fourth  son  of  Count  Luigi  Pecci  by  his  wife,  Anna  Prosperi 
Buzi,  was  born  on  March  2,  1810,  in  Carpineio,  a  little  town 
in  the  region  once  inhabited  by  those  Volscians  with  whom 
Rome  was  obliged  to  contend  so  persistently  in  her  early 
days.  The  Pecci  family  had  been  distinguished  in  the  annals 
of  Carpineto  since  1531,  when  Antonio  Pecci  immigrated 
thither  from  Siena,  to  which  republic  his  ancestors  had  gone 
from  Cortoua  about  the  year  1300.  Genealogists  who  have 
traced  the  history  of  the  Pecci,  remark  that  in  each  generation 
the  family  has  ever  been  noted  for  integrity,  prudence, 
patriotism,  and  love  of  religion.  The  biographers  of  Leo 
XIII.  dilate  on  the  number  of  Pecci  whose  history  is  inter- 
twined with  that  of  the  Sienese  republic  ;  we  shall  merely 
note  that  undeniable  as  are  the  civic  and  social  glories  of  the 
Pecci,  their  most  solid  reason  for  complacency  is  found  in 
the  fact  that,  like  so  many  of  the  olden  patrician  families  of 
Papal  Rome,  they  have  contributed  a  notable  quota  to  the 
most  noble  of  all  aristocracies,  that  of  the  saints  of  the 
Church  of  God.     Blessed  Pietro  Pecci,  the  founder  of  the 

(1)  T'SKRCLAES  ;  P(>}iC  Leo  XIII. :  His  Life,  and  Hia  Religioug,  Po/i7k"(i/.  and  SiKial 
Alts,  Vol.  i..  ch.  5. 


144  STUDIES   IN    CHUECH    HISTORY. 

Hermits  of  St.  Augustine,  a  Spanish  order  by  its  origin,  was 
a  grandson  of  a  Pecci  who  had  emigrated  from  Siena  to  the 
Land  of  the  Cid,  and  had  received  the  religious  habit  in 
Avignon  at  the  hands  of  Pope  Gregory  XI.,  Avho  approved 
the  Constitutions  of  his  order.  Then  we  meet,  if  we  happen 
to  visit  Carpineto,  the  portrait  of  Blessed  Margaret  Pecci, 
vested  with  the  habit  of  the  Servites  of  Mary.  And  finall}', 
the  records  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  show  us,  among  the  many 
indubitable  martyrs  whom  the  Church  has  not  formally 
recognized  as  saints,  the  name  of  Bernardino  Pecci,  who 
sealed  with  his  blood  the  story  of  his  labors  in  India  for 
the  propagation  of  the  faith  (1).  On  the  side  of  his  mother's 
family,  Leo  XIII.  was  descended  from  a  historical  personage 
who  claimed  indeed  to  be  of  illegitimate  imperial  stock,  but 
who  was  incontestably  plebeian  (2).  In  a  Chronicle  of  Cori^ 
dedicated  to  the  Conservators  of  Rome  in  1631,  it  is  recorded 
that  "  In  t,he  olden  time  the  Prosperi  were  named  Bienzi, 
because  of  their  descent  from  Cola  di  Rienzi,  the  tribune  of 
the  Roman  people  "  (3).  Commenting  on  the  genealogical 
tree  of  the  Pecci,  the  Belgian  biographer  of  Leo  XIII.,  Mgr. 
T'Serclaes,  pleasantly  remarks  that  the  drop  of  revolutionary 
blood  which  coursed  in  the  veins  of  Leo  XIII.,  joined  to  the 
Pontiff's  descent  from  the  Sienese  republicans,  might  lead 
some  Liberal  to  announce  that  it  was  mere  "atavism"  which 
led  His  Holiness  to  desire  an  amicable  arrangement  with  the 
Third  French  Republic. 

The  early  studies  of  the  future  Pontiff  were  made  in  the 
Jesuit  College  of  Yiterbo  ;  and  the  correspondence  of  the 
professors  with  the  Count  and  Countess  Pecci  shows  that 
the  boy  was  extraordinarily  pious,  as  well  as  brilliant  and 
solid  in  matters  of  study  (4).     The  bishop  of  Viterbo,  Mgr. 

(1)  T'Serclaes  ;  loc.  cit..  Vol.  i.,  p.  II.  Ci)  See  our  Vol.  ii.,  p.  .551. 

(3)  Ansrelo,  .son  of  ibe  tribune,  fled  to  Cori,  and  found  in  that  region  a  family  which  was 
known  as  the  Prosperi.  Popular  Life  of  Leo  XIIT.,  published  in  the  Roman  Review, 
La  PaJestra  ihi  Clero. 

(4)  It  is  Interesting  to  note  that  while  fiioacehlno  was  still  a  mere  child,  he  manifested 
that  love  and  grasp  of  pure  Latinity  which  distinguished  his  mature  years.  He  was  twelve 
years  of  age  when  Father  Vincent  Pavani,  the  Jesuit  provincial,  visited  the  college  of 
Viterho.  Gioacchino,  who  was  then  called  by  his  second  name,  Vincent,  addressed  to  the 
guest  the  following  tasteful  epigram  : 

'*  NomUie  Vincenti  quo  tu  Pavanc  vocaria 
Parvnlus  atque  infans  Peccitus  ispe  vocor; 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIII,  146 

Lolli,  writing  to  the  couutess  wlieu  Gioacchiuo  was  twelve 
years  old,  said  that  if  God  preserved  the  boy's  health,  he 
would  be  "an  honor  to  himself,  to  his  family,  aud  to  his 
country."  In  1824,  Gioacchino  and  his  brother,  Giuseppe, 
were  summoned  to  Rome  for  the  purpose  of  bidding  farewell 
to  their  mother,  who  had  gone  to  the  Eternal  City  for  superior 
medical  attention.  When  the  fond  pareut,  vested  in  the 
habit  of  tiie  Third  Order  of  St.  Francis,  had  gone  to  her 
reward,  Giuseppe  entered  the  Society  of  Jesus  ;  and  Gioac- 
chino resumed  his  studies  in  the  Roman  College,  which  had 
lately  re-opened  its  do(jrs,  aud  was  managed  by  the  sons  (^f  St. 
Ignatius.  Having  completed  a  brilliant  course  of  rhetoric, 
Gioacchiuo  began  his  ecclesiastical  studies  under  the  tuition  of 
such  professors  as  Perrone,  Patrizi,  Kollmau,  and  Van  Ever- 
brceck.  One  of  these  professors,  Patrizi,  after  fifty  years  of 
teaching,  had  the  happiness  of  seeing  his  pupil  seated  on  the 
Chair  of  Peter.  While  following  the  courses  of  the  Roman 
College,  our  young  Abbate  resided  with  an  uncle  in  the  Palazzo 
Muti  near  Ara  Co^li ;  but  nothing  can  be  more  fantastical  than 
the  picture  drawn  by  a  certain  biogra})her,  when  he  rep- 
resents the  future  Pope  as  frequenting  the  drawing-rooms  of 
society  while  he  bemoans  the  debasement  of  Italy,  and  is 
preparing  to  enter  the  priesthood  merely  because  he  is  sick 
of  the  world  (1).  His  time  was  devoted  to  study  ;  and  all 
his  correspondence,  as  well  as  the  testimony  of  his  tutors 
and  companions,  shows  that  he  was  conservative  in  regard  to 
the  political  afiairs  of  his  day,  and  that  he  was  sincerely 
respectful  to  all  legitimate  authority.  In  1832,  the  Abbate 
Pecci  took  his  degree  of  Doctor  in  Sacred  Theology,  and 
entered  the  Academy  of  Noble  Ecclesiastics,  an  institution 
especially  created  for  the  training  of  such  students  as  aspire 
to  the  positions  which  are  open  to  the  Roman  prelatnra  (2). 
As  a  student  of  this,  as  it  may  be  styled,   diplomatic  training- 

Qua«  C.S  virtutes  mngiiai^  Pavnne  mcutiis 
Oh  !  VtUiam  poKgim  Peccius  ipKC  sequi." 

(1)  BOYER  d'Age.n  ;  Leo  XIII.  In  the  Eye»  of  Hin  CnntempnraricK.   Paris,  1892. 

(2)  Mgr.  Giuseppe  Pecci,  a  prelate  who  had  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Plus  VI..  waa 
made  Coinriiissary  of  ihe  Apostolic  Chaiiiher  by  I'liis  VM.  ;  and  when  he  was  about  to  die, 
he  gave  all  of  his  personal  property  forthe  foundation  of  a  iJirhitma  di  fnminlui,  or  scho- 
lastlcship  in  the  Academy  for  Noble  Ecclesiastics,  to  be  perpetually  in  the  gift  of  tbe  Pecc' 
family. 


146  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

school,  Abbate  Pecci  made  a   further  course  of  Civil  and 
Canon  Law  at  the  Sapienrxi  or  Roman  University.     When  he 
graduated  from  the  Academy,  its  protector,  the  illustrious 
Cardinal  Pacca,  who  had  carefully  watched  the  progress  of 
the  young  Carpinetan,  induced  Pope  Gregory  XVI.  to  name 
him  to  the  "  domestic  prelacy  "  in  1837,  although  he  had  not 
yet  received  Holy  Orders ;  and  at  the  same  time  he  was 
appointed  a  Referendary  of  the  Segnatura,  and  a  member 
of  the  Congregation  del  Bnotigoverno  or  Commission  for  Good 
Government.     In  this  latter  capacity  young  Pecci  was  of  great 
assistance  to  Cardinal  Sala  (1),  when,  immediately  after  his 
promotion,  the  cholera  appeared  in  Rome,  and  His  Eminence 
was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  sanitary  commission  for  the 
systemization   of  succor  in   the   midst  of  universal   panic- 
On  Aug.  16,  the  Monsignore  wrote  to  his  brother,  Giovanni 
Battista  :  "  If  I  also  am  to  be  included  among  the  victims,  I 
bow  to  the  decrees  of  the  Most  High,  to  whom  I  have  already 
offered  the  sacrifice  of  my  life,  in  expiation  of  my  sins  ;   but 
nevertheless,  I  am  perfectly   calm."     "When   the  pest  had 
disappeared,  Mgr.  Pecci  prepared  for  his  ordination.     On 
Dec.  17,  he  received  the  subdiacouate ;  and  on  Dec.  24,  the 
diaconate,  after  which  ceremony  he  wrote  to  his   protector, 
■Cardinal  Sala,  a  letter  froin  which  we  take  the  following  pas- 
sage :    "  After  my  fifteen  days  of  strict  retreat,  the  Feast  of 
Christmas  approaches ;  and  my  spiritual  director  allows  me  a 
moment  of  relaxation,  in  which  I  may  think  of  what  does  not 
pertain   entirely   to   the  affairs  of  the  soul.  ...  I  trust   that 
my  joy  will  continue,  and  that  it  will  be  increased  when  I 
receive  the  priesthood  ;  but  so  far  I  am  filled  with  fright  when 
I  consider  the  sublimity  of  that  office,  and  when  I  reflect  on 
my  unworthiness.     Let  not  Your  Eminence  forget  to  pray 
for  me,  and  to  ask  others  to  do  likewise.     I  assure  you  that  I 
wish  to  be  a  good  priest''     These  words  edified  the  cardinal, 
but  he  began  to  fear  lest  the  writer  might  form  an  intention 
of  entering  on  the  life  of  a  religious,  when  he  read  :  "  I  wish 

(1)  This  cardinal  was  the  Sala  who  had  been  the  faithful  companion  and  counsellor  of 
Cardinal  Caprara,  when  that  diplomat  was  engaged  in  regulating  the  affairs  of  the  French 
Church  with  the  First  Consul ;  and  his  admiration  and  affection  for  Pecci  led  him  to  proffer 
many  wise  counsels  to  the  debutant  in  a  career  which  demands  even  more  tact  than 
wisdom. 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIII.  147 

to  serve  God,  ;iud  to  show  zeal  for  His  glory,  as  that  i)hraso 
was  understood  by  St.  Ignatius."  His  Eminence  imme- 
diately replied  :  "You  must  not  abandon  the  career  on  whicli 
you  have  entered,  and  in  which  you  can  render  important 
services  to  the  Church  and  to  the  Holy  See."  On  Dec  31, 
1837,  Cardinal  Odeschalchi,  the  cardiual-vicar  of  Gregory 
XVI.,  conferred  the  priesthood  on  the  future  Leo  XIII. 

Two  months  after  his  ordination,  Mgr.  Pecci  entered  upon 
his  first  essay  in  the  government   of   men.     Gregory   XVI. 
must  have  had  great  confidence  in  the  justice  and  energy  of 
the  young  prelate,  when  he  appointed   him   to   the   govern- 
ment of  Benevento,  one  of  the  most  difficult  positions  in  the 
Papal  States.     This  Duchy,  completely  surrounded  by  Nea- 
politan territory,  had  belonged  to  the    Holy    See    since    the 
eleventh  century ;  and  at  the  time  of  which  we  now  write,  it 
had  become  a  nest  of  brigands  and  of  Neapolitan  smugglers, 
all  more  or  less  openly  sustained  by  noble  and  apparently 
respectable  persons.     The  new  delegate  arrived  at  his  post 
in  an  almost  dying  condition ;  a  pernicious  fever,  contracted 
as  he  was  crossing  the  Pontine   marshes,   had   fastened   on 
his  ever  delicate  constitution.     But   after   a   few   weeks   of 
struggle,  he  shook  off  the  malady,    and    his    first   measures 
proved  to  the  titled  and  untitled  disturbers  of  the   province 
that  the  knell  of  their  insolent   domination  had  sounded. 
Realizing  that  smuggling  was  the   chief   source   of   all   the 
troubles  which  his  predecessors  had  experienced,  since  it  was 
the  contraband  trade  which  furnished  adventurers  ever  ready 
to  become  either  revolutionists  or  brigands,  he  visited  Naples 
in  order  to  concert  measures  with  the  royal  government  for 
united  action  against  the   common  enemy.     Ferdinand  II. 
agreed  to  the  demands  of  the  delegate  ;  and  confident  that 
the  frontier  would  now  be  guarded,  the  prelate  began  mili- 
tary operations  against   brigands  and  contrabandists.     His 
energy  infused  spirit  into  the  hitherto  pussillanimous  papal 
troops  ;  and  one  by  one  the  strongholds  of  the  inferior  order 
of  criminals   were   forced,   and   their   defenders    captured. 
But  there  remained  the  superior  order  of  malefactors — the 
rich  and  noble   proprietors   who,    in   return   for  protection 
extended,  had  alwavs  received  a  lion's  share  of  the  profits 


148  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

made  by  both  brigands  and  contrabandists.  One  day  the 
delegate  received  a  visit  from  one  of  these  rascally  gentle- 
men, a  marquis  who  pretended  that  his  feudal  rights  had 
been  violated  by  the  papal  military,  and  by  the  collectors  of 
the  pontifical  custom-house.  To  the  violence  of  the  noble- 
man's anf^er,  Mgr.  Pecci  rejDlied  with  his  usual  equanimity 
that  all  papal  subjects  were  equal  before  the  law  ;  and  when 
he  was  told  that  the  marquis  would  proceed  immediately  to 
Eome,  there  to  exert  a  powerful  influence  to  procure  the 
dismissal  of  one  who  cared  so  little  for  feudal  privileges,  he 
calmly  remarked  :  "  Remember,  my  lord,  that  you  cannot 
reach  the  Vatican  without  passing  Castel  San  Angelo." 
This  allusion  to  the  imprisonment  which  the  report  of  the 
delegate  would  undoubtedly  secure  for  him,  induced  the 
marquis  to  moderate  his  tone  :  but  shortly  afterward  his 
castle  was  carried  by  storm,  and  all  of  his  brigand-guests 
were  captured.  This  fact  will  serve  to  indicate  the  spirit 
with  which  Mgr.  Pecci  administered  justice  during  his 
delegation  of  Benevento  ;  and  every  other  department  of 
his  office  was  supervised  with  the  same  zeal.  In  1841 
Gregory  XVI.  rewarded  the  young  prelate  with  the  difiicult 
delegation  of  Spoleto";  but  almost  immediately  he  was 
transferred  to  that  of  Perugia,  then  one  of  the  most  import- 
ant offices,  from  a  political  point  of  view,  in  the  pontifical 
dominions.  During  his  administration  of  the  delegation  of 
Perugia,  Mgr.  Pecci  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that,  in 
spite  of  the  political  agitations  of  the  time,  on  more  than  one 
occasion  it  was  remarked  that  the  prisons  contained  no 
delinquent  of  any  sort  whatever. 

During  the  first  days  of  1843,  Mgr.  Pecci  was  notified 
that  he  had  been  appointed  to  the  nunciature  in  Belgium, 
and  that  he  should  prepare  immediately  for  episcopal 
consecration,  he  having  been  assigned  to  the  titular  arch- 
diocese of  Damietta.  He  was  consecrated  b}'  Cardinal 
Lambruschini,  the  secretary  of  state,  in  the  basilica  of  St. 
Lawrence  in  Pam.sperna  :  and  on  March  19,  the  Feast  of 
St.  Joseph,  the  patron  of  Belgium,  he  embarked  at  Civita 
Vecchia,  arriving  in  Brussels  on  April  7.  At  the  time  of 
his  appointment,  Mgr.  Pecci  had  no  more  knowledge  of  the 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIU.  149 

French  language  than  that  furuishecl  by  its  auak)gies  with 
its  sister,  the  Italian  tongue,  and  with  the  Latin,  their  com- 
mon mother  ;  but  he  had  begun  the  study  of  the  language 
which  he  knew  to  be  indispensable.  Before  the  steamer  which 
carried  him  to  France  had  begun  to  plough  the  Mediterranean, 
and  when  an  illness  forced  him  to  pause  at  Niraes  for  a  fort- 
night, he  profited  by  the  delay  to  take  some  regular  lessons. 
Hence  it  was  that  when  he  arrived  in  the  Belgian  capital,  he 
could  easily  make  himself  understood  in  the  principal  lan- 
guage of  the  country.  The  spirit  which  .animated  this  young 
nuncio  of  thirt3'-three  ^-ears  was  that  which  was  counselled  by 
Cardinal  Lambruschiui  in  the  letter  of  instructions  consigned 
before  the  departure  of  the  prelate  :  "  By  the  mercy  of  God 
there  is  accorded  in  Belgium,  in  regard  to  the  Catholic  relig- 
ion, and  to  the  exercise  of  episcopal  authority,  a  liberty  which 
is  sadly  wanting  in  several  kingdoms.  It  should  be  the  strict 
duty  of  the  nuncio  to  protect  this  liberty  ;  and  in  order  to 
accomplish  this  end,  the  nuncio  must  manifest  no  indiscreet 
zeal,  and  above  all,  he  must  show  no  spirit  of  party."  Tact, 
not  mere  cunning,  but  a  wise  and  Christian  prudence,  seems 
to  have  been  the  pre-eminent  characteristic  of  Archbishop 
Pecci,  even  at  this  earh'  period  of  his  life.  Archbisho})  For- 
nari,  the  nuncio  at  Paris,  whose  long  experience  had  made 
him  an  excellent  judge  of  men,  was  at  this  time  a  constant 
correspondent  with  the  archbishop  of  Damietta ;  and  in 
some  of  his  letters  there  are  indications  that  on  one  occasion 
he  had  availed  himself  of  his  greater  experience  and  of  his 
recognized  affection  for  Pecci  to  disapprove  of  certain 
procedures  on  the  part  of  his  friend.  The  reply  of  Mgr. 
Fornari  to  the  explanation  furnished  by  Mgr.  Pecci,  an 
explanation  which  was  as  moderate  as  it  was  sincere,  shows 
how  he  had  been  impressed  by  the  discretion  of  his  younger 
colleague :  "  Allow  me,  my  lord,  to  assure  you  with  all 
frankness,  and  without  any  offence  to  your  modesty,  that 
your  letter  is  a  veritable  lesson  to  me.  During  several  years 
I  have  been  aware  of  your  virtue,  and  I  have  ever  admired 
it ;  but  this  instance  has  really  edified  me.  You  might,  for 
many  good  reasons,  have  told  me  to  attend  to  my  own 
affairs,  and  not  to  meddle  with  those  of  others ;  but  instead 


150  STUDIES  EN   CHUECH   HISTORY. 

of  SO  doing,  you  tliauk  me  for  my  remarks,  and  with  truly 
Christian  humility,  you  say  that  my  letter  has  gratified  you. 
To  tell  the  truth,  I  had  already  repented  of  my  observations  ; 
I  had  realized  my  imprudence  ;  and  nevertheless  you  thank 
me.  I  am  grateful  to  you  for  the  manner  in  which  you 
have  regarded  my  indiscretion ;  and  it  proves  that  your 
nunciature  will  be  entirely  successful,  since  God  exalts  those 
who  humble  themselves.  Pardon  me,  therefore,  my  lord, 
and  bless  the  God  who  has  given  you  so  much  virtue.  And 
may  God  grant  that  I  be  not  content  with  admiring  that 
virtue  !  May  I  receive  the  strength  to  imitate  it !  "  The 
scope  of  our  work  precludes  any  details  of  the  participation 
of  Mgr.  Pecci  in  the  politico-religious  affairs  of  Belgium 
during  his  nunciature  ;  we  merely  note  that  when,  in  1845, 
the  Belgian  court  v/as  informed  that  Pope  Gregory  XVI. 
had  determined  to  confer  the  bishopric  of  Perugia  on  the 
archbishop  of  Damietta,  all  Belgium  grieved  for  his  depart- 
ure. Not  satisfied  with  investing  the  prelate  with  tlie  Grand 
Cordon  of  his  Order,  King  Leopold  I.  handed  to  him  a 
letter  to  the  Pontiff,  which  is  very  interesting  as  a  judg- 
ment on  its  subject,  emitted  by  the  deepest  politician  among 
all  the  rulers  of  his  day  r  "  I  desire  to  recommend  Archbishop 
Pecci  to  the  benevolent  protection  of  Your  Holiness. 
For  every  reason  he  merits  that  consideration.  Very  rarely 
liave  I  beheld  so  sincere  a  devotion  to  duty,  intentions  so 
pure,  and  actions  so  straightforward.  His  residence  in  this 
country  has  been  most  beneficial,  because  of  the  eminent 
services  it  has  enabled  him  to  perform  for  Your  Holiness. 
I  beg  of  Your  Holiness  that  he  may  be  asked  to  render  an 
exact  account  of  the  impressions  which  the  ecclesiastical 
afiairs  of  Belgium  have  produced  in  his  mind ;  for  he  judges 
wisely  in  all  matters.  Your  Holiness  may  accord  to  him 
your  entire  confidence."  Certainly,  this  testimony  of 
Leopold  I.,  a  profound  judge  of  men,  and  one  who,  although 
a  Protestant,  knew  the  Belgian  Church  thoroughly,  is  a 
refutation  of  the  insinuations  made,  in  after  years,  by  that 
eminent  Freemason,  Frere-Orban. 

Having  taken  leave  of  the  Belgian  court.  Archbishop  Pecci 
deemed  it  wise,  before  taking  possession  of  his  see,  to  widen 


THE  PONTIFICATE   OF   LEO   XIII.  151 

his  experience  of  men  and  things  by  a  sliort  visit  to  England. 
He  spent  a  month  in  London,  and  was  received  in  audience 
by  the  young  Queen  Victoria.     He  tlien  passed  some  weeks 
in  Paris,  and  conversed  with  Louis  Philippe  ;  then    he  set 
out  for  Rome,  where  he  was  received   most  kindly  by  the 
lately-enthroned  Pius  IX.     When  the  new  Pontiff  had  read 
the  letter  of  the  Belgian  monarch,    he   sent   the    following 
answer  :  "  Mgr.  Pecci,  recently  nuncio  to  Your  Majesty,   has 
handed  to  us  the  letter  which  Your  Majesty  addressed  to 
our  predecessor  of  dear  and  regretted  memory.     This  beauti- 
ful testimony   whicli  Your  Majesty  proffers  in  favor  of  Mgr. 
Pecci,  now  bishop   of  Perugia,   is  very  honorable   to  that 
prelate  ;  and  he  shall  certainly  experience  the  consequences 
of  your   royal   good  offices,   just  as  though   he    had    gone 
through  the  regular  course   of   nunciatures."  On  July   26, 
1846,  Archbishop  Pecci  took  solemn  possession  of  the  see 
which  he  was  to  occupy  until  within  a  few  months    of    the 
death  of  Pius  IX.,  and    in   which    he   had   an   appropriate 
share  of   all  the    tribulations,    as  well  as    of    all   the    joys, 
which  we  have  described  as  attendant  on  the  pontificate  of 
the  Pope  of  the  Immaculate  Conception.     These  thirty-two 
years  of  episcopate,  occupying  all  of  the  mature  manhood, 
and  part  of  the  old  age  of  the  future    Pontiff,    were  a   long 
and   thorough   jireparation   for  the  Supreme  Pastorate   of 
the  entire  Church  of  Christ ;  nor   was  that  preparation  too 
long  for  the  formation  of  such  a  Pope  as  the  world  was  to 
venerate   in   Leo   XIII.     It   w'ould   be  a  gracious   task  to 
recapitulate  all  the  evidences  of  his  pastoral  solicitude  which 
Archbishop  Pecci  manifested  during  this  time  ;  but  w^e  must 
refer  the  student  to  the  many  excellent  biographies  of  our 
Pontifi",  notably  to  the  one  written  by   Mgr.    T'Serclaes,   for 
proofs  that  while  exercising  his  apostolate  in  the  beautiful 
city  of  Umbria,  he  constantly  showed  that  he  was  animated 
by  a  heroic  charity  toward  God  and  man.     On  Dec.  19,  1853, 
Mgr.  Pecci  was  enrolled  in  the  Sacred  College  ;  and  two 
years  afterward  Mgr.  de  Merode,  writing  to    his   father  in 
Belgium,  said  :  "  I  have  just  been  in  Perugia,  to  visit  Cardinal 
Pecci  and  the  two  institutions  managed  bv  the  Brothers  (of 
Charity)  of   Malines,  and  the  Sisters   (of  Notre-Dame)   of 


152  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Namur,  whom  lie  has  called  to  his  diocese  for  that  purpose. 
In  spite  of  his  apparent  coldness  (1),  this  good  cardinal  is 
a  man  of  immense  zeal.  He  has  placed  his  seminary  on 
the  very  best  footing ;  and  he  is  restoring  his  cathedral. 
He  is  re-animating  all  the  ancient  institutions,  with  which 
this  city  is  tilled."  In  1849,  when  the  hordes  of  Garibaldi 
became  masters  of  Perugia  after  their  repulse  at  Kome  by 
the  French,  the  Austrians  under  the  Prince  of  Lichtenstein 
advanced  to  occupy  the  city.  Of  course  the  fearful  excesses 
of  the  modern  sans-cidottes  were  to  be  stopped,  but  the  arch- 
bishop dreaded  the  effects  of  a  foreign  intervention  on  his 
people  ;  therefore  he  visited  the  Austrian  camp,  and  prevail- 
ing on  the  commander  to  renounce  his  project,  the  pontifical 
authority  was  soon  restored  without  effusion  of  blood.  In 
1860,  when  Perugia  became  the  scene  of  the  comedy  of  the 
"  voluntary  "  annexation  of  Umbria  to  the  dominions  of  the 
Be  GaJanfuomo,  a  comed}'  which  was  played  under  the 
managership  of  the  Marquis  Pepoli  of  Bologna,  the  prudence 
of  Cardinal  Pecci,  without  any  sacrifice,  on  his  part,  of  the 
rights  of  truth,  conciliated  the  respect  of  the  agents  of  the 
usurping  power.  When  tiie  Piedmontese  Minister,  Min- 
ghetti,  sent  a  circular,  on  Oct.  26,  1861,  to  all  the  bishops  of 
the  Papal  States,  calling  on  them  to  acknowledge  the  govern- 
ment of  Victor  Emmanuel,  it  was  Cardinal  Pecci  who 
composed  the  address  of  fidelity  to  Pius  IX.,  which  was 
signed  by  all  the  bishops  of  Umbria.  Great  Avere  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  chief  prelate  of  that  Umbria  which  was  so  pre- 
eminently Catholic,  as  he  saw  the  land  afflicted  by  "  the 
blessings  of  modern  civilization  "  ;  as  he  witnessed  the  license 
of  the  press,  the  systematic  corruption  of  youth  by  govern- 
mental agencies,  the  laicization  of  religious  institutions,  the 
expulsion  of  religious  orders,  the  ruin  of  Christian  families 
under  the  pretext  of  civil  marriage,  the  protection  given  by 
the  government  to  suspended  priests,  the  interference  of  the 
government  in  the  collation  of  benefices,  and  the  enforced 

(1)  This  qualiflcation  of  "  apparent  coldness,"  applied  to  the'cardinal  by  Mgr.  de  Merode, 
will  be  understood  by  all  who  knew  the  nature  of  the  pontifical  Pro-Minister  of  War.  He 
was  a  man  of  intensely  ardent  temperament,  and  the  prudence  and  sedateness  of  His 
Eminence  mis-ht  well  have  seemed  "coldness"  to  him.  See  Fredei-ick  Francis  de 
Merode.  by  Mg<\  Bfs.so>i,  p.  121. 


THE    PONTIFICATE    OF   LEO    XIII.  153 

enrollment  of  ecclesiastics  in  the  iiiilitjiry  service.  "Writing 
to  his  family  on  December  1,  1860,  His  Eminence  siiid  : 
"  We  are  now  in  the  midst  of  the  fire  ;  and  Gt)d  knows 
when  we  shall  escape.  It  would  be  inexact  to  sa}-  that  my 
health  has  not  been  aftected  by  the  vicissitudes  through  which 
we  are  passing  ;  but  the  grace  of  God  has  been  with  me, 
and  in  all  critical  moments  I  have  received  strength  and 
courage."  On  Sept.  21,  1877,  Pius  IX.  appointed  Cardinal 
Pecci  CamerUngo  of  Holy  Roman  Church,  an  oflBce  which 
entailed  the  resignation  of  his  diocese,  and  his  residence  in 
the  Eternal  City  (1).  To  the  great  grief  of  himself  and  of 
the  Perugians,  the  archbishop  departed  for  Rome,  where, 
in  less  than  five  months,  he  was  to  be  acclaimed  as  Vicar  of 
Christ  on  earth. 

When  Leo  XIII.  ascended  the  papal  throne,  it  became  evi- 
dent immediately  that  his  intellectual  and  moral  personality 
already  dominated  the  most  virulent  adversaries  of  the  Holy 
See.  Rattazzi,  that  statesman  whom  Thiers  termed  the 
"  most  clearsighted  "  in  the  world,  wrote  to  the  Gazzeita  dC 
Italia  :  "  This  Pecci  is  a  man  of  undoubted  calibre ;  one  who 
possesses  great  force  of  will,  and  who  can  be  very  severe  in 
the  exercise  of  his  prerogatives  ;  and  nevertheless  he  has  the 
most  agreeable  manners  in  the  world.  While  he  was  at 
Beuevento,  lie  showed  great  capabilities,  and  he  i)roved  that 
he  was  of  decisive  and  inflexible  character.  On  many  occa- 
sions I  spoke  concerning  him  with  King  Leopold  I.,  a  prince 
whose  correctness  of  perception  surpasses  that  of  any  sover- 
eign in  Europe,  and  who  had  studied  and  appreciated  Pecci 
during  his  nunciature  in  Belgium.  We  talked  about  Pecci's 
great  prudence,  and  about  his  dignity  and  incorruptibility, 
those  qualities  which  inspire  in  our  governmental  fuuction- 

(1 J  The  word  Ca»u'/7iHcro,  according  to  Ducange,  was  once  used  In  reference  to  not 
only  papal,  but  also  imperial  treasurers.  Now,  however.  Just  as  during  the  last  few  cen- 
turies, the  cardinal-ca/dt/'Ji/iyo  is  the  president  of  the  Apostolic  Chamber,  and  he  exer- 
cises the  temporal  authority  during  the  interval  between  the  death  of  one  Pope  and 
the  election  of  another.  During  that  pcjrlod,  which  is  termed  the  intcrpontifiriitm,  the 
camf  Wuiyi  is  the  first  personage  in  the  Roman  Court,  since  all  the  properties  of  the  Holy 
See  are  then  administered  by  the  .Apostolic  Chamber.  Then  the  ramn-liimn  coins  money 
bearing  his  name  and  arms  ;  and  when  the  Pontiff  was  king  <tc  fnftn  as  well  as  ih-  iuyf. 
the  cnmrrliugn  used  to  appear  in  the  streets  of  the  ciipital.  during  the  ititn-}>ontifivium. 
attended  by  the  Swiss  guards.  During  the  first  eight  days  of  the  interpnntificinm,  the 
camerUugi)  can  issue  edicts  as  though  he  were  the  Pope-King. 


154  STUDIES   liN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

aries  an  insurmountable  fear  of  his  person.  His  devotion  to 
the  Holy  See  is  illimitable ;  his  inflexibility,  very  nearly 
obstinacy,  leaves  no  room  for  even  a  suspicion  of  liis  ever 
harboring  a  weakness.  There  is  no  sense  in  denying  that 
Pecci  is  one  of  those  priests  who  must  be  esteemed  and 
admired — a  man  of  extraordinary  political  farsightedness,  and 
a  man  whose  knowledge  is  still  greater."  In  the  pamphlet 
entitled  Pius  IX.  and  the  Next  Fope,  published  in  1877  by 
Ruggiero  Bonghi,  who  had  been  Minister  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion in  the  Minghetti  cabinet,  these  words  of  appreciation  had 
been  uttered :  "  Cardinal  Pecci  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the 
most  striking  characters  in  the  Sacred  College  ;  probably  no 
one  of  his  colleagues  has  so  much  energy,  and  at  the  same  time, 
so  much  moderation.  He  has  always  been  brilliant  in  his 
studies,  he  has  performed  his  duties  well,  and  he  is  more 
than  an  ordinarily  good  bishop.  The  ideal  cardinal  is  a  sub- 
lime personage  ;  but  it  may  be  said  of  Pecci  that  he  has 
made  a  reality  of  the  conception."  L'ltalie,  which,  although 
printed  in  French,  was  then  at  least  the  semi-official  organ 
of  Italian  diplomacy,  thus  spoke,  just  after  the  election  of 
our  Pontiff :  "  It  must  be  admitted  that  to-day  the  tiara  is 
very  heavy,  and  that  the- mission  of  the  new  Pope  is  not  an 
easy  one.  But  in  the  judgment  of  all  men,  Leo  XIII.  is  a 
man  of  firm  will,  of  enlightened  piety,  and  esteemed  both  for 
his  character  and  for  his  virtues."  All  of  these  authorities 
pretended  to  agree  with  the  innocents  who  thought,  just  as 
others  had  thought  in  the  case  of  Pius  IX.  during  the  early 
days  of  his  pontificate,  that  the  new  Pope  would  reconcile  in- 
compatibilities, that  he  would  proclaim  his  hearty  acceptation 
of  "  accomplished  facts  ";  that  there  would  be  an  alliance 
between  Christ  and  Belial.  The  sectarian  leaders  recognized 
the  absurdity  of  such  anticipations  ;  but  it  suited  their  pur- 
pose to  cultivate  them  among  the  less  virile  of  the  Catholics, 
and  they  even  hoped  that  such  a  suspicion  would  deprive 
Leo  XIII.  of  the  sympathies  of  the  more  sturdy  of  his  chil- 
dren. But  in  his  first  Consistorial  Allocution,  delivered  on 
March  28,  1878,  the  Pontiff  lauded  the  policy  of  his  pre- 
decessor ;  and  he  proclaimed  that  the  Head  of  the  Church 
was  no  longer  free,  he  having  been  forcibly  deprived  of  the 


THE   PONTIFICATE   OF   LEO   XIII.  155 

temporal  power  whicli  is  necessary  for  the  free  exercise  of 
his  Apostolic  ministry.  It  was  iu  his  first  Encyclical,  how- 
ever, that  Leo  XIII.  declared  categorically  that  any  reconcili- 
ation between  Rome  and  the  Revolution  is  impossible  The 
Encyclical  Iiiscrufdbili  appeared  on  Easter  Sunday,  1878  ;  and 
while  in  it  he  touched  on  nearly  all  the  points  which  formed 
the  subjects  of  his  posterior  Encyclicals,  he  laid  s})ecial 
stress  on  the  necessity  of  the  temporal  power,  declaring  that 
he  would  never  cease  to  insist  on  a  restoration  of  the  Holy 
i>ee  to  that  condition  iu  which  Divine  Wisdom  had  ])laced 
it,  and  renewing  all  the  condemnations  pronounced  by  Pius  IX- 
iigainst  the  violators  of  the  rights  of  the  Roman  Church. 
Great  was  the  disappointment  of  the  unitarians  when  they  read 
this  Encyclical.  Even  the  moderate  Nuzione  said  :  "  The 
new  Pope  does  not  curse  or  even  menace  any  one ;  and  in 
this  fact  lies  the  sole  diflference  that  subsists  between  him 
and  Pio  Nono.  As  for  the  condemnation  of  all  the  conquests 
of  modern  intelligence,  Leo  XIII.  is  as  absolute,  inexorable, 
almost  cruel,  as  was  his  predecessor.  In  this  long  document, 
you  will  not  find  one  word,  one  idea,  which  will  imply  that 
the  Church  can  ever  become  reconciled  with  modern  civil- 
ization." The  radical  Riforma  found  the  papal  pronounce- 
ment "  sweet  in  form,  but  absolute  and  uncompromising  in 
substance." 

Leo  XIII.,  like  his  predecessor,  had  insisted,  from  the 
beginning  of  his  pontificate,  that  the  position  of  the  Pope  in 
Rome  was  "  intolerable  "  ;  and  on  July  13,  1881,  the  world 
was  furnished  with  an  object-lesson  which  confirmed  the 
assertion.  With  the  consent  of  the  municipal  authorities  of 
Rome,  it  had  been  decided  that  in  the  dead  of  night  the  mor- 
tal remains  of  Pope  Pius  IX.,  then  resting  temporarily  iu  St. 
Peter's,  should  be  transferred  to  the  place  designated  for  his 
ultimate  sepulture  by  the  late  Pontiff  himself — the  Basilica 
of  St.  Lawrence,  outside  the  walls.  The  government  of  the 
Quirinal,  as  though  it  wished  to  accentuate  the  declaration 
of  Leo  XIII.  concerning  the  "  intolerability  "  of  tlie  papal 
position  in  Rome,  had  refused  to  permit  any  solemn  cere- 
monies during  the  transfer.  By  some  means  tlie  intention 
of  the  Vatican  authorities  became  public  property  ;  and  there- 


156  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

fore  wlien  midnight  arrived,  and  the  modest  procession  of  a 
hearse  and  three  carriages  set  forth  from  the  Basilica  of  the 
Apostles,  over  a  hundred  thousand  faithful  Romans  (so  the 
radical  journals  admitted)  were  ready  to  accompany  the 
corpse  of  their  revered  Pio  Nono  to  its  last  resting-place. 
Along  the  route  of  the  procession,  hundreds  of  houses  were 
suddenly  illuminated  ;  windows  were  thrown  open,  and  flow- 
ers were  thrown  on  the  hearse.  This  posthumous  triumph 
of  the  grandest  victim  of  the  Revolution,  of  the  Pope  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception,  of  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  earthly 
foes  of  Satan,  could  not  but  enrage  the  powers  then  dominant 
in  the  City  of  the  Popes.  The  men  who  were  just  then  pre- 
paring to  apotheosize  Satan,  the  sectarians  who  were  pro- 
claiming that  the  Mazzinian  motto  God  and  the  People  should 
be  changed  to  God  is  the  People  (1),  had  organized  a  band  of 
madmen  for  a  demonstration  of  hell's  impotent  rage  against 
an  honor  paid  to  the  Pontiff  who  had  hailed  as  Immaculate 
the  Blessed  Woman  who  had  crushed  the  head  of  the  Serpent 
under  her  heel.  From  various  quarters  numbers  of  ruffians 
attacked  the  procession,  vomiting  insults  too  gross  for  repeti- 
tion by  us,  and  insisting  on  the  throwing  of  the  body  of  Pius 
IX.  into  the  nearest  sewer,  or  at  least  into  the  Tiber.  The 
police  prevented  the  actuation  of  this  illustration  of  the  defer- 
ence of  the  unitarians  for  the  Papacy  ;  but  they  offered  no 
interference  with  the  insults  which  were  hurled  on  the  proces- 
sionists until  the  Church  of  St.    Lawrence  was  reached,  nor 

(1)  To-day  the  blasphemies  of  Freemasonry  in  Italy  are  not  directed  against  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Pope  alone,  nor  eveTi  against  the  Catholic  Church  alone  ;  the  sectarians  now 
openly,  as  they  always  did  secretly,  direct  their  blasphemies  against  God.  There  was  much 
to  be  admired  in  Mazzini  (See  our  Vol.  v.,  ch.  14),  virulent  enemy  of  the  Pope-King 
though  he  was  ;  and  he  would  scarcely  recognize  his  sentiments  in  the  ebullitions  of  his 
heir,  Alberto  Mario,  the  editor  of  La  Lega  dcUa  Democrazin,  as  this  enterprising  human- 
itarian places  an  accent  over  the  e  in  the  famous  motto,  thereby  making  it  hail  the  people 
as  God.  Before  Mario  had  made  this  venture,  the  Masonic  Prolctario  had  emitted,  n 
1879,  the  declaration  that  "  God  is  the  greatest  enemy  of  the  people,  since  He  curses 
labor."  After  the  shock  occasioned  by  this  blasphemy,  the  dupes  of  Freemasonry  must 
have  been  prepared  for  the  frenzied  acclamations  of  the  Brothers  of  the  Three  Points,  as 
they  endorsed,  throughout  the  month  of  February,  1882,  the  infamous  praise  of  Satan 
which  Carducci  vomited  for  their  delectation  in  the  Alfleri  Theatre  of  Turin  :  '"  Look  on 
him,  ye  peoples,  as  he  passes  ;  behold  Satan  the  Great !  He  moves  onward  on  his  chariot 
of  Are,  blessing  as  he  goes.  Hail,  Satan  !  Satan,  the  Rebel,  hail !  May  our  sacred  incense 
and  our  prayers  ascend  to  thee'  Thou  ba.st  conquered  the  Jehovah  of  the  priests!  "  We 
would  here  observe,  however,  that  justice  to  Carducci  requires  us  to  remember  that  a 
grander  mind  than  his  had  already  tried  to  rehabilitate  the  fell  monarch  of  hell ;  in  the 
Jinirmil  dcs  Dchats,  April  2-"),  18.")1,  Renan  had  essayed  (he  task. 


THE   PONTIFICATE   OF  LEO   XIII.  157 

(lid  they  prevent  the  w(niudiug  of  mauy  of  these  hy  contin- 
ual volleys  of  stones  and  other  missies.  In  the  Allocution 
which  our  Poutitt"  delivered  on  Au<;ust  4,  he  cried  :  "  Let  the 
Catholic  world  consider  the  measure  of  security  which  we 
now  enjoy  in  the  Eternal  City !  Certainly  it  is  evident  that 
our  residence  in  tlie  Vatican  becomes  more  hazardous  every 
day."  The  Pontiff  insisted,  however,  that  the  immense 
majority  of  the  Romans,  not  the  foreigners  who  had  followed 
the  Sardinian  court  into  tlie  capital  of  the  Popes,  had  been 
pained  by  this  outrage  ecpially  with  himself ;  he  had  one 
great  consolation  in  "  the  love  and  the  religi(m  of  the  Roman 
people,  who,  solicited  and  even  entrapped  in  every  way,  never- 
theless persevered  in  obedience  to  the  Church,  and  in  a 
courageous  fidelity  to  the  Pontiff,  omitting  no  occasion  of 
testifying  to  the  virtues  which  were  rooted  in  their  hearts." 
The  true  Roman  people,  and  indeed  the  majority  of  the 
Italians,  hastened  to  assure  the  Pontiff  of  the  horror  with 
which  the  recent  outrage  had  filled  their  souls ;  a  protest, 
bearing  several  millions  of  signatures,  arrived  at  the  Vatican, 
and  on  October  16,  over  20,000  pilgrims,  from  every  part  of 
Italy,  saluted  Leo  XIII.  in  his  palace-prison  as  "  the  first  of 
Italians."  "Let  not  one  of  you,"  the  Pope  replied  to  their 
address,  "  yield  to  the  force  of  events,  habituating  yourselves 
by  a  culpable  indifterence  to  a  fitnfe  of  things  which  neither 
we  ourselves  nor  our  successors  shall  ever  accept.'"  It  was 
while  the  impressions  produced  by  the  scandal  of  July  13, 

1881,  were  still  fresh  in  his  mind,  that  Leo  XIII.  composed 
the  Encyclical  Etsi  )ins,  which  he  published  on  February  15, 

1882.  After  a  description  of  the  efforts  to  unchristianize 
Italy,  put  forth  by  the  sectarians  by  means  of  the  suppres- 
sion of  religious  orders,  by  the  confiscation  (^f  ecclesiastical 
property,  and  by  the  secularization  of  matrimony  and  of 
instruction,  the  Pontiff  reminded  the  Italians  that  it  was  to 
the  Popes  that  they  owed  the  fact  that  they  had  not  become 
the  prey  of  barbarians  and  of  Mohammedans  ;  that  it  was  to 
the  Popes  that  they  principally  owed  their  pre-eminent  iiosi- 
tion  in  the  world  of  art ;  and  that  it  was  to  the  Popes  that  they 
owed  that  peace  which  comes  from  a  unity  of  faith.  This 
civilizing  and  pacifying  power  the  Church  and  the  Roman 


158  STUDIES  IN  CHUKCH  HISTORY. 

Pontiffs  have  never  lost,  and  precisely  because  that  power  is 
a  necessary  effect  of  the  Catholic  doctrines.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  who  pose  as  enthusiastic  defenders  of  Italy, 
even  while  they  inundate  her  with  perverse  teachings,  are 
destroyers  of  their  country.  History,  and  very  recent  history, 
shows  the  excesses  to  which  these  wicked  doctrines  lead. 
If  Italy  has  not  yet  experienced  these  excesses  so  much  as 
some  other  countries,  it  is  because  the  true  faith  has  so  pro- 
foundly penetrated  the  masses  of  the  people  ;  but  woe  to  Italy* 
if  she  allows  herself  to  be  seduced  !  Then,  more  ungrateful 
than  other  peoples,  she  will  suffer  more  terrible  punishments. 
The  Pope  now  proceeds  to  indicate  the  remedies  for  the 
desolation  which  he  has  depicted ;  and  in  the  first  place  he 
calls  on  the  Italians  to  shake  off  that  lethargy,  in  which, 
unaccustomed  to  the  struggles  of  modern  times,  they  are 
habitually  wrapped.  They  must  found  Catholic  societies  for 
the  young,  for  the  working  classes,  and  for  the  poor.  They 
must  sustain  the  Catholic  press,  and  combat  all  anti-Catholic 
journals.  All  good  writers,  of  whom  there  is  an  abundance 
in  Italy,  should  act  in  accordance  with  a  pre-determined 
plan  ;  they  should  use  language  both  calm  and  easily  under- 
stood ;  and  all  wealthy  Catholics  should  encourage  these 
writers.  Finally,  the  Pontiff  calls  on  the  Italians  to  con- 
tribute largely  to  the  support  of  the  ecclesiastical  seminaries, 
now  so  prostrate  under  the  blows  of  the  robbers  ;  and  he 
asks  them  to  imitate  the  Catholics  of  France,  who  acted  so 
nobly  when  they  were  victims  of  similar  injustice. 

In  the  years  1881  and  1882,  there  happened  two  incidents 
which  showed  most  eloquently  the  value  of  the  assurances 
given  to  the  world  by  the  government  of  the  Quirinal,  to 
the  effect  that  the  spiritual  authority  of  the  Pope,  and  the 
extra-territoriality  of  the  Vatican,  were  secure  under  its 
protection.  On  Jan.  28,  1881,  the  Court  of  Cassation  con- 
firmed a  decision  of  the  Koman  tribunals,  according  to  which 
the  government  could  close,  destroy,  or  devote  to  other  piir- 
poses,  any  church  in  its  dominions ;  the  cardinal-vicar  of 
His  Holiness  or  any  diocesan  prelate  might  protest,  but  the 
court  decided  that  though  the  Italian  government  recognized 
the  independence  of  the  spiritual  power,  the  State  could 


THE   PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO   XIII.  159 

dispose  of  everythiug  connected  with  divine  worship  at  its 
pleasure.  Truly  an  audacious  proceeding ;  but  it  was  no 
more  barefaced  in  its  audacity  than  the  expulsion  of  thou- 
sands of  nuns  from  their  convents,  and  the  confiscation  of 
the  dowries  which,  on  the  occasion  of  their  profession,  their 
fuiuilies  had  given  for  their  sustenance.  A  proof  of  the 
insincerity  of  the  promise  that  the  Vatican  and  its  precincts 
should  enjoy  the  privilege  of  extra-territoriality,  an  assurance 
that  was  given  immediately  after  the  crime  of  Sept.,  1870, 
was  furnished  in  1882,  when  an  engineer  named  Martinucci, 
having  been  dismissed  from  the  service  of  His  Holiness, 
applied  to  the  civil  tribunals  of  Eome  for  an  order  compell- 
ing the  Pontiff  to  pay  some  alleged  arrears  of  wages.  The 
courts  perforce  denied  the  application  ;  but  they  asserted 
their  competence  to  judge  in  that  and  similar  cases,  thus 
openly  nullifying  the  Law  of  Guarantees,  which  acknowledged 
the  "  sovereign  rights  "  of  the  Pope,  and  denied  to  the  royal 
government  any  right  to  exert  power  within  the  limits  of  the 
Vatican.  Certainly  Pius  IX.  was  not  unreasonable,  when, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  tender  of  the  Guarantees  for  his 
acceptance,  he  replied  :  "  Victor  Emmanuel  guarantees  all 
this  ;  but  who  guarantees  Victor  Emmanuel?  " 

We  have  alluded  to  the  confiscation  of  ecclesiastical  and 
religious  property  by  the  Italian  unitarian  government. 
That  measure  is  so  necessarily  a  concomitant  of  any 
Masonic  advent  to  power  in  a  Catholic  country,  and  its  raison 
d  etre  and  its  consequences  are  so  well  understood  by  the 
Catholic  reader,  that  we  need  say  no  more,  while  treating  of 
the  pontificate  of  Leo  XIII,  than  that  this  confiscation  was 
nearly  universal.  A  few  religious  institutions  were  allowed 
to  preserve  a  semblance  of  ownership  over  their  property  ; 
but  in  practice  that  preservation  was  derisory.  All  those 
favored  institutions  were  required  to  convert  their  property 
into  Italian  governmental  bonds  ;  in  other  words,  the  govern- 
ment put  into  its  cofters  so  much  good  money  as  its  agents 
deemed  necessary  to  give  it,  after  a  replenishment  of  their 
own  pocket-books  ;  and  the  victims  received  the  alleged 
value  of  their  property  in  pieces  of  pai)er  wliic-h  were  of  very 
problematical  value  at  their  best,  and  might  be  worth  nothing 


160  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

at  any  time.  Among  the  institutions  which  were  affected  by 
this  financial  chicanery,  was  the  Congregation  of  the  Propa- 
ganda, so  pre-eminently  Catholic  and  international,  and 
which  is  truly  the  right  arm  of  the  Holy  See  in  all  missionary 
countries.  No  other  light  than  that  which  emanates  from  the 
Dark  Lantern  could  have  discerned  in  the  Propaganda  an 
Italian  institution,  one  supposed  to  be  properly  subject  to 
Italian  quasi-confiscatory  proceedings  ;  three-fourths  of  its 
revenues  were  derived  from  France,  and  Italy  furnished  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  balance.  An  appeal  was  made  to  the 
tribunals,  while  Leo  XIII.  protested,  through  his  nuncios,  to 
all  the  courts  with  which  the  Holy  See  preserved  official  rela- 
tions ;  but  the  Court  of  Cassation,  on  June  29, 1884,  decided 
in  favor  of  the  government.  Of  course  the  Pontiff  had 
known  that  the  appeal  of  the  Propaganda  would  be  useless  ; 
hence  in  order  to  protect  the  interests  of  the  missions  in  the 
future,  he  had  ordered,  on  March  15,  that  no  more  funds 
for  the  propagation  of  the  faith  should  be  sent  to  Rome,  but 
that  said  funds  should  be  thereafter  managed  by  eleven 
procurators  in  Europe,  three  in  Asia,  one  in  Africa,  seven  in 
North  and  South  America,  and  one  in  Oceanica. 

In  1881  the  directing  spirits  of  Italian  Masonry  conceived 
the  project  of  a  Universal  Masonic  Congress,  to  be  held  in 
the  Eternal  City  in  the  following  year.  The  design  was 
announced  in  Nov.,  1881,  by  Le  Monde  Ma^onniqne,  and  the 
Rivista  Massonica  thus  explained  the  reason  of  the  Congress  : 
"  The  Revolution  went  to  Rome,  in  order  to  fight  the  Pope, 
face  to  face ;  in  order  to  bring  together,  under  the  dome  of 
St.  Peter's,  the  champions  of  human  reason  ;  in  order  to 
give  gigantic  proportions  to  Freemasonr}',  by  assembling 
its  members  in  the  very  lieai-t  of  the  capital  of  the  world. 
There  Freemasonry  will  pitilessly  attack  all  religions  which 
profess  a  belief  in  a  God  and  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul."  The  frankly  logical  declarations  of  this  and  similar 
announcements,  an  exhibition  of  a  daring  logic  which  is 
peculiar  to  the  Masons  of  the  Latin  race,  terrified  the  less 
logical  minds  of  the  would-be  "  conservative  "  Masons  of 
England  and  Germany  ;  those  of  England  refused  to  com- 
mit themselves  to  an  impiety  which  was   too    glaring,   and 


THE  rOKTIFICATE  OF  LEO   XIII.  IGl 

those  of  German}'  yielded  to  the  piesHure  of  Bismarck,  whc 
sympathized  with  the  fear  of  the  Italian  cabinet  that  the  Pope 
might  be  forced  to  abandon  Eome — a  proceeding  which  the 
men  of  the  Quirinal  have  always  dreaded,  not  only  because 
of  the  pecuniary  loss  which  it  would  entail  upon  Italy,  but 
because  of  the  probability  that  it  would  ultimately  result  in 
a  forcible  restoration  of  the  temporal  power  (1).  The  latest 
ambition  of  the  sectarians  was  the  cause  of  several  impor- 
tant utterances  on  the  part  of  Leo  XIII.  which  will  interest 
the  student.  On  Feb.  15,  1882,  in  the  Encyclical  Et.si  )ios, 
the  Pontiff  said  :  "  Kome,  the  most  august  of  Christian  cities, 
is  opened  to  all  the  enemies  of  the  Church  ;  profane  innova- 
tions of  every  kind  stain  her  soiJ  ;  here  and  there  temples 
and  schools  are  dedicated  to  heresy.  It  "vould  even  seem 
that  during  the  current  year  Rome  is  to  be  the  scene  of  a 
solemn  gathering  of  the  leaders  and  representatives  of  that 
sect  which  is  the  most  <irulent  of  all  in  its  hostility  to 
Catholicism.  There  is  no  mystery  as  to  the  reasons  which 
have  militated  for  the  choice  of  Home  as  the  scene  of  this 
demonstration.  The  sectarians  wish,  by  means  of  this  o\it- 
rageous  provocation,  to  satiate  their  hatred  for  the  Catholic 
Church  ;  they  intend  to  bring  their  inceudiaiy  torches 
nearer  to  the  Roman  Pontificate,  by  an  attack  on  its  place 
of  residence.  . . .  More  prudent  than  the  children  of  light, 
these  sectarians  have  already  dared  much  ;  although  infer- 
ior in  number,  they  are  powerful,  because  of  their  cunning 
and  wealth,  and  they  have  succeeded  in  kindling  am  org  us 
a  conflagration  of  miseries.  Therefore  let  all  the  lovers  of 
the  Catholic  name  under?  tand  that  the  time  has  come  for 
an  abandonment  of  lethargy  ;  let  them  realize  that  men  are 
never  more  easily  ojipressed  than  at  the  time  when  they 
sleep  in  cowardly  indolence."  And  on  Oct.  17,  1882.  in  his 
address  to  the  Italian  pilgrims.  His  Holiness  said  :  "  The 
sects,  ever  attentive  in  their  warfare  on  the  Church  ol  Jesus 

(1)  IQ  September,  1870,  thrnuRh  the  me  Hum  of  Diamilla-Miiller.  Victor  Emminuel  con- 
ducted a  series  of  intrigues,  the  object  of  wtiich  was  to  prevent  Pius  IX.  from  r-tlrinirtd 
I  foreign  country.  These  neoroilations  are  detiiiled  in  the  curious  woil(  rtti:led  The 
Secret  Pnlicif  iif  the  ItaJiav  Gmrrtiniriit.  v\).  12.  Turin,  18>J0.  As  for  the  ohject  of 
the  more  earnest  and  more  loplcal  Masons  in  188. -'83,  the  expul  ion  of  the  Pontiff  from 
Rome,  it  was  plainly  proclaimed  by  AIl)erto  Maho,  in  bis  Leca  deUa  Demncraziti 
Oct.,  1881. 


162  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

Christ,  and  ever  ready,  if  they  could  succeed,  to  banish 
Catholicism  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  are  now  growing  in 
number,  power,  and  audacity.  Their  aims  are  directed 
especially  against  Italy,  where  the  Catholic  faith  is  so 
deeply  rooted,  and  whence,  from  the  seat  of  the  Supreme 
Pastor,  the  Catholic  world  receives  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  benefits  of  the  Redemption.  Therefore,  in  all  the 
Congresses  which  these  sects  have  held  this  year  in  many 
cities  of  Europe,  their  eyes  have  been  directed  on  Catholic 
Italy,  and  they  have  determined  to  hold  a  Universal  Con- 
gress in  the  centre  of  Catholicism,  and  to  deliver  a  blow  on 
the  foundation-stone  of  the  Christian  edifice,  as  a  haughty 
defiance  of  the  Church  herself.  . . .  Thus  it  is  that  the 
specious  promises,  made  from  the  beginning  (of  the  revolu- 
tion) for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  simjDle,  that  the 
Catholic  religion  would  be  preserved  intact  in  Italy,  that  the 
person  of  the  Roman  Pontifi"  would  be  respected,  and  that 
the  exercise  of  the  spiritual  power  of  the  Papacy  would  be 
secured — all  these  promises  have  been  belied  by  events,  and 
are  now  confronted  by  open  hostility  against  the  Church  and 
her  head.  .  . .  Remember,  my  children,  that  there  is  in  Italy 
and  in  Rome  a  party  which  threatens  to  invade  our  Apostolic 
palace,  and  to  reduce  us  to  a  captivity  more  unendurable  than 
exile."  The  Universal  Congress  of  Freemasonry  was  not  held 
in  Rome  ;  but  when  Francesco  Crispi  attained  to  power,  the 
sectarians  displayed  an  increase  of  energy.  On  Oct.  10, 1890, 
the  Grand-Master  of  the  United  Orients  of  Italian  Masonry, 
Adriano  Lemmi,  sent  the  following  instruction  to  all  the 
Lodges  in  his  jurisdiction  :  "  The  edifice  which  the  brethren 
are  now  erecting  will  not  be  regarded  as  complete,  until 
Italy  makes  a  present  to  humanity,  in  the  shape  of  the  rub- 
bish which  will  be  left  by  the  destruction  of  the  great  enemy. 
The  enterprise  advances  rapidly.  . .  .  The  fidelity  of  the 
Brother  of  the  Thirty-third  Degree  (Crispi),  who  is  at  the  head 
of  the  political  power,  is  a  guarantee  that  the  Vatican  will 
fall,  under  the  blows  of  our  vivifying  mallet  (sic).  But  it  is 
necessary  that,  at  the  coming  elections,  at  least  400  of  our 
brethren  be  chosen  as  deputies  for  the  Legislative  Cham- 
ber. . . .  Our   efforts  will  be    strenuously  combatted   by  the 


THE    PONTIFICATE   OF    LEO    XIII.  IG^J 

leader  of  the  priests  aud  by  his  vile  slaves.  . . .  The  Graiid 
Orient  invokes  the  Geuins  of  Humanit}',  to  the  end  that  the 
brethren  put  forth  all  their  energies  in  order  to  separate 
the  stones  of  the  Vatican,  and  to  then  use  them  in  the  erection 
of  the  temple  of  an  emancipated  nation."  Aud  in  tlie 
discourse  which  he  pronounced  in  Bologna,  during  his 
electoral  tour  of  1892,  the  same  Grand-Master  explicdtly 
avowed  the  Masonic  guilt  of  all  the  charges  which  Leo  XIII. 
made  against  the  sect :  "In  order  to  form  itself,  the  Italian 
State  must  combat  all  religions;  it  must  oppose  the  Enrthly 
City  to  the  City  of  God.  When  that  State  addresses  the 
people,  its  word  can  be  no  other  than  a  human  word — the 
word  of  science  and  of  right.  In  that  State,  the  type  of  a 
lay  State  will  be  incarnated  in  the  school,  in  the  family,  and  in 
every  manifestation  of  public  life.  There  must  be  no  more 
thought  of  a  sacramental  basis  for  the  family ;  there  is  hut 
one  sacrament — love.  Once  that  we  admit  civil  marriage,  we 
necessarily  open  the  door  to  divorce.  And  ivhy  should  ive 
maintain  a  31inistry  of  Worship  ?  If  any  believe  in  a  future 
life,  let  such  persons  provide  such  a  Ministry  for  themselves  ! 
Let  such  persons  buy  their  Indulgences,  when  they  think 
that  they  need  them  !  The  State  ought  not  be,  and  cannot 
be  their  go-between.  But  I  hear  some  say  that  all  this 
implies  a  thorough  revolution  in  every  order  of  the  State.  It 
does  imply  that  revolution  ;  and  such  is  the  way  in  ivhich 
we  must  march.'"  After  such  manifestations  of  candor,  it 
would  be  unjust  to  accuse  Masonry  of  hypocrisy ;  and  it 
would  be  equally  unjust  to  Leo  XIII.  and  his  last  ten  pre- 
decessors (from  Clement  XII.,  who  first  condemned  the  sect, 
down  to  Pius  IX.),  to  charge  them  with  misrepresentation  of 
the  aims  of  the  votaries  of  the  Dark  Lantern.  It  had  been 
believed  by  many  innocents,  even  in  Italy,  as  well  as  in  these 
United  States,  that  in  attacking  Pius  IX.  and  Leo  XIII.,  the 
sectarians  warred  only  on  the  sacerdotal  monarchs  of  the 
Roman  States  ;  but  in  his  discourse  at  Genoa,  Lemmi  pro- 
claimed exultantly  that  the  hatred  of  his  order  was  cherished 
in  regard  to  the  teaching-priest,  as  well  as  for  the  pricst-kiug  : 
"  Yes,  my  dear  brothers  ;  we  must  fight  not  only  against  that 
pretender  in  the  Vatican  who  plots  against  the  unity  of  our 


164  STUDIES    IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

country,  but — and  let  us  at  last  proclaim  it  before  the 
world  ! — against  that  Pontiff  who  poses  as  the  champion  of 
the  disinherited  classes  in  order  to  more  easily  enslave  them 
under  the  yoke  of  fanaticism. . .  .  Agaiust  that  Pontiff  we 
'.oust  wage  unrelenting  war.  Nor  does  our  order  require 
merely  aspirations  from  you  ;  it  wants  acts,  now  that  it  finds 
in  front  of  itself  an  enemy  who  does  not  hide  himself ;  an 
enemy  who  is  never  idle  ;  an  enemy  who  brazenly  descends 
into  the  arena  of  civic  struggle."  At  Milan,  the  Grand- 
Master  thus  perorated  :  "  Although  the  Papacy  is  now  a 
mere  phantom  wandering  among  some  ruins,  it  emits  some 
eclat  from  the  Vatican.  It  defies  the  world  with  its  Cross, 
its  Siimma  Theologica  of  St.  Thomas,  its  Syllabus;  and  a 
numerous  multitude  prostrates  itself  and  adores.  .  . .  We 
declare  war  against  this  clerical  conspiracy  ;  and  it  must  be  a 
war  without  mercy.  All  those  who  invoke  the  past  are 
partisans  of  clericalism  and  foes  of  Freemasonry  "  (1).  To 
these  and  many  similar  ebullitions  of  the  Masonico-Liberal 
guides  of  the  destinies  of  "  New  Italy,"  Leo  XIII.  responded 
in  a  letter  to  tlie  Italians,  dated  Dec.  8,  1892  :  "  In  a  matter 
of  such  importance  (resistance  against  the  wiles  of  Masonry), 
£i  matter  in  which  seduction  is  now  so  easy,  the  Christian 
must  beware  of  the  first  step  in  the  road  of  danger  ;  he  must 
avoid  the  slightest  danger,  and  eschew  every  occasion  of  fall ; 
he  must,  in  fine,  follow  the  evangelical  counsels,  preserving 
in  his  heart  the  simplicity  of  the  dove  and  the  wisdom  of 
;the  serpent.  Let  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  families  beware 
'of  admitting  into  the  intimacy  of  their  firesides  persons 
whose  religious  sentiments  are  not  above  suspicion.  Let 
>them  inquire  whether  under  the  guise  of  a  friend,  a  teacher, 
•or  a  physician,  there  be  not  hidden  an  emissary  of  the  sect. 
Alas !  into  how  many  families  the  wolf  has  penetrated, 
while  he  wore  the  semblance  of  a  lamb !  "  To  these  counsels 
of  the  Father  of  the  Faithful,  the  Grand-Master  replied  in  an 
instruction  from  Naples  :  "  The  Law  of  Papal  Guarantees  is  a 
permanent  menace  for  the  country  ;  Freemasonry  has  con- 
tinually clamored  for  its  abolition.  A  law  which  establishes 
privileges,    and    which   secures   a   monstrous   impunity   to 

(1)  Unitd  Cattolica,  Aur.  6.  1892. 


THE   PONTIFICATE   OF   LEO   XIII. 


165 


parricide,  is  esseutially  tyrjumii-iil.  And  parricides  are 
never  wanting.  From  tlie  Vatican  a  vast  conspiracy  spreads 
itself  throughout  Europe  ;  unions  of  every  kind  are  multiplied, 

and  thousands  of  fanatics  acclaim  the  Pope-King The 

Quirinal  and  the  Vatican  are  now  face  to  face  ;  now  the  long 
conflict  between  Pontiff  and  Prince  is  to  be  settled  defin- 
itively ;  we  will  not  leave  the  settlement  to  posterity.  The 
ri'dits  of  lavmen  are  about  to  rise  superior  to  ecclesiastical 
usurpations." 

We  should  now  proceed  to  a  consideration  of  the  relations 
between  Pope  Leo  XIII.  and  the  various  peoples  of  Chris- 
tendom ;  but  some  of  those  relations  were  of  importance  suffi- 
cient to  demand  special  chapters  for  their  treatment.  Spain 
furnishes  the  sole  material  for  our  present  consideration. 
Unlike  his  immediate  predecessors,  Leo  XIII.  had  very  little 
trouble  with  the  Spanish  government.  With  the  Spanish 
l)ishops,  priests,  and  people,  since  their  history  has  been 
nearly  always  synonymous  with  devotion  to  the  Holy  See, 
he  could  have  expected  no  difficulty.  However,  there 
occurred  two  incidents  in  Spain,  daring  this  pontificate, 
which  are  interesting  ;  one  because  it  illustrates  an  important 
point  of  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence,  and  the  other,  because, 
although  not  very  extraordinary  in  itself,  it  helped  to  illus- 
trate the  retreat  of  Bismarck  on  Canossa.  The  first  incident 
arose  from  a  misconception,  on  the  part  of  an  eminent  Span- 
ish journalist,  of  the  prerogatives  of  a  Papal  nuncio  in  face 
of  the  bishops  of  a  country,  to  the  government  of  which  he 
is  accredited.  Ramon  Nocedal,  editor  of  El  Sigh  Fuftiro,  an 
excellent  Catholic  journal,  was  an  ardent  Catholic  himself, 
but  possessed  of  a  zeal  which  often  impelled  him  to  indiscre- 
tions. Like  all  good  Spaniards,  he  detested  the  Masonic 
regime,  under  which,  for  the  punishment  due  to  their  sins, 
God  has  permitted  the  Iberian  peninsulars  to  languisli  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  last  hundred  years  ;  therefore,  when 
he  read  that  Mgr.  Rampolla  del  Tindaro,  the  nuncio  at 
Madrid,  had  declared  publicly  that  his  relations  with  the 
Spanish  cabinet  were  most  cordial,  the  fiery  Carlist  could  not 
contain  his  indignation.  He  did  not  remember  that  a  nuncio, 
like  all  other  ambassadors,  could  very  properly  say,  when 


166  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

speaking  diplomatically,  that  things  personally  and  really 
unpleasant  were  officlalUj  enjoyable.     The  Sigh  Futuro  told 
its  readers  that  the  relations  between  the  Spanish  Masonic 
government  were  very  uncordial,  and  that  they  could  be  of 
no  other  nature.     This  manifestation  of  Carlistic  and  Catholic 
zeal  might  have  been  regarded  as  mere   imprudence  ;  but 
Nocedal   contended  that  the  authority  of  the  bishops  was 
superior  to   that  of  the  nuncio  in  things  which  bear  on  the 
relations  between  Church  and  State,  and  that  a  nunciature  is 
merely  a  diplomatic  mission  which  is  often  a  mere  network 
of  human  considerations,  and  that  the  bishops  were  not 
bound  to  defer  to  the  words  of  the  Apostolic  envoy.     The 
consequence  of  this  ebullition  was  a  communication  from 
Cardinal  Jacobini,  dated   April  13,    1885,   in  which   Mgr. 
Rampolla   was  directed  to  make  it  known  that  the  theories 
of  the  Slglo  Fataro  were  dangerous,  as  being  redolent  of  that 
pest  of  Catholic  Germany,  Febronianism.     As  the  cardinal- 
secretary  wrote,  the  Pope  is  the  supreme  pastor  of  all  bishops, 
as  well  as  of  the  clergy  and  of  the  laity ;  therefore  he  has 
the  right  to  interfere  in  diocesan  affairs,  when  he  deems  it 
necessary  to  so  interfere.     The  nuncios  are  delegates  of  the 
Holy  See,  in  the  form  and  measure  assigned  by  the  Pontiff 
to  their  respective  missions  ;  therefore  it  is  incorrect  to  say 
that  their  mission  is  purely   diploraatical.     A  nuncio  is  not 
subject  to  the  bishops  of  the  country  to  which  he  is  delegated  ; 
and  consequently,  added  the  cardinal,  "  the  bishops  have  no 
right  to  determine  his  prerogatives,  and  still  less  can  they 
emit  a  judgment  as   to    the  legality  of  his  acts.     On  the 
contrary,  those  acts  must  be  respected  by  both  the  bishops 
and  their  subjects,"  who  always  have,  however,  the  right  of 
appeal  to  the  Holy  See  in  case  of  abuse.     And  the  cardinal 
was  careful  to  note  that "  when  certain  acts  of  a  nuncio  are 
known  to  the   Holy  See,  and  they  are  not  condemned,  thej 
may  reasonably  be  regarded  as  emanating  from  the  Holy 
See   itself."     The  relations  between  the    Church   and   tlie 
State  interest  every  Catholic  in  the  world,  and  therefore  they 
pertain  to  the   competence  of  the  Head  of  the  Church,  and 
consequently  to  the  competence  of  his  delegates,  the  nuncios  ; 
it  is  incorrect,  therefore,  concludes  Jacobini,  to  say  that  in 


THE   rONTIFICATE   OF   LEO   XIII.  167 

tliirt  matter  the  authority  of  the  bishops  is  superior  to  that 
3f  the  uuucios.     "  The  exact  contrary  is  true."     AVJien  this 
clecisiou  was   received   by   Nocedal,    he   immediately   and 
gracefully   submitted  ;  aud   Mgr.    llampolla   publicly   cou- 
gratalated  him,  saying  that  "  a  loyal  manifestation  of  rever- 
ence for  the  Holy  See,  far  from  humiliating  its  author,  exalts 
him."     The  second  incident  in  the  Spanish  aftairs  of  this 
pontificate,  to  which  we  would  call  the  attention  of  the  student, 
is  that  of  the  "  arbitration,"  or  as  it  really  was,  the  medinlioa 
exercised  by  Leo  XIII.  in  the  dispute  between  Spain  and 
Germany  concerning  the  Caroline  Islands.     The  Germans, 
inflated  by  the  result  of  their  recent  war  with  France,  had 
taken  possession  of  the  Caroline  Islands,  that  archipelago  of 
the  Pacific  which,  situated  to  the  S(nith-east  of  the  Philip- 
pines, had  been  first  visited  in  1526  by  the  Portuguese, 
Diego  da  Eoclia,  and   later  by  the  Spaniards,   Villalobos, 
Legaspi,  and  Querosa,  finally  receiving  from  the   Spaniard, 
Lazeauo,    its  present  name   in  honor  of  the  king  of  Spain, 
Charles  II.  (1661-1700).     For  more  than  a  century,  the  Span- 
ish government  had  cared  so  little  about  the  Carolines,  that  it 
had  ceased  to  appoint  a  governor  .  but  no  European  power 
had  ever  challenged  the  Spanish  right  of  sovereignty,  based  as 
it  was  upon  the  right  of  first  occupancy  by  the  Portuguese,  and 
the  posterior  cession  of  the  Portuguese  right  to  the  Spaniards, 
in  accordance  with  the  line  of  demarcation  already  drawn  by 
Pope  Alexander  VI.  in  1493,  a  decision  which  botli  parties 
ret^arded  as  binding  in  honor  and  in  conscience.     But  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  Panama  canal  finally  awakened  the  government 
of  Alfonso  XII.  to  the  prospective  commercial  and  stratagetic 
importance  of  the  Carolines  ;  and  in  Feb.,  1885,  the  Spanish 
man-of-war  "  Velasco  "  anchored  in  the  harbor  of  Yap  in  order 
to  prepare  a  residence  for  a  Spanish  representative.    However, 
the  covetous  eye  of  the  German  chancellor  had  marked  the 
archipelago  as  a  future  basis  of  political  and  commercial 
enterprise  ;  and  a  few  months  after  the  arrival  of  the  "  Vel- 
asco," a  German  gunboat  steamed  into  the  Spanish  port,  and 
in  brazen   defiance  of  the  Law  of  Nations,  the  rule  of  the 
Teutons  was  proclaimed.     The  insult  fired  the  indignation  of 
all  the  inhabitants  of  Spain — all  factional  difierences  being 


168  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

forgotten  in  a  universal  determination  to  vindicate  tlie 
national  honor.  The  reason  for  the  German  piracy  is 
evident ;  why  its  author  should  have  suddenly  sought  for  a 
means  of  avoiding  its  consequences,  and  even  of  striking  the 
flag  so  impudently  flaunted,  was  and  is  a  mj-stery  even  to 
the  wiseacres  of  the  European  and  American  press.  But 
suddenly  the  world  was  informed  that  the  cabinet  of  Berlin 
liad  determined  to  submit  its  "  diflerence  with  that  of 
Madrid"  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  Pontifl".  That  at  the 
elimination  of  the  nineteenth  century — that  sacrosanct  child 
of  the  Revolution,  the  guiding  spirit  of  tlie  chit-l  Protestant 
power  in  the  world  should  endeavor  to  appease  interna- 
tional grievances  by  an  appeal  to  the  wisdom  and  justice  of 
the  Pope  of  Rome,  was  an  event  calculated  to  arouse  the 
Brethren  of  the  Three  Points  to  preternatural  efi'orts  of 
protestation.  But  the  fact  was  patent ;  all  that  the  Lodges 
could  eftect  by  way  of  a  minimization  was  the  circulation  of  a 
rumor  that  the  choice  of  Leo  XIII.  as  arbitrator  was  due  to  a 
misunderstanding  which  was  caused  b}'  a  falsified  despatch. 
And  while  the  adepts  were  raging  to  no  purpose,  our  Pontiff 
received,  on  Oct.  2,  1885,  a  letter  from  the  German  emperor, 
requesting  him  to  arbitrate  in  the  Hispano-German  question. 
Leo  XIII.  replied  that  he  would  not  undertake,  in  the  pres- 
ent circumstances  of  Christendom,  to  "  arbitrate  "  between  the 
the  two  powers  ;  but  that  he  would  "  mediate."  His  Holiness 
realized  that  the  part  of  an  arbitrator  was  to  pronounce  a 
judgment  which  would  have  the  force  of  law  on  the  dis- 
putants ;  whereas  the  office  of  a  mediator  was  to  propose  an 
amicable  arrangement  between  the  parties.  The  two  cabinets 
agreed  with  the  pontifical  suggestion ;  and  the  Pontiff,  after 
an  inspection  of  the  respective  briefs,  and  after  a  study  of  the 
documents  in  the  Vatican  which  illustrate  the  history  of  Spain, 
jDroposed  for  the  signature  of  the  SjDanish  and  German 
plenipotentiaries  a  document  which  recognized  the  ancient 
right  of  Spain  over  the  Carolines,  but  assuring  protection  and 
many  privileges  to  German  subjects  in  those  regions.  The 
agreement  was  signed  on  Dec.  13,  1885,  in  the  apartments  of 
the  Cardinal-Secretary  of  State  in  the  Vatican ;  and  im- 
mediately   the    secular     press    of    Europe    and    America 


THE    r()>a'IFICATE    OF    LEO    XIII.  161) 

■true  to  its  Masouico-Jewisli  iuspiriitious,  eudeavored  to 
uliuimize  the  importauoe  of  the  eveut,  now  by  ridicule,  aud 
then  by  misinterpretation.  As  an  excellent  specimen  of 
these  commentaries  Ave  reproduce  that  which  was  emitted 
l)j  the  effervescent  Bohemian  Jew  and  naturalized  French- 
man, Heinrich  Opper,  better  known  as  Henri  de  Blowitz, 
the  name  which  he  adopted  when  he  began  to  affect  French 
society  :  "  Bismarck  suddenly  found  himself  stuck  in  the 
mud  of  that  pitiable  affair  of  the  Carolines  ;  he  was 
dumbfounded  by  the  Spanish  paroxysms,  for  all  his 
calculations,  all  his  cool  combinations,  were  upset  by  the 
tropical  explosion.  Not  for  an  instant  did  he  dare  dream 
of  so  grotesque  an  enormity  as  a  war  with  Spain  for  the 
Carolines.  And  nevertheless,  all  Spain  was  on  its  feet,  look- 
ing straight  at  the  giant,  and  preparing  for  him  his  first  rebuff. 
It  was  then  that  in  the  brain  of  this  Macchiavellian  pachy- 
derm, when  he  could  neither  advance  nor  retreat,  there  was 
born  an  archaic  idea  which  excited  the  surprise  of  tlie  world. 
Witli  truly  elephautic  irony,  Bismarck  requested  Leo  XIII. 
to  arbitrate  between  Spain  and  Germany.  Then  there  filtered 
outward  the  atom  of  toeakness  which  fermented  in  the  con- 
descending miud  of  Leo  XIII.  ;  then  the  Pope,  magnifying 
the  task  with  which  he  was  entrusted,  began  to  dream  of  a 
revival  of  the  days  when  the  Holy  See  was  arbiter  of 
evervthing.  And  the  increasing  height  of  the  Pontiff  dis- 
played itself  solemnly  over  this  petty  question."  More 
sensible  was  the  judgment  emitted  by  Professor  Geftckeu, 
who,  in  spite  of  his  want  of  sympathy  with  Leo  XIII., 
allows  us  to  perceive  the  importance  of  the  pontifical 
intervention,  when  viewed  from  a  standi^oint  of  the  principles 
involved,  and  of  the  consequences  that  might  ensue.  "  On 
the  part  of  the  chancellor,  the  appeal  to  the  Pope  was 
unfortunate,  since  it  fortified  the  Ultramontane  pretentions. 
A  short  time  previously,  Windthorst,  the  leader  of  the  Centre, 
had  declared  publicly  that  the  Pope  governed  the  world  ; 
and  Bismarck,  by  a  recourse  to  the  mediation  of  the  Pon- 
tift',  really  endorsed  this  claim.  And  this  was  the  Bismarck 
who  had  said  that  the  Pope  was  endangering  his  own 
salvation;    the    Bismarck   who    had   treated    the   Pope    a£ 


170  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTOKY. 

merely  the  equal  of  an  Armenian  patriarch.  The  Catholic 
masses  naturally  concluded  that  even  the  great  chan- 
cellor could  not  get  along  without  the  aid  of  their 
Holy  Father ;  and  that  opinion  was  confirmed  by  the 
letter  which  Leo  XIII.  sent  to  Bismarck  when  he  forwarded 
to  him  the  decoration  of  the  pontifical  Order  of  Christ  (1). 
Conceived  in  most  flattering  terms,  this  letter  reminded  the 
chancellor  that  his  strength  depended  on  the  co-oj^eration  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  whose  influence  for  the  maintenance  of 
order  can  be  fully  exercised  only  when  she  is  truly  free. 
The  consequence  was  that  Germany  abandoned  that  which 
she  had  ofiicially  claimed  as  hers  by  right ;  and  by  her 
acceptation  of  the  supreme  arbitration  of  the  Pope,  she 
established  a  dangerous  precedent"  (2). 

Turning  our  attention  now  to  the  Far  East,  we  find  that 
the  most  notable  of  the  "  Acts  "  of  our  Pontiff  in  those  parts 
was  the  institution  of  a  regular  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  for 
the  whole  of  Hindustan,  in  place  of  the  apostolic-vicariates 
which  had  so  long  been  a  necessary  substitute  for  the  ordin- 
ary and  regularly  canonical  authority.  In  a  letter  addressed 
to  all  the  bishops  in  India,  dated  June  24,  1893,  His  Holi- 
ness, after  expressing  his  love  for  the  vast  country  which 
was  once  the  theatre  of  the  heroic  labors  of  St.  Thomas  the 

(1)  "  Leo  Xin.,  Pope,  to  His  Serene  Highness,  Prince  Otho  von  Bismarck,  greeting.  The 
recent  dissension  concerning  the  Caroline  Islands  having  been  happily  terminated  by  the 
acceptation  of  the  conditions  proposed  by  us.  we  have  expressed  our  joy  to  His  Majesty, 
the  German  emperor;  and  we  now  wish  to  express  the  same  feeling  to  Y(  ur  Serene  High- 
ness, since  it  was  you  that  suggested  our  mediation.  We  wish  to  acknowledge  that  it  was, 
in  great  part,  due  to  your  zeal  that  the  difficulties  in  our  way  were  banished  ;  for  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  matter,  you  always  seconded  our  efforts.  Therefore  we 
tender  to  you  our  thanks  for  having  furnished  us  an  occasion  of  laboring  in  the  interests 
of  p^ace.  History  indeed  shows  that  such  labor  is  not  new  to  the  Holy  See ;  but  a  long 
time  has  passed,  since  such  an  intervention  was  proposed  to  a  Roman  Pontiff,  although 
there  is  no  kind  of  business  more  appropriate  to  the  nature  of  our  Pontificate.  Free  from  all 
prejudice,  you  judged  the  situation  rather  according  to  truth,  than  according  to  the  opin- 
ions and  inclinations  of  others;  and  you  did  not  hesitate  to  confide  in  our  impartiality. 
By  so  doing,  you  obtained  the  approhat'on  of  all  men  who  are  not  dominated  by  prejudice  ; 
above  all,  by  the  Catholics  of  the  entire  world,  who  are  necessarily  pleased  with  the  honor 
done  to  their  father.  All  men  agree  that  your  political  sagacity  has  contributed  to  the 
creation  of  a  powerful  German  Empire,  and  it  Is  natural  that  the  solidity  and  prosperity  of 
that  empire,  based  upon  force,  should  be  the  chief  object  of  your  desires ;  but  your  per- 
spicacity must  have  noticed  the  number  of  means  which  are  at  the  disposal  of  the  power 
confided  to  us.  for  the  maintenance  of  political  and  social  order,  especiallv  when  that  power 
is  allowed  its  full  libertv  of  action.  In  order  that  you  may  henceforward  possess  a 
testimony  of  our  .s^entiments.  we  name  you  aEnigbt  of  the  Order  of  Christ,  and  send  you 
herewith  the  proper  insignia." 

(8)  Leo  XTTl.  Tn  the  Eyesof  Germamu  p.  47, 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIII.  171 

Apostle  auJ  of  St.  Fraucia  Xavier,  thus  coinmuuicates  thf 
object  of  his  Brief  :  "  We  desire,  iu  accordance  with  our 
duty,  and  to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  to  extend  to  this 
hirjjje  portion  of  the  earth  the  fruit  of  our  aspirations  to 
heaven.  Therefore  we  have  reflected  on  a  method  of 
reorganizaticm  of  tlie  Christian  influence  in  the  East  Indies  : 
and  Anally,  we  have  decided  on  certain  arrangements  for 
the  good  of  the  Catholic  religion.  In  the  first  place,  as 
regards  the  right  of  patronage  once  enjoyed  by  the  Portu- 
guese in  the  East  Indies,  we  have  concluded  a  lasting 
arrangement  with  His  Most  Faithful  Majesty  of  Portugal ; 
and  thus  there  will  be  an  end  to  those  dissensions  which 
have  so  long  existed  among  the  Christians  of  Portuguese 
India.  We  had  already  deemed  it  prudent  to  make  verit- 
able dioceses  out  of  those  communities  which  had  hitherto 
constituted  vicariates-apostolic,  thus  subjecting  those  dis- 
tricts to  the  general  Canon  Law  ;  and  therefore  it  was  that 
by  our  Letters-Apostolic  of  Dec.  1,  1886,  we  established  in 
India  a  hierarchy  consisting  of  eight  ecclesiastical  provinces, 
namely,  those  of  Goa — the  patriarchal  .see,  and  those  ot 
Agra,  Bombay,  Verapoly,  Calcutta,  Madras,  Pondichery, 
and  Colombo.  In  a  word,  we  have  endeavored  to  effect  in 
India  whatever  we  thought  likely  to  conduce  to  the  develop- 
ment of  faith  and  piety."  On  several  occasions  during  the 
course  of  our  work,  we  have  had  occasion  to  allude  to  the 
matter  of  Portuguese  India  and  the  claims  of  the  Portu- 
guese crown  ;  some  details  in  regard  to  the  dissensions,  to 
which  Leo  XIII.  alludes  in  this  letter,  Avill  interest  the 
reader.  The  right  of  patronage,  conceded  by  the  Holy 
See  to  the  crown  of  Portugal  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
embraced  the  right  of  nomination  to  existing  bishoprics  ; 
that  of  refusal  for  the  creation  of  any  new  dioceses  ;  that  of 
presentation  to  all  benefices  ;  and  an  obligation,  on  the 
part  of  every  missionary  to  Hindustan,  to  become  a  Portu- 
guese subject  if  he  was  not  such  already,  and  not  to  go  to 
his  mission  without  the  consent  of  the  Portuguese  govern- 
ment, and  that  obtained,  to  sail  only  on  a  Portuguese  slii]i 
Of  course  most  of  these  rights,  which  had  been  conceded  by 
Borne  only  on  condition  that  Portugal  would   protect   and 


172  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

aid  the  Indian  missions,  in  time  became  impracticable,  if 
not  oppressive  ;  and  to  add  to  the  inconveniences,  Portugal 
lost  the  greater  part  of  her  Indian  territory,  and  did  not 
keep  her  promises  to  the  Holy  See  in  regard  to  the  remain- 
der. Pope  Gregory  XVI.  tried  to  remedy  the  evils  M'liich 
beset  the  Church  in  the  territories  over  which  the  Portu- 
guese, though  they  had  lost  all  civil  power  therein,  still 
claimed  ecclesiastical  influence.  He  instituted  vicariates- 
apostolic,  placing  their  incumbents  under  the  immediate 
jurisdiction  of  the  Holy  See,  and  determining  exactly  the 
limits  of  each  ordinary's  authority.  The  Portuguese  govern- 
ment, then,  as  we  have  seen,  a  Masonic  creation,  resisted 
these  reforming  measures  of  the  Pontiff ;  it  was  aided  by  its 
creature,  the  archbishop  of  Goa,  and  then  began  the 
"Schism  of  Goa,"  sustained  by  a  number  of  Indo-Portu- 
guese  priests,  and  a  fair  number  of  seculars.  When  the 
first  schismatic  prelate  of  Goa  died,  his  successor  ordained 
about  six  hundred  wretches  whom  he  scattered  among  the 
missions,  where  they  scandalized  Catholic,  heretic,  and  pagan 
alike  by  their  immoralities.  Shame  induced  the  Portuguese 
to  conclude  a  Concordat  with  Pius  IX.,  embodying  several 
remedial  clauses  ;  but  of  tliese  only  one,  that  which  recog- 
nized the  jurisdiction  of  the  Goan  prelate  over  all  the  rebels 
to  the  authority  of  the  vicars-apostolic,  did  not  remain  a  dead 
letter.  However,  this  Concordat  terminated  the  schism, 
although  it  entailed  the  evil  of  a  double  jurisdiction,  that  of 
the  vicars-apostolic  over  the  Catholics  who  had  remained 
faithful  during  the  schism,  and  that  of  the  archbishop  of 
Goa  over  the  reconciled  schismatics.  Leo  XIII.  determined 
to  put  an  end  to  this  anomaly,  especially  since  the  Goan 
priests  were  destitute  of  every  priestly  virtue.  By  order  of 
the  Pontiff,  in  1884,  Cardinal  Jacobini  informed  the  Portu- 
guese government  that  the  Holy  See  could  no  longer  tolerate 
the  condition  of  affairs  in  India ;  but  the  Masonic  reply 
brought  no  encouragement  to  the  Pope.  Finally,  our  Pon- 
tiff made  an  eloquent  appeal  to  the  king  himself ;  and  His 
Faithful  Majesty  took  the  matter  into  his  own  hands,  to  the 
great  disgust  of  his  Masonic  cabinet,  thus  enabling  Leo 
XIII.  to  inform  the  Indian  bishops  that  he  had  concluded  a 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIII.  17o 

favorable  aud  "  lasting   arraugement    with    tlie   Portuguese 
sovereign." 

Ill  an  apposite  dissertation  on  Christianity  in  Japan  (1), 
we  have  seen  how  Leo  Xlll.  established  a  regular  hierarchy 
in  that  now  enterprising  empire  ;  we  must  now  allude  to  a 
negotiation  which  is  in  progress  in  China  as  we  write  (June, 
1899),  and  which  will  probably  have  an  important  and 
favorable  effect  upon  the  progress  of  the  true  faith  in  the 
Middle  Kingdom.  In  1881  the  Chinese  government  had 
caused  word  to  reach  the  Holy  See,  not  in  diplomatic,  but 
nevertheless  trustworthy  fashion,  that  it  would  be  pleased  if 
His  Holiness  would  appoint  a  nuncio  to  Pekiu.  No  notice 
of  this  overture  was  taken  ;  but  in  1885,  when  the  Chinese 
emperor  had  received  a  letter  from  the  Pontiff,  asking  His 
Majesty  to  protect  the  Christians  in  his  empire,  the  rumor 
of  an  early  diplomatic  relationship  between  the  courts  of 
the  Vatican  and  Pekin  gained  consistency  in  the  latter  city  ; 
aud  in  January,  188G,  Mr.  Dunn,  the  Director  of  the  Anglo- 
Chinese  Customs,  presented  to  the  Holy  See  credentials 
empowering  him  to  negotiate  for  the  creation  of  the  desired 
nunciature.  It  transpired  afterward  that  behind  Mr.  Dunn, 
as  he  worked  for  the  residence  of  a  Papal  nuncio  in  Pekin, 
was  the  strength  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  supported  by 
England.  This  very  fact,  which  was  known  by  the  French 
government,  may  have  influenced  that  government  to  oppose 
the  project,  when  the  Vatican,  out  of  deference  to  the 
susceptibilities  of  a  nation  wdiich  had  been,  from  time 
immemorial,  the  universally  acknowledged  protector  of  all 
Christians  in  the  East,  asked  for  its  views.  This  protector- 
ate of  all  things  Christian  in  the  East  has  ever  been  one 
of  the  chief  glories  of  France,  although  in  our  day  it  has 
been  changed  to  a  merely  political  and  commercial  interest. 
But  whether  the  government  of  France  was  royal  or 
republican,  Catholic  or  atheist,  the  average  Oriental  felt  like 
his  ancestors  of  the  Middle  Age  in  regard  to  the  tpgis  of 
France.  To  break  up  this  French  influence  in  the  East  was 
a  sworn  end  of  the  alliance  between  Germany,  Italy,  and 
(wonderful  to  relate)  Austria ;  an  opportunity  to  destroy  it 

r)  V  1.  v..  eh.  12. 


174  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

in  China  was  furnished  by  the  meditated  appointment  of  a 
Papal  nuncio  to  China,  for  with  that  official  on  the  ground, 
the  French  ambassador  would  have  no  reason  for  interfering  in 
Chinese  Christian  matters.  Once  that  the  religious  hegemony 
of  France  in  China  would  be  broken,  it  would  not  be  difficult 
to  cause  the  weakening  of  French  prestige  to  be  felt  in  the 
Levant.  Leo  XIII.  knew  that  the  scheme  was  meant  as  a 
trap  for  France ;  and  he  was  determined  that  the  interests 
of  France  should  not  suffer,  much  as  he  might  desire  the 
nunciature  to  be  a  thing  of  fact.  He  assured  the  French 
government  that  the  Holy  See  gladly  recognized  the  French 
protectorate  over  the  Christians  in  the  Orient;  but  the  head 
of  the  French  cabinet  of  the  day,  Freycinet,  persisted  in  his 
refusal  to  countenance  any  change  in  the  status  quo  of  the 
relations  between  the  Vatican  and  the  court  of  Pekin. 
Therefore  the  Pontiff  temporarily  resigned  himself  to  an 
abandonment  of  his  design  ;  and  in  the  meantime  the  men 
of  the  Triple  Alliance,  sustained  by  England,  put  forth 
every  effort  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  Catholics  through- 
out the  world,  but  especially  in  the  Holy  Land  and  in  all 
the  Eastern  Missions.  Every  means  was  adopted  to  "  foster 
vocations  "  among  the  German  Catholics  for  these  missions, 
in  order  to  overcome  the  immense  preponderance  .(about 
nine-tenths)  of  the  French  element.  The  Propaganda  was 
asked  to  believe  that  the  German  Lutherans  were  dying 
with  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  the  Catholic  faith ;  the 
Franciscans  in  Palestine  were  loaded  with  favors.  Then 
came  the  opera  bouffe  "  pilgrimage "  of  William  II.  to 
Jerusalem,  during  which  the  imperial  cerebral  gyrations 
were  meant  to  convey  the  impression  that  French  influence 
in  the  Orient  had  yielded  place  to  that  of  a  new  line  of 
Barbarossas.  Then  Cardinal  Kopp  and  other  clerical 
emissaries  were  sent  to  Rome  by  the  imaginative  Kaiser,  with 
intent  to  cajole  the  eminently  practical  Leo  XIII. ;  but  a 
pontifical  letter  to  Cardinal  Laugenieux,  sent  in  August,  1898, 
showed  that  the  Pope  appreciated  the  imperial  policy  at  its 
true  value,  although  that  policy  had  been  endorsed  by  the 
German  Catholic  party,  which,  without  a  Windthorst  to 
guide  it,  had,  as   we  have  frequently  noticed,   succumbed 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIU.  175 

to  the  wiles  of  Berlin.  Twelve  years  had  elapsed  since  the 
first  attempt  of  the  Triple  Alliance  to  supplant  the  French 
influence  in  Pekin,  when,  aided  bv  the  fortuitous  prominence 
which  a  recent  massacre  of  two  German  missionaries  in  Shan 
Tung  gave  to  German  interests  in  those  parts,  the  Alliance 
repeated  its  enterprise.  Our  Pontiff  agreed  to  the  establish- 
ment of  diplomatic  relations  between  the  Vatican  and  the 
court  of  Pekin ;  but  he  checkmated  the  Alliance,  and  won 
the  sympathies  of  the  French  liepublican  government  by 
his  proviso  that  there  should  be  in  Pekin  not  a  nuncio,  but 
an  apostolic-delegate,  who,  with  powers  like  those  of  the 
apostolic-delegate  in  Constantinople,  should  recognize  the 
sole  protectorate  of  France  over  the  Chinese  Catholics  (1). 
Amid  the  multifarious  and  nearly  continual  annoyances 
which  are  entailed  upon  the  Holy  See  by  its  subjects  of  the 
Oriental  Rites — annoyances  which  the  authorities  of  the 
Propaganda  have  come  to  consider  as  mere  matters  of 
routine,  so  natural  do  they  appear,  there  occur,  now  and  then, 
some  events  which  are  not  only  consoling  to  the  Father 
of  all  the  Faithful,  but  which  seem  to  indicate  that  the  day 

(1)  At  this  time  there  was  issued  an  imperial  decree  guaranteeing  protection  to  Catholics 
throughout  the  empire.  The  Misxionjs  Cathnliquetf  of  Lyons  gives  the  full  text,  which 
consists  of  a  preamble  and  Ave  articles.  The  preamble  runs  thus:  "Churches  of  the 
Catholic  religion,  the  propagation  of  which  has  long  been  authorized  by  the  imperial  gov- 
ernment, being  now  erected  in  all  the  provinces  in  China,  we  are  desirous  of  seeing  the 
people  and  the  Christians  live  in  peace,  and  in  order  to  render  the  protection  of  the  Chris- 
tians easier,  it  has  been  arranged  that  the  local  authorities  shall  exchange  visits  with  the 
missionaries,  under  the  conditions  specified  below."  The  flrst  three  clauses  of  the  decree 
are  devoted  to  fixing  the  rank  in  which  Catholic  missionaries  shall  be  held  by  the  imperial 
officials.  Bishops  are  declared  equal  in  rank  to  viceroys  and  governors;  vicars-general 
and  archpriests  to  judges  and  treasurers,  and  priests  to  prefects.  Ecclesiastics,  having 
business  with  the  government,  can  call  upon  officials  of  equal  rank.  The  fourth  and  fifth 
clauses  Qx  the  manner  in  which,  when  matters  arise  which  call  for  adjudication  between 
the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastic  authorities,  action  shall  proceed.  The  government  authori- 
ties are  bidden  to  conduct  all  negotiations  without  unnecessary  delay  and  in  a  conciliatory 
manner  ;  and  the  missionaries,  both  bishops  and  priests,  are  commanded  to  "  exhort  the 
Christians  to  strive  to  do  good,  in  order  to  maintain  the  good  repute  of  the  Catholic 
religion,  and  act  so  that  the  people  may  be  content  and  grateful."  Another  feature  of  the 
decree  is  that  11  recognizes  the  Holy  Father  as  a  sovereign.  It  bestows  upon  him  the 
designation  of  Kiao-Himng,  which  means  "  Emperor  of  Religion."  Mgr.Favierof  Pekin, 
who,  being  on  the  spot.  Is  certainly  qualified  to  speak  of  the  importance  of  this  decree, 
declares  that  In  consequence  of  its  promulgation.  Catholic  bishops  "  possess  to-day  a  rank 
and  power  which  they  have  never  had  up  till  now  In  China."  He  adds  that  while  the 
edict  may  not  exempt  the  Catholic  mi-ssionaries  wholly  from  persecution  on  the  part  of 
rebels  and  bandits,  it  assures  them  of  the  government's  good  will  and  prot«otion  ,  and  he 
declares  that  already— the  edict  was  Issued  March  15.  1899— a  very  large  increase  has'wken 
place  in  the  number  of  Chinese  conversions,  whole  districts.  In  some  Instances,  embracing 
the  faltb. 


176  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

is  not  distant  when  the  puerile  vanity  of  the  Christian  East 
will  have  succumbed  to  the  truth  which  it  once  so  trium- 
phantly proclaimed.  One  of  these  consolations  was  given 
to  Leo  XIII.  by  the  end  of  what  had  been  termed,  during 
several  years,  the  "New  Schism  of  the  Armenians."  This 
"  new  schism  "  had  originated  at  the  time  of  the  Vatican 
Council.  In  the  course  of  our  work,  we  have  frequently 
observed  how  religious  questions  in  the  East  are  complicated 
by  those  on  nationalities,  and  how  careful  the  Catholic  priest 
must  be,  lest  he  offend  either  national  obstinacy  or  local 
susceptibility.  Now,  when  the  Vatican  Council  was  being 
held,  every  effort  was  made  by  the  "  opposition,"  especially 
by  that  part  of  it  which  was  represented  by  Strossmayer, 
bishop  of  Sirmium,  to  draw  the  Armenian  synodals  into 
its  embrace.  When  the  crisis  arrived,  Strossmayer  and  his 
companions  submitted  to  the  inevitable  ;  but  the  more  inno- 
cent Armenians — more  innocent,  because  less  educated — 
returned  to  their  homes  with  passions  excited  almost  to  the 
point  of  schism,  although  they  had  signed  the  decree  of 
Papal  Infallibility.  When  they  had  arrived  in  their  respec- 
tive dioceses,  they  found  that  a  large  number  of  their 
compatriots  had  joined  in  rejecting  the  authority  of  Mgr. 
Hassoun,  their  legitimate  patriarch  (1) ;  they  endeavored  to 
stem  the  tide  of  revolt,  but  under  the  leadership  of  Bahti- 
arian,  archbishop  of  Diarbekir,  and  of  Gasparian,  bishop  of 
Cyprus,  the  "  new  schismatics  "  had  gained  much  headway. 
Before  long,  a  monk  named  Kiupelian  became  the  head  of  the 
movement,  assuming  the  title  of  civil  head  of  the  Armenians, 
and  procuring  illicit  consecration  as  patriarch  of  Cilicia. 
But  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  the  poor  monk  experienced 


(1)  The  origin  tr  i-his  revolt  must  be  ascribed  to  the  discontent  of  many  Armenians, 
because  of  the  bi'U  Revcrsiirns  issued  by  Pius  IX.,  on  July  4,  1867,  and  regulatinp 
the  method  of  episcopal  elections  among  this  excitable  people.  At  first  the  Bull  produced 
the  desired  effect ;  but  when  it  was  misinterpreted,  trouble  ensued.  The  Armenian 
religious  of  St.  AD'hony,  most  of  whom  ousht  to  have  been  superior  to  the  petty  passions 
of  their  uneducated  compatriots,  since  they  had  been  tmi'  ed  either  in  Rome  or  in  Venice, 
openly  renounced  their  allegiance  to  Mgr.  Hassoun  ;  nnd  they  were  imitiited  by  the 
Armenian  hotheads  of  Constantinople.  In  vain  Pius  IX.  tried  to  reduce  the  rebels  to  an 
observatior  cf  the  aictates  of  common  sense  ;  encouraged  by  the  representative  of  Victor 
Emmanuel  in  Cot'stantinople.  and  by  Bouree,  the  French  ambassador,  they  refused  to 
hear  the  Pontiflca'  envoy.  Consequently,  on  March  30, 1870,  Pius  IX.  excommunicated 
them. 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIII.  177 

SO  mucli  trouble  with  Ins  schismiitic  followers,  that  ho 
resolved  to  abimdou  the  paths  of  a  deceitful  ambition  ;  aud 
he  threw  himself  at  the  feet  of  his  patriarch,  beggiug  to  be 
received  agaiu  iuto  the  communiou  of  the  Chair  of  Peter. 
Theu  he  addressed  the  Sublime  Porte,  as  custom  and  even 
necessity  demands  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  renouncing  all 
his  usuri)ed  titles  aud  privileges.  On  April  20,  1879,  Kiu- 
pelian  knelt  before  the  throne  of  Leo  XIIL,  and  entreated 
His  H(jliness  to  restore  him  to  the  communion  of  the  One, 
Holv,  Catholic,  and  Apostolic  Eoman  Church.  Theu,  still 
kneeling,  he  read  in  a  clear  and  firm  voice  a  recantation  of 
all  his  errors  ;  whereupon  the  Pontiff,  signing  to  him  to  arise, 
addressed  him  in  these  terms  :  "  It  is  a  great  consolation  to 
a  father  to  be  able  to  press  to  his  heart  a  son  whom  he  had 
deemed  lost."  Then  the  Pope  congratulated  the  convert  on 
his  courage  in  abandoning  the  honors  of  earth  for  the  cause 
of  religious  truth,  and  he  proceeded  :  "  While  granting  to 
you  full  aud  ample  pardon,  we  hereby  make  in  your  regard, 
by  our  Apostolic  authority,  an  exception  to  the  general  rules 
of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  allowing  you  to  retain  the  titles, 
insignia,  and  honors  of  the  episcopal  dignity  which  you 
received  from  bishops  who  had  deserted  the  fold  of  Catholic 
unity."  The  closing  words  of  the  Pontifical  discourse  were  : 
"  The  Eastern  Churches  are  indeed  dear  to  us.  We  admire 
their  ancient  glories ;  and  how  happy  we  would  be,  if  we 
could  behold  them  resplendent  with  their  olden  grandeur  !" 
As  a  sequel  of  this  recantation  of  Mgr.  Kiupelian,  the  Turk- 
ish sultan,  Abdul-Hamid,  hearkening  to  the  representations 
of  our  Pontiff,  reinstated  Mgr.  Hassoun  in  all  the  rights 
which  the  "  new  schism"  had  taken  from  him;  and  the 
Armenian  Catholics  received  nearly  all  the  churches  which 
the  schismatics  had  invade(L  In  1888,  the  "  new  schism  " 
disappeared  entirely,  thanks  to  the  exertions  of  Mgr.  Azar- 
ian,  the  Armenian  Catholic  patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
who  persuaded  the  two  remaining  l)ishops,  as  well  as  the 
priests  and  notable  laymen  among  the  schismatics,  to  recant, 
and  who  induced  the  sultan  to  withdraw  the  legal  sanction 
which  he  had  accorded  to  the  new  community.  While  we 
have  our  attention  directed  toward  the  Orient,  it  is  well  to 


178  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

note  that  in  1892,  the  Pontifical  heart  of  Leo  XIII.  was 
cheered  by  a  letter  from  Mgr.  Audon,  archbishop  of  Ounmiah, 
of  the  Chaldean  Rite,  informing  His  Holiness  that  abjuration 
of  schism  and  heresy  had  been  made  in  the  beginning  of 
June  by  Mar  Chimoun,  the  patriarch  of  the  Nestorians — a 
prelate,  in  whose  family  the  Nestorian  Patriarchate  had 
been  perpetuated  during  many  centuries.  Mgr.  Mon- 
tety,  the  delegate-apostolic  in  Persia,  wrote  that  this  ex- 
ample of  the  patriarch  had  been  followed  by  hundreds  of 
conversions  ;  and  that  while  he  was  writing,  Mgr.  Audon, 
accompanied  by  the  mitred-abbot  of  the  monks  of  St.  Hor- 
misdas,  was  travelling  through  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan, 
absolving  entire  villages,  and  confirming  them  in  the  faith. 
A  Nestorian  bishop  had  just  written  to  the  delegate,  saying  : 
"Soon  we  shall  all  be  sons  of  one  father."  The  student 
must  know  that  these  converted  Nestorians,  like  all  their 
predecessors,  did  not  enter  the  Latin  Kite  ;  this  Rite  has 
always  been  prohibited  to  the  Orientals  by  the  Holy  See, 
so  anxious  is  Rome  to  testify  her  respect  for  ancient  and 
approved  Liturgies,  and  to  preserve  those  Liturgies  as 
witnesses  of  the  faith  of  the  times  in  which  they  were 
composed.  The  Nestorian  converts  entered  the  United 
Chaldean  Rite  ;  and  when  it  was  observed  that  priestly 
conversions  were  very  numerous,  the  authorities  of  the 
Propaganda  congratulated  themselves  that  just  two  years 
previously  they  had  begun  to  print  the  Chaldean  Breviary, 
which  hitherto  had  existed  only  in  manuscripts — very  faulty 
ones  also,  and  not  easily  obtainable. 

Before  we  withdraw  our  attention  from  the  Orient,  we 
must  notice  an  event  which  occurred  in  Bulgaria  in  1896,  to 
the  great  scandal  of  even  lukewarm  Catholics,  to  the  delight 
of  all  Eastern  Schismatics,  and  to  the  amusement  of  free- 
thinkers ;  the  so-called  "  conversion "  of  the  two-year-old 
Boris,  prince-royal  of  Bulgaria,  to  the  Bulgarian  offshoot  of 
the  Greek  Schism.  In  1887,  the  National  Assembly  of  Bul- 
garia elected  as  successor  to  Prince  Alexander,  who  had 
abdicated  in  1886,  Ferdinand  of  Saxe-Coburg  and  Gotha,  a 
son  of  Duke  Augustus  of  Saxe-Coburg  and  Gotha  by  the 
Princess  Clementine,  daughter  of  King  Louis  Philippe  of 


THE   PONTIFICATE   OF  1^0  XIH.  179 

France.  From  the  day  of  liis  arrival  iu  his  principality, 
Ferdinand  realized  that  his  continued  tenure  of  its  crown 
depended  on  the  good  will  of  the  Russian  autocrat.  No 
means  seemed  so  well  adapted  for  tlie  attainment  of  that  good 
will  as  his  perversion  to  the  State-Church  of  Bulgaria  which 
communicates  with  the  "  Orthodox  "  Russian  Establishment ; 
but  it  would  appear  that  the  audacity  of  the  Coburger  was 
not  without  limits.  However,  in  the  beginning  of  1896,  it 
was  rumored  throughout  Europe  that  Ferdinand,  a  Catholic 
prince,  had  expressed  a  willingness  to  alhnv  his  elder  son 
and  heir  to  be  confirmed  and  educated  in  the  Greek  Schism  ; 
and  it  was  soon  known  that  the  child's  mother.  Princess 
Mary  Louisa,  daughter  of  the  exiled  Duke  of  Parma,  had 
written  to  the  Pope,  asking  whether  she  could  not  leave  a 
husband  who  was  practically  a  renegade,  and  at  the  same 
time  save  her  son  from  the  danger  menacing  him.  The 
Pontiffs  reply  was  that  she  should  remain  at  her  husband's 
side,  and  trust  all  to  God.  But  suddenly  Prince  Ferdinand 
himself  asked  for  an  audience  with  His  Holiness.  Of  course 
it  was  granted  ;  and  this  presumably  sane  man,  a  person  of 
education  and  of  at  least  apparently  Catholic  convictions, 
brazenly  requested  the  Head  of  the  Catholic  Church  to 
grant  him  permission  to  hand  over  his  two-year-old 
son  to  schismatics  and  heretics  for  a  religious  training. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  more  sublime  piece  of  effrontery  was 
ever  acted  in  the  Vatican  ;  and  it  is  also  safe  to  say  that 
Leo  XIII.  replied  in  terms  befitting  his  office.  What  the 
pontifical  words  were,  Ferdinand  took  care  not  to  tell ;  but  as 
soon  as  he  returned  to  his  capital,  he  issued  a  manifesto  to 
the  Bulgarians,  declaring :  "  In  pursuance  of  the  promise 
given  from  the  throne  to  the  representatives  of  the  nation,  I 
have  used  every  possible  endeavor,  and  liave  striven  with 
all  my  strength,  to  remove  the  difficulties  which  oppose  the 
attainment  of  the  ardent  desire  of  the  entire  nation  that  the 
heir-apparent  should  enter  the  fold  of  tlie  National  Cliurch. 
After  having  fulfilled  my  duty  in  showing  respect  toward 
those  with  whom  it  rested  to  smooth  away  these  difficulties, 
and  after  having  seen  the  disappearance  of  my  hopes  with- 
out finding,  where  I  had  expected,  a  wise  comprehension  of 


180  STUDIES   IN   GHUECH   HISTORY. 

Bulgaria's  needs,  I  have  resolved,  of  my  own  initiative, 
and  true  to  the  oath  given  to  my  well-beloved  people, 
to  surmount  all  obstacles,  and  to  lay  on  the  altar  of  the 
Fatherland  the  greatest  and  heaviest  of  sacrifices.  I  therefore 
announce  to  all  Bulgarians  that,  on  the  14tli  of  the  present 
month,  the  Feast  of  the  Purification,  the  rite,  of  Holy  Con- 
firmation will  be  administered  to  the  heir-apparent,  Prince 
Boris,  Prince  of  Tirnova,  according  to  the  usages  of  the 
National  Orthodox  Church."  The  manifesto  was  read  by  the 
Bulgarian  Prime  Minister  to  the  National  Assembly.  The 
correspondent  of  the  London  Daily  Neivs  wrote  from  Sofia 
that  the  manifesto  came  as  a  surprise.  "  It  is  not  possible 
to  decide  whom  the  Prince  alludes  to  when  he  says  that  his 
hope  to  find  a  wise  and  ready  understanding  for  the  wants  of 
Bulgaria  has  not  been  fulfilled.  This  may  refer  either  to  the 
Pope  or  to  the  Princess  ;  more  likely  to  the  latter,  from  what 
is  reported  of  what  happened  yesterday.  The  Bulgarian 
Prime  Minister,  Stoiloff,  had  an  audience  of  Princess  Mary 
Louisa,  to  whom  he  expressed  the  devotion  of  the  Bulgarian 
people,  its  thanks  for  her  charitable  work,  and  for  the  favor- 
able influence  she  had  had  upon  social  life.  He  assured  her 
that  the  nation  fully  valued  the  battle  she  was  fighting  with 
her  convictions.  The  Princess  leaves  Sofia  on  Friday,  with 
her  younger  son,  and  goes  to  Vienna.  After  a  short  stay 
there,  she  leaves  for  Nice,  in  the  neighborhood  of  which 
she  will  remain  for  some  time.  The  Prince  and  Princess, 
it  is  asserted,  are  fully  convinced  that  it  is  best  for  the 
Princess  to  leave  Sofia  ;  everybody  hopes  she  will  some  day 
return."  With  their  usual  want  of  knowledge  concerning 
Catholic  matters,  most  of  the  English,  American,  and  German 
journals  soon  stated  that  the  Princess  had  asked  the  Pope 
to  annul  her  marriage  with  the  Coburger,  as  though  the 
scion  of  the  Bourbons  did  not  know  that  even  apostasy  can- 
not dissolve  Christian  matrimony.  The  fact  is  that  in  order 
to  encourage  the  heartbroken  wife  and  mother,  Leo  XIIL 
informed  her  that  he  would  not  proceed  to  any  open  and 
nominatim  excommunication  of  her  husband  ;  but  the  pool 
woman  knew  too  well  that  the  wretched  weakling  had 
incurred  the  censures  of  the  Church,   ipso  facto,  and    being 


THE   PONTIFICATE   OF  LEO   XIII.  181 

moved  also  by  a  desire  to  safeguard  the  spiritual  future  of 
her  younger  sou,  she  proceeded  with  him  to  Vieuua.  Ferdi- 
nand had  enough  of  decency,  perhaps  even  of  remorse,  to 
abstain  from  force  in  order  to  prevent  the  loss  of  his  wife 
and  second  heir ;  the  separation  has  continued,  and  will 
continue  until  Ferdinand  undoes  the  fell  work  of  his  puerile 
ambition,  if  indeed  the  schismatics  allow  him  to  undo  it. 

Turning  our  attention  now  to  the  more  particularly 
doctrinal  features  of  the  pontificate  of  Leo  XIIL,  as  those 
features  have  been  enunciated  b}-  his  many  Encyclicals,  we 
may  say  that  probabW  the  first  place,  in  order  of  impor- 
tance, should  be  assigned  to  the  Encyclical  ^terni  Patris, 
issued  on  Aug.  4,  1879,  and  intended  to  assure  the  triumph 
of  Thomistic  philosophy.  For  several  3'ears  there  had  been, 
among  the  Catholic  educators  of  every  land,  marked  symp- 
toms of  a  general  return  to  the  old  scholastic  system,  as 
incarnatetl  in  its  most  illustrious  representative,  St.  Thomas 
of  Aquino  ;  and  with  that  system,  to  its  essential  concomi- 
tants, unity  of  philosophical  conception,  severity  of  method, 
and  a  positive  yet  temperate  manner  of  discussing  the 
relations  between  body  and  soul.  During  the  Perugian 
episcopate  of  the  future  Leo  XIII.,  there  had  flourished  in 
that  diocese  and  under  the  auspices  of  His  Eminence  a 
school  of  Peripateticism,  at  the  head  of  which  was  the 
future  cardinal,  Joseph  Pecci.  This  school  of  Perugia, 
together  with  Liberatore,  Signoriello,  and  other  writers  of 
the  Civilfd  Cattolica,  was  the  most  aggressive  and  the  most 
logical  of  all  the  phalanxes  in  the  army  of  the  latest  philo- 
sophical Renaissance.  Of  course  the  Dominicans  had 
preserved  what  was  their  real  cult  of  the  Thomistic  system  ; 
and  the  appearance  of  the  Avorks  of  their  great  Zigliara 
showed  that  the  Friars-Preachers  were  ready  to  make  that 
cult  a  vivid  and  not  a  somnolent  worship.  Other  countries 
than  Italy,  though  in  a  very  minor  degree,  had  also  turned  to 
St.  Thomas  as  the  one  philosophical  guide  for  moderns. 
Spain  furnished  Gonzalez  ;  Germany  had  her  Kleutgen : 
and  even  France  and  Belgium,  so  devoted  to  Descartes, 
showed  a  few  zealous  Thomists.  But  it  must  be  admitted  thai 
in  the  generality  of  Catholic  schools,  St.  Tliomas  and  Peri- 


182  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

pateticism  were  almost  unknown  quantities ;  and   even   in 
Rome,  in  the  hearing  of  the  illustrious  school  represented 
bj  the  Jesuits  of  the  Civiltd  Cattolica,  other  Jesuits,  following 
the  lead  of  Tongiorgi,  taught  in  the  Roman  College  a  system 
which  was  pregnant  with  concessions  to  others.     After  years 
of  meditation,  Leo  XIII.  raised  the  banner  of  unadulterated 
Thomism.     The  student  will  not  expect  us   to   adduce    the 
reasons  given  by  the  Pontiff  for  his  action ;  suffice  it  to  say 
that  he  declared  of  the  Angelic  Doctor  :  "  There  is  no  part 
of  philosophy  which  he  does  not   treat   with   equal   intelli- 
gence and  solidity.      Distinguishing   carefully   reason   and 
faith,  and  uniting  them  amicably  together,  he  has   so   safe- 
guarded the  rights  and  dignity  of  each,  that  reason,  raised 
by  him  to  the  highest  summits,  can  mount  no  higher  ;  and 
as  for  faith,  she  can  expect  from  reason  no  greater  help  than 
she  has  received  from  St.  Thomas."     In  the  year  following 
the  publication  of  the  jEterni  Patris,  our  Pontiff  proclaimed 
the   Angelic   Doctor   patron   of   all    Catholic   Uuiversities, 
Colleges,  and  Schools.     On  Oct.    15,    1879,    in   a   letter  to 
Cardinal  de  Luca,  Prefect  of  the  Congregation  of  Studies,  he 
announced  his  intention  of  founding  in  Rome  an  Academy 
which  would  be  devoted  to  the  defence  and  explanation  of 
the  Thomistic  philosophy  ;  and  he  also   declared   his   pur- 
pose of  publishing  a  new  and  complete  edition  of  the  works 
of  St.  Thomas,  according  to  the  edition  of  St.  Pius  V.,  now 
become  exceedingly  rare.     In  order  to  encourage   the   stu- 
dents in  Rome  to  prosecute  their  Thomistic  indagations  con 
amove,  the  Pontiff  announced  that  thereafter  there  would  be 
held,  at  stated  times  in  his  presence  in  the  Vatican,  public 
disputations  on  scholastic  subjects  ;  and  in  accordance  with 
that  promise,  students  from  all   the   Roman   Colleges   had 
the  honor  of  breaking  philosophical   lances,   from   time   to 
time,  before  one  of  the  best  philosophers  of  our  day.      In  a 
Brief   dated   Dec.    25,    1880,    and    addressed   to   Cardinal 
Dechamps,  archbishop  of  Malines,  Leo  XIII.  expressed  his 
desire    that   a   chair   of   Thomisic   philosophy   should  be 
established  immediately  in  Louvain,  in  order   to   oppose   a 
solid  defence  against  the  materialistic   attacks   which   were 
favored  by  "  that  unbridled  liberty  of  speaking  a  ad  writing 


THE   PONTIFICATE   OF   LEO   XIII.  183 

which  now  reigns  in  Belgium,  and  which  engenders  the 
most  detestable  opinions."  In  Louvain,  as  well  as  in  the 
Universities  of  Lille,  Fribourg,  and  Washington,  and  in  all 
the  more  considerable  of  the  ecclesiastical  seminaries  of 
the  Catholic  world,  the  voice  of  the  Pontiff  was  heeded, 
and  there  the  doctrine  of  the  Angel  of  the  Schools  now 
reigns  triumphant  (1). 

The  Encyclical  Arcanum,  which  appeared  on  Feb.  1-4, 1880, 
has  for  its  subject  that  most  abused  of  all  social  institutions 
in  our  day,  Marriage.  After  the  preludes  which  would 
naturally  occur  in  such  an  instruction,  His  Holiness  says  in 
regard  to  Christian  Matrimony :  "  There  cannot  subsist  a 
true  and  legitimate  matrimonial  contract,  which  is  not,  at 
the  same  time,  a  Sacrament ;  for  Christ  raised  marriage  to 
the  dignity  of  a  Sacrament."  The  Pope  then  proceeds  to 
show  how  the  materialistic  theories  concerning  marriage  are 
not  only  false,  but  pernicious,  since  they  prevent  the  good 
which  God  had  in  view  when  He  endowed  matrimony  with 
graces  which  would  render  the  family  happier  and  more 
virtuous.  The  burdens  of  marriage,  continues  His  Holiness, 
often  appear  to  be  intolerable  ;  and  then  the  civil  authority 
intervenes,  granting  divorce,  a  fruitful  source  of  miseries,  of 
misfortune  for  children,  of  shame  for  women,  and  of  license 
for  all.  History  shows,  remarks  the  Pontiff,  how  well  the 
Popes  have  deserved  of  humanity  by  defending  the  sanctity 
of  marriage  against  powerful  sovereigns  like  Henry  VIIL, 
Napoleon,  etc.  The  Pope  is  careful  to  add  that  the  Church 
does  not  deny  that  the  State  lias  the  right  to  legislate  con- 
cerning the  purely  civil  effects  of  matrimony ;  she  clearly 
recognizes  the  distinction  between  the  two  powers,  civil  and 

(1)  The  following  remarks  of  Mrp.  T'Serclaes  on  the  effect  of  the  .f^tcrni  Pat r is  are 
worthy  of  the  reader's  attention  :  "  Peace  is  now  established  in  Catholic  schools  ;  burning 
dissensions  agitate  minds  no  longer.  Even  heterodox  philosophers  applaud  the  intellect- 
ual activity  which  prompted  the  decree  of  Leo  XIII.,  and  which  has  affected  them  so 
adversely.  Nowadays  no  one  thinks  that  he  can  dismiss  the  arguments  of  the  Scholiistlcs 
with  some  smart  saying  or  some  jocosity  concerning  Aristotle.  Everyone  understands 
that  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Stagyrlte  and  of  St.  Thomas  are  found  the  highest  forms  of 
human  thought.  Men  now  study  both  these  authors.  For  very  many,  this  study  has  only 
value  as  a  scientific  curiosity.  For  others,  it  is  a  kind  of  research  for  philosophical  truth. 
For  all.  it  constitutes  an  evolution  of  non -Catholic  thought  In  the  direction  of  Christian 
philosophy.  And  this  is  an  immense  result  of  the  Initiative  taken  by  Leo  XIII."  L<ic. 
nt..  Vol.  1..  p.  'm. 


184  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTOEY. 

ecclesiastical,  demanding  only  that  neither  one  interfere  in 
the  province  of  the  othei'. 

The  Encyclical  Sancta  Bel  Civifas,  dated  Dec.  3,  1880,  is 
devoted  to  the  obligation,  on  the  part  of  the  faithful,  of 
aiding  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  founded 
at  Lyons  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  of 
sustaining  also  the  kindred  works,  the  Societj^  of  the  Hol}^ 
Infancy,  and  that  for  the  Schools  in  the  East.  It  was  upon 
this  last  work  that  Leo  XIII.  chiefly  relied  for  the  success 
of  his  many  plans  for  the  restoration  of  the  East,  the  cradle 
of  our  faitli,  to  the  true  fold.  The  Encyclical  Mllitaus  Dei 
Ecclesio,  issued  on  March  12,  1881,  proclaimed  a  Jubilee ; 
and  called  on  the  Universal  Church  for  prayers  on  account 
of  the  present  "  intolerable  position  "  of  the  Holy  See  in  its 
ancient  capital.  "  The  Head  of  the  Church,"  cries  the  Pontiff, 
"  is  deprived  of  his  rights,  and  is  embarrassed  in  a  thousand 
ways  in  the  exercise  of  his  supreme  ministry  ;  he  possesses 
now  only  a  shadow  of  royal  majesty,  which  has  been  left  to 
him  as  though  to  deride  him."  Leo  XIII.  describes  in 
moving  terms  the  recent  spoliations  of  ecclesiastical  property 
in  the  Eternal  City — spoliations  which  extended  even  to  the 
property  of  the  Propaganda,  Avhicli  every  preceding  revolution 
had  spared.  He  speaks  of  the  oppressive  laws  sanctioned 
by  the  intruding  government,  the  obstacles  put  in  the  way  of 
educating  the  young,  the  profanation  of  churches,  the  erection 
of  Protestant  temples  ;  and  he  concludes  that  "  all  our 
courage,  and  all  our  human  care,  will  be  vain,  if  heaven  does 
not  send  us  opportune  succor." 

The  Encyclical  Diuturnum,  published  on  June  29,  1881, 
was  one  of  the  most  important  documents  issued  in  this 
pontificate,  since  it  dealt  with  civil  governmental  authority. 
The  Pontiff  begins  with  the  principle  that  in  every  society 
an  irrepressible  necessity  calls  for  a  ruling  authority.  No 
rebellion,  though  it  were  arrogance  incarnate,  ever  succeeded 
in  actuating  the  idea  of  no  one  person  or  authority  being 
obeyed.  Nevertheless,  ever  since  the  religious  innovations 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  men  have  succeeded  in  lessening 
greatly  the  force  and  majesty  of  authority  ;  in  fact,  since  the 
so-called  Reformation,  an  exaggerated  liberty  has  gradually 


THE  rONTIFICATE   OF  LEO   XIII.  185 

come  into  vogue,  aud  men  liiive  inveiittMl  jill  sorts  of  systems 
on  the  origin  and  constitution  of  soci^^ty.     At  length  it  hap- 
pened that  certain   phih)sophists  of  the  eighteenth    century 
insisted  that  all  authority  comes  from  the  people  "  in  such 
fashion  that  the  possessor  of  authority  is  only  a  delegate  of 
the  people,  and  can  be  deprived  of  his  authority   by  the 
people  who  delegated  him.     Catholics  think  differently,  and 
derive  authority  from  God,  who  is  its  natural  and  necessary 
principle."     The  Pope  does  not  deny  that  the  leaders  of  a 
tiociety  may,  in  certain  cases,  be  chosen  by  the  multitude  ; 
but  by  this  choice  "  the  right  of  government  is  not  given — 
authority  is  not  conferred  ;  it  is  the  person  who  will  exercise 
the  authority  that  is  designated."     In  all  this  teaching  there 
is  no  question  of  political  forms  ;  the  Church  can  approve  of 
a  republican  or  any  other  form  of  government,  if  it  is  just. 
Therefore  the  people  have  a  right,   provided  they  do  not 
violate  justice,  to  adopt  that  government  which  best  suits 
their  character  and  favorite  institutions.     After  a  refutation 
of  the  theory  of  a  "  Social  Compact,"  Leo  XIII.  shows  the 
advantages  of  the  Catholic  doctrine ;  and  in  the  first  place, 
the  security  enjoyed  by  a  governm  3nt  whose  subjects  obey 
from  conscientious  motives.     The  sole  reason  for  a  refusal 
of  obedience,  in  the  case  of  such  subjects,  would  be  a  mani- 
fest opposition  between  orders  received  and  the  natural  law  or 
the  commands  of  God.     "  But  in  this  case,  it  is  the  authority 
of  the  ruler  that  is  null ;  it  becomes  null,  when  it  violates 
justice."     The  Church  has  always  tried  to   introduce   her 
doctrine  on  the  nature  of  the  civil  power  into  the  practical 
lives  of  men.     Therefore   the  early  Christians  obeyed  the 
Pagan  emperors  who  persecuted  them  ;  they  refused  obedi- 
ence only  when  the  divine  law  was  involved.     After  the  civil 
power  had  become  Christian,  and  the  Church  had  become 
the  recognized  moving  spirit  of  civil  society,  the  Church 
gave  to  the  civil  power  a  species  of  consecration  when   the 
Roman  Pontiff  instituted  the  Holy  Roman  Empire ;  and  that 
institution    would    have   proved   most  beneficent   for  both 
Chv^rcll  and  State,  if  princes  and  peoples  had  remained  faith- 
ful to  the  intentions  of  its  founder,  the  Roman   Pontiff.     So 
long  as  harmony   reigns   between   Church   and   State,    the 


18(*  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

Church  effactually  pacifies  the  people  when  they  rebel  against 
the  State  ;  and  she  tears  to  the  rulers  the  complaints  of  the 
people.  What  have  the  false  ideas  on  the  civil  power  pro- 
duced ?  Nothing  but  seditions,  license,  carnage  ;  and  now 
all  is  tending  toward  Anarchy,  Communism,  or  Nihilism. 
Governments  have  no  power  of  sufficient  efficiency  to  resist 
these  excesses  ;  severe  punishments  avail  nothing,  for,  as  St. 
Thomas  and  experience  teach,  fear  only  causes  the  victim  to 
wait  for  an  occasion  to  revolt  against  its  inspirer.  Recourse 
must  be  had  to  a  principle  of  obedience  more  elevated  than 
fear  ;  and  that  principle  is  conscience,  the  fear  of  God.  Leo 
XIII.  terminates  his  Encyclical  with  an  invitation  to  rulers 
to  profit  by  the  powerful  assistance  of  the  Church,  and  to 
protect  the  Church,  were  it  only  for  the  good  of  the  State. 
The  Encyclical  Humanmn  Genus,  dated  April  20,  1884, 
resumes  the  motives  which  have  inspired  the  Church  in 
her  condemnation  of  Freemasonry.  As  we  have  already 
described  these  motives  in  our  special  dissertation  on  the 
diabolical  sect  (1),  and  as  the  same  motives  have  been  con- 
tinually placed  in  evidence  during  the  course  of  our  work,  we 
need  not  now  repeat  them.  Leo  XIII.  declares  that  he  wishes 
not  to  accuse  each  Mason  in  particular,  nor  even  each  one  of 
the  Secret  Societies,  of  all  the  crimes  which  are  committed 
by  the  societies  in  general.  Among  the  adepts,  there  are 
some  who  ignore  the  veritable  objects  of  their  organizations  ; 
and  among  those  who  well  realize  what  those  objects  are, 
there  may  be  some  who  do  not  approve  certain  consequen- 
ces of  their  principles,  while  others  may  not  dare  to  apply 
those  consequences.  Be  this  as  it  may,  rightly  contends  the 
Pontiff,  we  must  judge  Freemasonry  by  its  principles,  rather 
than  by  a  few  particular  facts.  Then  the  Pope  discourses 
on  Naturalism,  the  principles  of  which  Freemasonry  reduces 
to  action ;  and  he  refers  to  the  deliberations  in  the  Grand 
Orients  of  our  day  concerning  the  advisability  of  retaining 
among  the  statutes  of  the  order  that  which  recognized  the 
existence  of  God — deliberations  which  resulted  in  a  schism 
among  the  sectarians  (2).  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Pope 
might  have  added,  Atheism  or  Pantheism,  on  the  part  of  a 

(1)  Vol.  iv..  ch.  18.  (2)  Ihi.  p.  436. 


THE    PONTIFICATE   OF   LEO   XIII.  187 

cauJidate  for  Masonry,  is  no  bar  to  liis  initiation  in  any 
Lodge  in  the  Masonic  world.  Tlie  Pontift'  lays  much  stress 
on  the  efforts  of  Masonry  to  transform  the  civil  laws,  wher- 
ever it  attains  to  power,  in  a  Naturalistic  sense ;  especially 
in  the  matter  of  divorce,  and  of  indifferentism  in  the  educa- 
tion of  youth.  Attention  is  also  drawn  to  the  Naturalistic 
principle,  so  eagerly  propagated  by  Masonry-,  that  all  author- 
ity must  be  rejected  which  is  not  derived  from  man  himself. 
In  conclusion,  Leo  XIII.  renews  all  the  condemnations  of 
Freemasonry,  emitted  by  his  predecessors. 

The  Encyclical  Lnmortah  Dei,  issued  on  Nov.  19,  1885, 
may  be  regarded  as  a  development  of  the  Diudmuini.  Leo 
XIII.  reminds  us  that  when  Gregory  XVI.  and  Pius  IX.  (the 
latter  chietly  iu  his  Si/Uabu'i)  condemned  certain  modern 
governmental  theories,  the  pontifical  reprobation  was  not 
visited  upon  any  particular  form  of  government,  considered 
in  itself  ;  nor  was  that  reprobation  intended  for  any  greater 
or  less  share  of  the  people  in  governmental  matters — a  share 
which  is  often  useful,  and  sometimes  obligatory.  Nor  from 
these  condemnations  by  Gregory  XVI.  and  Pius  IX.  should 
any  one  pretend  to  conclude  that  the  Church  is  opposed  to 
Teal  liberty  ;  nor  should  it  be  supposed  that  the  Church 
condemns  ihejwiifical  toleration  of  false  religions,  when  such 
toleration  is  demanded  by  a  necessity  of  obtaining  some 
great  good,  or  of  avoiding  some  great  evil.  The  Church 
approves  the  liberty  which  fosters  prosperity,  and  which 
protects  the  State  against  arbitrary  violence.  The  Church 
has  ever  encouraged  the  precautions  taken  against  the  tyranny 
of  rulers  ;  she  ever  protected  municipal  franchises,  as  well  as 
all  measures  which  secured  in  equal  measure  the  honor  and 
happiness  of  all  citizens.  Instead  of  being  an  enemy  of 
modern  inventions,  the  Church  favors  everything  which  tends 
to  develop  science  and  progress. .  Leo  XIII.  calls  on  Catho" 
lies  to  heed  the  judgment  emitted  by  the  Holy  See  in  regard 
to  those  modern  false  liberties,  the  evil  fruits  of  which  are 
evident  to  every  observer.  Undoubtedly  a  government  wliich 
tyrannizes  over  its  Catholic  citizens  can  be  tolerated  with 
difiiculty  ;  but  "  the  principles  on  wliich  that  government  is 
based  may  be  such  as  admit  of  no  rejection."     It  is  very 


188  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

necessary,  insists  the  Pontiff,  that  Catholics  should  share  in 
the  administration  of  municipalities,  were  it  only  in  order  to 
procure  a  Christian  education  for  their  children.  His  Holi- 
ness would  like  to  see  all  Catholics,  in  the  emergencies  of 
to-day,  forget  intestine  discords,  and  turn  all  their  energies 
to  the  advancement  of  the  Church  and  of  true  civil  progress. 
The  Encyclical  LihertaH,  published  on  June  20,  1888^ 
begins  appropriately  with  the  name  which  produces  so  many 
throbs,  sometimes  exultant,  more  frequently  despairing,  in 
the  human  heart ;  for  the  document  deals  exhaustively  with 
the  theories  of  true  and  of  false  liberty,  and  its  sole  object 
may  be  said  to  be  a  proof  that  when  the  Church  is  charged 
with  being  the  foe  of  liberty,  "  the  reason  of  that  accusation 
is  to  be  found  in  the  erroneous  idea  of  liberty  which  the 
accuser  has  formed."  Of  all  the  Encyclicals  of  Leo  XIII., 
this  one  lends  itself  least  readily  to  the  process  of  synopsis  ; 
but  the  Pontiff  himself,  at  the  end  of  the  document,  saves 
one  such  labor  to  some  extent,  when  he  specifies  the  various 
gradations  of  modern  Liberalism.  He  regards  as  the  worst 
kind  of  Liberalism  that  which  refuses,  in  both  public  and 
private  life,  all  obedience  to  God.  Next  to  this  species,  he 
finds  the  greatest  wickedness  in  those  Liberals  who  would 
submit  indeed  to  the  Natural  Law,  but  who  repudiate 
Revelation,  at  least  in  the  social  order ;  and  this  class  of 
Liberals,  just  like  the  first,  cries  loudly  for  an  entire  "  separa- 
tion of  Church  and  State  " — a  pernicious  error,  in  their  inter- 
pretation of  the  phrase,  since  the  two  powers,  although  of 
different  dignity  and  different  ends,  were  meant  by  God  to  aid 
each  other.  These  "  separationists  of  Church  and  State  "  are 
of  two  classes.  Some  would  have  governments  act  as  though 
there  were  no  such  an  institution  as  the  Church,  leaving 
religion  among  such  matters  as  are  purely  private.  Others 
deny  to  the  Church  the  rights  belonging  to  a  real  society, 
allowing  to  her  simply  the  right  to  exhort  and  entreat  her 
members,  recognizing  in  her  no  legislative  or  coercive  power  ; 
and  these  gentry  quite  consistently  subject  the  Cliurch  to 
the  State,  precisely  as  they  subject  all  other  societies. 
Besides  these  Liberals  who  are  avowed  "  separationists  of 
Church  and  State,"  there  is  a  third  class  composed  of  persons 


THE   PONTIFICATE  OF   LEO   XIII.  189 

who  do  not  approve  the  specious  maxim,  but  who  contend 
that  the  Church  ought  to  be  less  uncompromising  in  her 
attitude  toward  the  spirit  of  the  day.  To  this  class  the  Pontift 
replies  tliat  their  demand  would  be  reasonable,  if  there  were 
a  question  of  arrangements  which  might  be  consonant  with 
truth  and  justice  ;  but  that  the  Church,  the  divinely-appointed 
guardian  of  truths  which  are  necessary  for  all  times  and 
circumstances,  can  never  keep  silence  when  error  and 
injustice  are  offered  for  the  veneration,  or  at  least  for  the 
approval  of  men.  "  It  follows  from  what  has  been  said," 
continues  the  Pope,  "  that  it  is  not  permissible  to  accord 
freedom  of  the  press,  of  thought,  of  teaching,  and  of  worship, 
as  so  many  rights  inherent  in  the  very  nature  of  man  ; 
although  all  these  liberties  may  be  granted  for  just  reasons, 
on  condition  that  they  do  not  degenerate  into  license  "  (1). 
This  Encyclical  was  completed  by  another,  beginning  :  Sapi- 
entice  Christiame,  dated  on  Jan.  10,  1890,  and  treating  of  the 
principal  duties  of  Christians,  but  also  manifesting  the  prin- 
ciples which  have  regulated  the  policy  of  Leo  XUI.  in  the 
various  countries  of  Christendom — principles  which  have 
inspired  the  advice  which  he  has  given  so  frequently  to 
Catholics  of  every  nationality,  although  at  the  same  time  he 
adapted  them  to  the  particular  necessities  of  each  case. 

On  Oct.  15,  1890.  Leo  XIIL  addressed  to  the  Italians  an 
Encyclical  in  their  own  language,  warning  them  of  the 
dangers  attending  the  present  religicnis  situation  in  their 
land.  "  If  there  were  a  question  of  our  person  alone,"  says 
the  Pontiff,  "  if  we  did  not  see  Italy  menaced  in  her  faith, 
and  rushing  to  her  ruin,  we  would  bear  all  outrages  in 
silence."  Then  he  dilates  on  the  plan  of  the  sectarians, 
"  not  a  new  plan,  unless  it  be  new  in  its  audacity,  in  its 
ferocity,  and  in  its  rapidity  of  execution  "—the  destruction 

(1)  The  London  >inturda}i  Review,  one  of  the  most  sterllnjr  Protestant  periodicals  in 
England,  said  of  this  Encyclical :  "  After  a  careful  reading  of  this  long  document,  we  have 

not  discovered  one  idea  whlcli  all  sincere  Christians  might  not  accept When  w.-  think 

of  thHi  vast  inlluence  of  the  Catholic  Chnnh.  and  of  the  obedience  of  its  numen-us  hi.  'ar- 
chy  to  the  instructions  of  its  supreme  head,  we  must  believe  that  these  words  of  Leo  X'.U., 
so  Arm  and  so  logical,  will  produce  happv  results  in  the  multitude  of  the  faithful,  'n  a 
time  when  faith  is  so  cruellv  atta.'ked.  it  is  consoling  to  read  this  Encyclical,  so  fi.n  of 
dienity.  and  to  observe  that  it  doe?  not  contain  one  word  -.f  bitterness  or  of  reproach,  and 
that  it  has  not  a  trace  of  fanaticism  or  of  narrow-mindedness." 


190  STUDIES  m  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope  the  abolition  of  religious 
orders,  the  enforced  conscription  of  ecclesiastics,  the  rob- 
bery of  Church  property,  the  secularization  of  everything 
ecclesiastical,  the  enforcement  of  civil  marriages,  and 
exclusively  lay  instruction  of  the  young.  In  Italy,  "  all  the 
laws  which  can  outrage  the  Church,  all  the  measures  which 
can  trammel  her,  are  first  proposed,  discussed,  and  carried  in 
the  Masonic  Lodges.  To  ensure  the  passage  of  such  enact- 
ments, it  is  sufficient  that  they  be  known  as  injurious  to  the 
Church."  The  Pontiff  declares  that  "  it  is  necessary  for  the 
world  to  realize  that  the  struggle  between  the  Papacy  and  the 
Italian  Revolution  is  of  an  essentially  religious  nature  " ; 
and  that  now  it  is  the  first  duty  of  every  Italian  to  defend 
the  inestimable  treasure  of  his  faith,  "  no  matter  at  what 
cost,  and  under  the  pain  of  eternal  damnation."  Then  the 
Pope  details  the  methods  approjDriate  for  the  war  which  the 
Italians  must  wage ;  and  perhaps  the  chief  among  their 
weapons,  after  prayer,  is  to  be  the  Catholic  press.  As  a 
counterpart  to  the  present  false  and  dangerous  situation  in 
Italy,  the  Pontiff  draws  a  picture  of  an  Italy  reconciled  with 
the  Holy  See.  He  exhibits  a  restoration  of  a  spirit  of  duty, 
now  unknown;  a  solution  of  social  questions  facilitated; 
"  public  liberty  substituted  for  license  "  ;  civil  concord  re- 
established. As  for  Eome  especially,  "  placed  again  under 
the  peaceful  and  paternal  sceptre  of  her  Pontiff,  she  would 
be  once  more  that  which  Providence  and  the  centuries  made 
her ;  that  is,  instead  of  being  reduced  to  the  rank  of  a  capital 
for  a  particular  kingdom,  the  prey  of  a  dualism  of  two  sover- 
eign powers  which  is  contrary  to  her  history,  she  would  be 
again  the  capital  of  the  Catholic  world,  grand  with  all  the 
majesty  of  religion  and  of  the  supreme  priesthood,  the  mis- 
tress and  model  of  civilization  for  all  the  nations." 

On  July  16,  1892,  Leo  XIII.  addressed  an  Encyclical  to 
the  bishops  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  the  two  Americas,  in  praise 
of  the  great  Italian  sailor  and  discoverer,  Columbus.  The- 
people  of  the  United  States  of  America  were  then  pre 
paring  for  a  grand  World's  Fair,  which  was  to  honor  the  fourth 
centennial  of  the  discovery  of  the  New  World ;  and  our 
Pontiff  wished  to  show  that  the  Holy  See  always  took  part  in 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO   XHI.  191 

the  glorification  of  great  aud  honorable  enterprises.  "  With- 
out doubt,"  said  His  Holiness,  "  the  Church  reserves  her 
special "  honors  for  supernatural  virtues,  since  they  are 
connected  with  the  eternal  salvation  of  souls ;  but  neverthe- 
less, she  does  not  despise  the  other  virtues,  nor  does  she 
fail  to  appreciate  them  at  their  worth.  . .  .Certainly  God  is 
admirable  in  his  saints  ;  but  the  traces  of  His  divine  strength 
also  appear  in  those  who  have  been  distinguished  by 
brilliancy  of  soul — in  men  whose  elevation  of  mind  and 
sparks  of  genius  could  have  come  only  from  their  Creator." 
Then  in  the  name  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  Pope  speaks 
of  the  discoverer  of  America  as  "  Culnmhus  noster — our 
Columbus";  for  it  was  the  religious  motive,  the  Catholic 
faith,  that  inspired  the  grand  enterprise.  "  Deeply  engraved 
in  his  heart  was  the  resolution  to  open  up  new  lands  to  the 
Gospel  "  ;  for  we  know  that  as  soon  as  he  appeared  before  the 
Spanish  sovereigns,  "  he  assured  them  that  they  should  not 
hesitate  to  patronize  his  ambition,  since  their  names  would 
be  immortal,  if  they  helped  to  carry  the  name  and  teachings 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  those  distant  regions."  And  when  his 
prayers  had  been  heard,  "he  attested  that  he  had  besought 
God  that  the  Spanish  sovereigns,  aided  by  the  divine  grace, 
would  persevere  in  their  intention  to  send  the  Gospel  to 
those  new  countries.  Finally,  Columbus  declared  that  he 
intended  to  ask  Pope  Alexander  VI.  for  some  apostolic  men 
who  would  preach  the  faith  in  the  new  regions.  One  can 
imagine  the  joy  with  which  Columbus  wrote  to  Raphael 
Sanchez,  the  first  who  returned  from  the  Indies  to  Lisbon, 
that  '  they  should  render  to  God  never-ending  thanks  for 
His  having  deigned  to  bless  their  enterprise,  seeing  that 
now  Jesus  Christ  could  rejoice  in  heaven  and  on  earth 
because  of  the  salvation  of  innumerable  peoples  who  were  but 
recently  going  to  perdition.'  "  This  was  the  spirit,  says  the 
Poutifi",  which  sustained  Columbus  "  amid  the  contrary 
opinions  of  the  wise,  the  refusals  of  princes,  the  tempests  of 
the  ocean,  aud  the  continuous  vigils  which  often  menaced 
his  life.  Then  there  were  the  combats  with  the  savages, 
the  conspiracies  of  the  wicked,  the  perfidies  of  the  envious, 
the  calumnies  of  his  detractors,  aud  finally  the  chains  with 


192  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

which  the  innocent  man  was  loaded."  The  Pope  shows 
Columbus  as  the  worthy  accoraplisher  of  the  divine  plan  : 
"  When  about  to  brave  the  ocean,  he  orders  the  adventurers 
to  perform  acts  of  expiation  for  their  sins ;  he  prays  the 
Queen  of  Heaven  to  direct  the  course  of  the  ships ;  and 
before  giving  the  order  to  make  sail,  he  invokes  the  august 
name  of  the  Most  Holy  Trinity.  Then,  during  the  voyage, 
when  the  crews  murmured,  he  knew  that  he  was  in  the 
presence  of  God,  and  he  preserved  his  tranquillity  of  spirit. 
His  intention  was  manifested  in  the  names  which  he  gave 
to  the  newly-discovered  islands  ;  and  whenever  he  was  about 
to  land  on  one  for  the  first  time,  he  took  possession  of  it  in 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Wherever  he  landed,  he  im- 
mediately planted  the  sacred  sign  of  the  Cross  ;  and  he  was 
the  first  to  chant  in  the  new  territories  that  sweet  name  of 
the  Redeemer  which  he  had  so  often  sung  to  the  accompani- 
ment of  the  murmuring  waves  during  his  trying  voyage. 
Whenever  he  founded  a  Spanish  colony,  the  first  building 
erected  was  a  church,  in  which  all  of  the  popular  feasts 
could  be  celebrated  with  august  ceremonies.'  " 

On  Nov.  18,  1893,  our  Pontiff  published  his  Encyclical 
Providentissimus  Deus,  treating  of  the  excellence  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  and  of  the  Protestant  and  Rationalistic  methods 
of  so-called  criticism  in  their  regard.  After  a  development 
of  the  saying  of  St.  Jerome  that  an  ignorance  of  the  Scrip- 
tures is  an  ignorance  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Pope  details  the 
solicitude  ever  manifested  by  the  Church  for  the  explana- 
tion of  Holy  Writ  to  the  people,  beginning  with  the  olden 
"  Apologists  "  and  the  schools  of  Alexandria  and  Antioch, 
and  ending  with  the  Scholastics,  "among  whom  the  palm 
belonged  to  St.  Thomas  of  Aquino,"  and  the  many  Catholic 
scholars  whose  labors  were  facilitated  by  the  invention  of 
the  printing-press.  The  Protestant  idea  of  private  inter- 
pretation is  refuted  by  the  Pontiff ;  but  he  lays  greater  stress 
on  the  Rationalistic  theories,  which,  in  last  analysis,  so  many 
of  the  modern  Protestant  Biblicists  adopt.  These  votaries 
of  the  "  higher  criticism  "  are  more  radical  than  were  the 
original  Protestants  ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  are 
far    more    logical.     "  Tliey  discern   in    the  Scriptures  only 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XHI.  193 

fictions  and  human  inventions ;  according  to  tliem,  the 
Bible  gives  ns  pure  fables  or  lying  histories.  They  find  no 
prophecies  or  divine  oracles,  but  either  predictions  composed 
after  the  events,  or  simple  intuitions  of  the  human  mind. 
In  fine,  they  would  attribute  the  Gospels  and  the  Apostolic 
writings  to  tiuthors  very  different  from  those  to  whom 
they  have  been  assigned."  The  Pontiff  devotes  some  space 
to  practical  instruction  of  the  professors  who  must  train 
ecclesiastical  students  in  methods  adapted  to  a  refutation  of 
this  so-called  system.  As  for  the  comparatively  recent 
development  of  these  theories,  the  "  perverse  art  so  injur- 
ious to  religion,  an  art  which  has  been  dignified  by  the  name 
of  '  higher  criticism,'  and  which  consists  in  judging  of  the 
origin,  integrity,  and  authority  of  each  book,  only  by  what 
is  termed  internal  evidence  ;  it  is  certain  that  in  historical 
questions,  such  as  that  of  the  origin  or  preservation  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  testimony  of  history  ought  to  weigh  more 
than  anj-  other.  As  for  the  internal  evidence,  it  possesses,  as 
a  rule,  only  value  siifficient  to  warrant  its  use  by  way  of 
confirmation."  The  Pontiff  calls  attention  to  the  difficulties 
which  are  so  often  adduced  from  the  natural  sciences  by  so 
many  heterodox  critics.  "  There  would  never  be  any  dis- 
agreement between  the  theologian  and  the  physicist,  if  each 
would  remain  within  his  own  domain,  taking  care  to  follow 
the  advice  of  St.  Augustine  '  to  affirm  nothing  rashly,  and  not 
to  present  the  unknown  as  certainly  known '  (1).  . .  .When 
scientists  advance  certain  proofs  for  an  assertion,  the  inter- 
preter of  Scripture  ought  to  be  able  to  prove  that  the  said 
assertion  does  not  at  all  contradict  the  Bible,  if  the  Bible 
is  properly  understood  ;  and  let  the  interpreter  remember 
that  very  often  things  are  advanced  as  certain  by  the  scientists, 
only  to  be  afterward  rejected  with  equal  certainty  by 
their  successors."  Undoubtedly,  admits  His  Holiness,  it 
may  happen  that  the  meaning  of  a  certain  passage  in  the 
Bible  seems  to  be  doubtful.  "  In  order  to  solve  the  difficulty, 
the  authorized  rules  of  interpretation  will  jivail  much  ;  but 
it  is  absolutely  forbidden  to  restrict  inspiration  to  onlv  some 
parts  of  the  Scripture,  or  to  admit  that  the  sacred  writer 

(1)  In  (Jen.,  Op.  Imperf.,  IX. 


194  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

was  liimself  deceived.  In  fact,  there  can  be  no  toleration 
for  the  system  of  those  who,  in  order  to  escape  these  difl&- 
culties,  dare  to  say  that  in  the  Scriptures  divine  inspiration 
affects  only  matters  of  faith  and  morals.  These  persons  seem 
to  believe  that  when  there  is  a  question  of  the  genuineness  of  a 
text,  we  should  not  inquire  as  to  what  God  said,  but  rather  seek 
for  the  reason  of  His  saying  it.  All  the  Scriptures  recognized 
by  the  Church  as  canonical  were  written,  in  their  entirety  and 
in  all  their  parts,  under  the  dictation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It 
follows,  therefore,  that  either  the  Catholic  idea  of  divine 
inspiration  is  perverted,  or  God  is  represented  as  the  author 
of  error,  by  those  who  assert  that  there  can  be  anything 
false  in  the  authentic  texts  of  Holy  Writ."  The  Pontiff 
warns  all  Biblical  scholars  and  all  physicists  that  God,  the 
Author  of  Nature,  is  also  the  Author  of  our  Holy  Books  ; 
and  that  consequently  in  those  writings  there  cannot  be  any 
real  contradiction  of  the  truths  of  Nature.  When  there  seems 
to  be  a  contradiction,  "you  must  try  to  compel  its  disappear- 
ance, either  seeking  from  wise  theologians  the  more  probable 
sense  of  the  passage  in  question,  or  examining  more  carefully 
the  force  of  the  arguments  which  militate  against  it.  Nor 
should  you  despair,  if  the  apparent  contradiction  still 
persists  ;  for  since  truth  cannot  contradict  truth,  you  may  be 
certain  that  an  error  has  crept  either  into  the  interpretation 
of  the  sacred  text,  or  into  the  contrary  thesis.  At  any  rate, 
let  the  decision  be  suspended  ;  it  has  often  happened,  as  we 
have  said,  that  some  science  would  make  much  ado  about 
some  one  of  its  objections  against  the  Scriptures,  only  to 
see  the  objection  abandoned  as  absurd  in  later  times." 

Now  that  we  approach  the  end  of  our  review  of  the  pon- 
tificate of  Leo  XIII.,  the  moment  when  the  reader  will  expect 
from  us  a  judgment  as  to  the  calibre  of  this  "  Lumen  in  Ccelo  " 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  we  find  that  we  prefer  to  question 
the  gentlemen  of  the  Liberal  school  concerning  that  judg- 
ment. Let  us  listen,  in  the  first  place,  to  that  valiant  Spanish 
republican,  Castelar.  Writing  to  Boyer  d'Agen,  on  April  11, 
1892,  in  reply  to  that  editor's  request  for  an  article  on  this 
subject,  to  be  inserted  in  his  work  on  Leo  XLIL  in  fhe  Eyes 
of  His  Contemporaries,  the   most   eloquent   of   all   modern 


THE   rONTIFICATE   OF  LEO   XIII.  196 

Liberals  emitted  the  following,  among  other  noteworthy 
reflections  :  "  To-day,  wiien  the  Church  realizes  that  it  is 
her  mission  to  furnish  religion  to  free  peoples,  and  when 
she  calls  the  French  Catholics  to  peace  and  harmony  by  au 
acceptance  of  the  Republic,  a  man  who  has  been  a  democrat 
diiring  his  entire  life  finds  that  all  is  now  accomplished 
which  he  announced  in  our  immortal  Constituent  Assembly 
of  1879  :  '  No,  deputies,'  said  the  writer  of  these  lines  in  the 
session  of  May  5,  '  I  do  not  belong  to  the  world  of  theology 
and  of  faith.  I  think  I  belong  to  the  w^orld  of  philosophy 
and  of  reason.  Nevertheless,  if  it  happens  that  I  ever  return 
to  the  world  that  I  have  left,  I  shall  not  embrace  that 
Protestantism  whose  iciness  freezes  my  soul,  freezes  my 
heart,  freezes  my  conscience — tliat  ProiesUtnt  relu/ion  ivhich  is 
the  eternal  enemy  of  my  country,  of  my  race,  of  their  history. 
Indubitably  I  shall  return  to  the  beautiful  altar  which  once 
inspired  the  grandest  sentiments  which  I  have  ever  experi- 
enced during  the  entire  course  of  my  life  ;  I  shall  once  again 
kneel  with  both  knees  before  that  Most  Holy  Virgin  who 
calmed  my  first  passions  with  her  tender  smile  ;  I  shall  once 
more  fill  my  entire  being  with  the  perfume  of  the  holy  incense, 
with  the  strains  of  the  organ,  and  with  the  pictures  on  the 
stained  glass  which  showed  me  the  golden  wings  of  the 
angels  who  were  the  continual  companions  of  my  soul  in  its 
infancy.  And  at  the  hour  of  my  death,  deputies,  I  shall 
ask  for  a  refuge  in  the  arms  of  the  Cross,  in  those  arms 
which  are  stretched  to-day  over  that  little  spot  of  earth 
which  is  to  me  the  most  beloved  and  most  venerable  on  earth 
—the  grave  of  my  mother  (1).  ...  I   must  tell  you,  deputies, 

(1)  Here  Castelar  notes  that  the  Diarin  de  Sesiotun,  from  which  he  quotes  the  report  of 
his  speech,  observed  that  this  passage  was  received  by  the  entire  Cortes  with  frenzied 
applause,  so  true  is  it  that  every  Spaniard  must  be  a  Catholic,  at  least  in  heart.  And  he 
adds  :  "  I  note  this  applause,  not  from  any  puerile  vanity  as  an  orator,  but  because  I  wish 
to  show  that  when  I  thus  expressed  my  sentiments  In  regard  to  the  Catholic  religion,  I 
struck  the  key-note  which  dominated  the  hearts  of  us  democrats  (of  Spain),  as  they  yearned 
for  a  reconciliation  between  the  spirit  of  modern  progress  and  their  religious  belief,  the 
true  source  of  spiritual  life."  Castelar  was  a  Freemason  during  the  whole  of  his  political 
life ;  his  death  (May,  1899)  was  sudden  ;  but  we  may  well  hope  that  at  that  dread  moment 
an  Act  of  Contrition  was  made  by  the  grand  genius  who  dared  to  express  such  sentiments 
aa  those  in  the  text  in  the  face  of  a  Cortes  (republican)  which  was  nearly  entirely  Masonic. 
From  the  day  on  which  Castelar  stigmatized  the  Protestant  syslt  ni  as  "  the  enemy  of  his 
country  and  liis  race."  and  declared  that  he  hoped  to  die  at  the  feet  of  Mary,  and  "  In  the 
arms  of  the  Cross,"  throughout  the  world  the  Protestant.  Masonic,  and   JudaH)-Ma8onlc 


196  STUDIES  EST   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

that  I  felt  myself  impelled  to  return  to  the  religion  of  my 
ancestors — a  religion  which  I  have  never  totally  abandoned,  no, 
never! — at  the  very  moment  when,  by  the  providence  of  God, 
Leo.  XIII  was  raised  to  the  pontifical  throne  '  (1).  . . .  The 
following  words,  taken  from  a  discourse  which  was  pro- 
nounced on  Oct.  2, 1880,  are  so  applicable  to  the  jjresent  situa- 
tion, that  it  seems  impossible  that  twelve  years  have  passed 
since  they  were  spoken  : '  Everything  leads  us  to  suppose  that 
the  Papacy,  in  the  person  of  the  venerable  Leo  XIII. ,  tends 
toward  a  reconciliation.  Well,  let  us  also  seek  for  recon- 
ciliation. ...  I  understand  how  a  certain  Ghibelline  emperor 
can  flatter  the  persistent  Germanic  aspirations  by  flaunting 
the  pictures  of  Arminius  and  Luther  in  the  face  of  Eome  ; 
but  I  cannot  understand  a  similar  conduct  on  the  part  of  a 
French  Kepublic.  The  sentiments  now  triumphant  in  the 
religious  dissensions  of  France  terrify  me,  because  of  their 
Jacobin  character ;  and  the  Jacobin  character  terrifies  me 
l)ecause  another  Robespierre  must  be  inevitably  the  predeces- 
sor of  another  Napoleon.  If  our  respect  for  liberty  prevents 
our  taxing  interest,  profit,  and  exchange,  that  same  respect 
for  liberty  should  prevent  our  imposing  a  tax  on  prayer,  piety, 
and  repentance.'  I  quote  these  olden  expressions  of  mine  in 
>order  to  show  the  true  enthusiasm  and  tenacity  with  which  we 
desired  a  policy  such  as  Leo  XIII.  has  formulated  ;  and  in 
order  to  show  our  hope  that  the  same  policy  will  be  con- 
tinued in  a  wise  successor  of  this  Pontiff,  and  then  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  coming  century,  so  that  there  may  ensue  a 
better  condition  of  religious  affairs  than   this  century   has 

press  discerned  in  the  former  idol  a  man  of  no  admirable  qualities  whatever.  Of  course 
the  volte-fnce  was  to  be  expected  on  the  part  of  such  gentry  ;  but  we  were  not  prepared 
to  read  in  a  periodical  edited  by  a  self-avowed  Catholic,  a  similar  judgment  on  the  repent- 
■ant  Freemason.  In  the  Cosmopolitan  for  Aug.,  1899,  in  the  columns  devoted  to  "  MeD 
:aad  Events  "  which  are  presumably  editorial,  the  death  of  the  great  republican  received 
this  notice  :  "  The  man  who  died  was  a  pessimist,  a  truckler  to  power,  a  conslderer  of  his 
own  comfort  and  success.  The  noble  manhood  which  had  been  given  up  to  the  defense  of 
republicanism  and  the  rights  of  the  people  died  ten  years  before  the  physical  Castelar 
expired.  High  ideals,  noble  aspirations,  willingness  to  sacriflce  life  for  his  countrymen, 
had  long  since  disappeared." 

(1)  Here  Castelar  notes  how,  when  he  was  Chief  of  the  Executive  in  the  short-lived 
Spanish  Republic,  he  tried  to  procure  harmony  with  the  authorities  of  the  Church  ;  and  he 
recalls  with  satisfaction  that  this  conduct  entailed  for  him  the  loss  of  the  presidency  of  the 
State.  "  And  I  reveal  no  State  secret,"  be  added,  "when  I  declare  that  I  gained  the 
enmity  of  the  French  republicans  on  account  of  my  severe  and  constant  condemnation  of 
their  persecution  of  the  clergy  and  of  all  religious  ideas." 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIIL  197 

been  able  to  produce.  Human  thought  will  never  realize 
all  the  moral  felicity,  all  the  spiritual  light,  all  the  practical 
utility,  which  will  accrue  to  the  nations  of  Latin  race  from 
the  blessing  given  by  a  Roman  Pontiff  who  honors  liberty 
ami  democracy."  Such  was  the  judgment  emitted  by  Cas- 
telar  on  the  pontificate  of  Leo  XIIL  When  Canovas  del 
Castillo  was  asked  by  Boyer  d'Agen  to  commit  his  impres- 
sions on  the  subject  to  paper,  he  wrote:  "If  some  good 
Catholic  were  to  undertake  to  imagine  a  Pope  who  would 
conform  to  the  type  desired  by  him,  and  who  would  also  be 
capable  of  fulfilling  the  obligations  which  these  difficult 
times  impose  on  the  Supreme  Pontificate,  could  that  Cath- 
olic evoke  a  fitter  candidate  than  the  one  whom  Providence 
has  given  to  the  Church  in  the  august  person  of  Leo  XIIL  ?  " 
We  have  seen  already  the  estimate  formed  by  that  eminent 
coryphee  of  the  Italian  Revolution,  Rattazzi,  Thiers'  "  most 
clearsighted  statesman  in  the  world,"  concerning  the  per- 
sonality of  our  Pontiff.  Let  us  now  hearken  to  a  i^etty 
peroration  by  Crispi.  On  Feb.  26,  1892,  this  luminary  of 
the  Lodges  wrote :  "  Until  1887,  I  had  supposed  that  Leo 
XIIL  would  be  reconciled  with  Italy.  Regarding  him  as  a 
superior  man,  I  could  hope  that  he  would  govern  the  Church 
with  indei^endeuce  of  spirit,  pretending  no  longer  to  any 
civil  power,  and  submitting  to  the  laws  of  the  State,  in 
accordance  with  the  commands  of  the  Divine  Redeemer.  . . . 
But  I  became  more  and  more  convinced  that  the  Jesuits,  on 
whom  Leo  XIIL  had  conferred  new  privileges,  are  sufficiently 
strong  to  acquire  domination  over  the  grandest  intelligences. 
Then  I  remembered  a  saying  of  an  eminent  statesman  whom 
I  had  met  in  Berlin,  fifteen  years  before.  The  remark  was 
to  the  effect  that  when  a  man  dons  the  tiara,  be  he  Liberal 
or  Reactionist,  he  is  soon  conquered  by  the  Curia  Romana  ; 
and  if  he  does  not  yield,  he  will  probal)ly  be  conquered 
materially — in  his  jyerson.''  In  a  note  to  this  sage  commun- 
ication, Crispi  gives  to  the  ecclesiastical  world  the  startling 
information  that  "  during  the  first  years  of  his  ])outificate, 
Leo  XIIL  presented  himself  as  a  Thomist,  but  thereafter  he 
was  a  Jesuit — a  real  contradiction,  and  undergone  simply 
because  of   his  yearning   for   temporal   power."     Anothei 


198  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

famous  Italianissimo,  Giovanni  Bovio,  relieves  himself  of  his 
bile  with  this  emission  :  "  In  our  day  a  wise  Pope  is  no  more 
possible  than  a  holy  one  would  be.  A  timidly  enterprising  or 
a  skeptically  resigned-to-everything  Pope  might  be  possible  ; 
and  at  the  very  most,  we  might  have  an  able  Pope.  Leo 
XIII.,  whose  wounds  are  still  fresh,  is  not  resigned,  and  he 
is  not  sufficiently  enterprising  ;  for  Italy  and  all  Europe  have 
entered  on  a  new  order  of  things,  and  they  look  upon  the 
bawlings  of  the  Pope  as  upon  the  squallings  of  a  baby.  Leo 
is  astute,  for  the  atmosphere  of  the  Vatican,  during  the  last 
six  centuries,  would  corrupt  even  a  St.  Celestine  ;  but  can  it 
be  said  that  Leo  is  truly  able  ?  . . .  What  has  he  done  ?  He 
has  called  to  his  side  the  worst  of  counsellors — the  Jesuits  ; 
and  exalting  those  whom  the  best  Popes  scarcely  tolerated, 
he  has  shown  that  he  does  not  know  that  in  our  day  it  is  a 
waste  of  time  to  follow  the  policy  of  the  Jesuits.  But  if  we 
consider  the  advanced  age  of  Leo,  we  must  believe  that  he 
will  never  succeed  in  escaping  from  the  iufluence  of  '  the 
black  Pope  ';  and  therefore  his  pontificate  will  leave  no 
traces.  He  will  leave  behind  him  too  many  Encyclicals, 
and  not  one  monument." 

We  have  just  heard  the  judgments  of  two  classes  of 
Liberals  on  Pope  Leo  XIII.  ;  and  certainly  they  differ  vastly 
from  each  other,  as  might  be  expected  when  one  class  is  at 
least  honest,  and  the  other  is  palpably  mendacious,  slimy  in 
its  hypocrisy,  and  beastly  in  its  ferocity.  Many  large 
volumes  would  not  contain  all  the  eulogies  of  Leo  XIII.  as 
priest.  Pontiff,  and  statesman,  which  have  been  pronounced 
during  the  last  few  years  by  Catholic  publicists  of  renown  ; 
nearly  all  regard  him  as  the  grandest  figure  offered  to  the 
admiration  of  humanity  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  It  were  a  gracious  task  to  endow  our  work  with 
greater  value  by  recording  in  it  some  of  these  tributes  to  a 
glorious  pontificate ;  but  as  we  have  already  exceeded  the 
limit  of  length  necessarily  determined  for  these  dissertations, 
we  shall  now  adduce  the  judgment  emitted  by  one  of  the  many 
prominent  prelates  who  have  grasped  the  significance  of  both 
the  Leonine  personality  and  the  Leonine  pontificate — Cardi- 
nal  Satolli.     Undoubtedly,    Cardinal  SatoUi   is  personally 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XIU.  199 

devoted  to  Leo  XIII.,  probably  more  tenderly  devoted  to 
him  than  any  other  member  of  the  Sacred  College  ;  but  not 
for  that  reason  should  his  testimony  be  charily  received, 
for,  as  Justin  McCarthy  says  when  commenting  on  the  words 
that  we  are  about  to  quote,  "  we  cannot  take  account  of  any 
great  statesman's  life  and  public  career,  unless  we  pay  some 
attention  to  the  opinions  of  his  devotees.  It  must  reckon 
for  something  that  a  man  was  able  so  to  impress  his  devotees." 
While  Cardinal  Satolli  was  still  apostolic-delegate  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  he  thus  summarized  the  purpose 
and  residts  of  our  PoutiflTs  reign :  "  It  would  seem  as  if 
from  the  time  when  Leo  XIII.  succeeded  Pius  IX.,  he  had 
formed  a  grand  plan,  in  which  he  took  cognizance  of  all  the 
needs  of  humanity,  and  determined  on  the  provisions  he 
would  make  for  those  needs  during  the  whole  course  of  his 
Pontificate.  We  can  best  distinguish  this  design  of  the 
Pope  in  three  particular  directions.  Firstly,  in  the  Holy 
Father's  ardent  zeal  for  the  development  of  studies.  Sec- 
ondly, in  the  continued  interest  which  he  has  shown  in  social 
science.  And  thirdly,  in  his  untiring  efiforts  to  bring  peace 
into  the  Christian  countries  by  the  spread  of  civilization, 
the  teaching  of  religion,  and  the  promotion  of  concord 
between  Church  and  State.  With  regard  to  studies,  Pope 
Leo  has  already  reared  a  monument  of  imperishable  fame 
by  the  successive  acts  of  his  Pontificate.  Early  in  his  reign 
he  turned  his  attention  to  the  encouragement  of  the  study 
of  classical  literature,  of  philosophy  and  the  natural  sciences, 
of  theology  and  the  kindred  branches  of  sacred  sciences, 
such  as  Biblical  knowledge  and  ecclesiastical  history,  and  of 
judicial  sciences,  especially  of  Roman  Law  and  Comparative 
Civil  Law.  To  accomplish  his  aim  he  founded  new  chairs 
and  new  institutions  in  Rome  for  these  various  departments 
of  literary  and  encyclopedic  knowledge,  and  called  to  his 
assistance  some  of  the  most  eminent  and  learned  professors. 
With  regard  to  sociology,  it  is  another  of  the  Holy  Father's 
glories  that  at  this  latter  end  of  ihe  nineteenth  century,  his 
Encyclicals  are  regarded  as  so  many  admirable  parts  of  a 
grand  doctrinal  system,  comprehensive  and  universal,  em- 
bracing all  the  social  sciences,  beginning  with  the  fundamental 


200  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

theorems  of  Natural  Law,  and  going  on  to  the  consideration 
of  the  political  constitution  of  States,  and  of  every  economic 
question.  The  whole  world  knows  how  well  the  Pope's 
Encyclicals  have  carried  out  his  plan,  and  how,  for  this 
reason,  they  have  their  own  peculiar  character,  by  which 
they  are  distinguished  from  the  pontifical  utterances  of  other 
Popes,  even  those  of  his  immediate  predecessor,  Pius  IX. 
Turning  again  to  his  policy  of  pacification,  the  ecclesiastical 
history  of  his  pontificate,  the  civil  history  of  Europe,  the 
universal  history  of  the  human  race,  will  in  the  future  nec- 
essarily accord  pages  of  the  highest  praise  to  Leo  XIII. 
Germany,  Belgium,  France,  and  Spain  profess  their  bound- 
less gratitude  for  the  peace-giving  interventions  of  Leo  XIII. 
in  many  grave  and  critical  emergencies,  and  for  acts  which 
have  been  of  the  greatest  moment  to  those  nations.  Asia 
also  and  Africa  will  be  found  joining  in  the  chorus  and  laud- 
ing Leo,  who  has  so  often  and  so  resolutely  labored  to  re- 
awaken those  old  and  fossilized  portions  of  the  earth  to  a  new 
life  of  Christian  civilization.  Nor  will  America,  through- 
out its  length  and  breadth,  withhold  its  tribute  of  loyal  and 
generous  esteem,  veneration,  and  gratitude  to  Pope  Leo  for 
those  acts  of  his  pontificate  which  have  at  various  times  been 
promulgated,  and  by  which  he  has  shown  his  confidence 
and  hope  in  the  grand  future  of  this  mighty  nation." 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  personal  appearance 
and  manners  of  Leo  XIII. ;  and  as  in  the  case  of  Pius  IX., 
whose  external  and  mental  characteristics  were  so  different, 
no  man  who  has  described  them  has  been  satisfied  with  the 
picture  that  he  produced.  Undoubtedly  there  is  much  in 
the  atmosphere  of  the  Vatican,  in  the  religious  and  histor- 
ical associations  surrounding  the  sublimest  personage  on 
eartli — be  his  personality  what  it  may — that  renders  human 
language  comparatively  weak,  when  it  essays  a  verbal  nar- 
rative of  the  emotions  experienced  in  an  audience  with  a 
Eoman  Pontiff,  or  even  during  one  of  the  sublime  functions 
at  which  the  Pontiff  officiates,  or  is  simply  present.  But 
laying  aside  all  that  may  be  derived  from  the  poetical  or 
from  the  historical,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  presence  of 
Pius  IX.  evoked  feelings  of  positive  filial  affection  for   him, 


THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  LEO  XHI.  201 

-as  well  as  sentiments  of  personal  veneration,  in  ;ill  who 
conversed  with  him  during  one  blessed  (jiiarter  of  an  hour. 
That  sonietliing  akin  to  this  feelinj^,  as  well  as  stMitinicnts 
of  unbounded  admiration  oi  his  intellect,  was  consequent  on 
anythiujj;  like  a  personal  relation  with  Leo  XIII.,  is  certain. 
Theobald  Chartran,  the  eminent  French  artist  who  painted 
the  best  portrait  of  our  Pontiff  that  exists,  the  portrait 
concerninjuf  the  accuracy  of  which  His  Holiness  wrote  a 
very  neat  and  complimentary  distich  (Ij,  thus  recorded  the 
impressions  produced  in  his  mind  by  the  many  successive 
sittings,  to  which  the  only  half-willing  Pontiff  submitted  : 
"  When  I  was  first  received  in  jirivate  audience  by  Leo  XIIL, 
a  few  days  after  J^is  elevation  to  the  pontifical  throne,  I  was 
a  pensioner  of  the  Academy  of  France,  and  therefore  very 
young,  and  quite  prone  to  grand  enthusiasms.  And  never- 
theless, when  I  found  myself,  last  summer  (1891),  again  in 
the  jDresence  of  this  grand  figure,  after  an  interval  of  thir- 
teen years,  my  emotions  were  far  more  agitating  than  they 
had  been  on  the  previous  occasion.  Since  1878,  the  person- 
ality of  the  great  Pontiff  has  swayed  the  world  so  power- 
fully, although  genially,  that  I  may  defy  his  adversaries — 
alas  !  too  many — to  refuse  homage  to  his  vast  intelligence. 
But  let  us  speak,  at  first,  of  the  physical  appearance  of 
Leo  XIIL  His  height,  the  supreme  distinction  of  his 
entire  person,  his  countenance  at  once  energetic  and  mild, 
his  spiritual  and  delicately-drawn  lips,  his  hands  so 
thoroughly  aristocratic,  his  deep  but  melodious  voice,  and 
alx)ve  all,  those  eyes  so  full  of  youth,  life,  and  will  ;  in  fine, 
a  very  unique  combination  makes  the  wonderful  Pt)utiff 
the  most  completely  interesting  model  that  an  artist  could 
desire.  You  will  easil}'  understand  how  1  was  moved  in 
the  presence  of  this  venerable  man  whom  I  regard  as  tlie 
most  ideal  personage  of  his  century,  when  to  my  descrip- 
tion you  add  what  others  can  portray  with  better  effect  — the 
immense  influence  exercised  by  Leo  XIIL  over  the  men 
of  his  day,  and  especially  over  those  who  aj)}U'oach  him. 
...  The  intense  admiration    wliicli  I  had    already    felt    wjis 

(1)  "  Kffiijifm  Kuhjictiim  nculi.-t.  (/ni.s  dirrrr  faXnam 

Awli'dt  7    lliiic  xiinihm  I'ix  jnm  ))iujriiix(t  Aim'Uhm." 


202  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

changed,  now  that  I  was  admitted  to  an  intimacy  with  Hie 
Holiness,  to  veritable  worship  ;  I  was  captured,  as  to  eyes, 
and  as  to  heart.  To  the  joy  of  being  able  to  study  this 
entrancing  physiognomy  at  my  ease,  was  now  added  the 
still  greater  joy  of  hearing,  during  long  hours  at  a  time, 
the  PontiiT s  warm  and  vibrating  tones — the  joy  of  listening  to 
some  of  his  innermost  thoughts,  and  to  some  of  the  grand 
projects  conceived  in  that  jjowerful  brain.  I  would  like  to 
say  much  more,  and  I  could  do  so  ;  but  I  fear  that  I  might 
not  express  my  feelings  well,  and  that  I  might  say  too 
much "  (1).  The  picture  drawn  by  Justin  McCarthy  is 
even  more  interesting  than  that  presented  by  the  French 
artist ;  for  the  Irish  writer  is  not  only  a  ^sincere  Catholic 
layman  like  Chartran,  but  he  is  also  more  of  the  man  of  the 
world  :  "  Pope  Leo  XIII.  is  a  man  of  a  singularly  grace- 
ful and  imposing  presence.  He  is  generally  described  as 
very  tall,  but  his  slender  form  gives  him  the  appearance  of 
being  much  taller  than  he  really  is.  He  is  a  man  not  mach 
above  the  middle  height,  but  very  slight  and  stately.  His 
face  is  as  bloodless  as  that  of  a  marble  statue.  He  dresses 
in  white,  and  the  white  of  his  robes  is  only  of  a  different 
tone  from  the  pallor  of  his  face.  Many  a  visitor  to  Kome 
has  been  reminded,  when  seeing  him,  of  the  late  Cardinal 
Manning,  whom  we  all  knew,  and  whom  everybody  who 
really  knew,  respected,  revered,  and  loved.  Even  now, 
despite  his  advanced  years,  the  Pope  moves  with  a  quick 
and  easy  tread,  which  has  no  suggestion  of  creej^ing  old 
age  about  it.  His  feet  glide  easily  along  the  floor,  and  lift 
easily  from  the  floor.  He  enters  readily  and  simply  into 
conversation,  and  has  the  native-born  sympathy  which 
enables  him  to  come  at  once  into  a  cordial  and  thorough 
understanding  with  his  visitors.  It  can  hardly  be  neces- 
sary to  say  that  he  is  brought  into  constant  communication 
with  men  and  women  from  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  I 
have  never  heard  of  any  one  who  did  not  go  away  impressed 
with  his  geniality  and  his  graciousness.  Among  the  many 
commanding  figures  in  the  Europe  of  our  days,  his  is  one  of 
the  most  commanding.     I  have   seen   a   good   many   great 

(I)  Letter  to  Boyer  d'ARen,  April  11,  1892. 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND   THE   THIRD    FRENCH    REPUBLIC.        203 

men  in  my  time.  I  liave  been  acquainted  with  Gladstone, 
and  I  have  talked  with  Bismarck,  and  M'ith  Cardinal  New- 
man ;  and  I  can  recall  to  memory  the  presence  of  the 
Emperor  Nicholas  of  Russia,  and  I  knew  Charles  Sumner, 
the  great  American  orator  and  abolitionist,  and  I  have  often 
seen  and  heard  M.  Berryer,  and  the  late  Prince  Consort. 
But  no  picture  lias  impressed  me  more  than  that  of  Pope 
Leo  XIII.  I  remember  well  a  conversation  I  had  Avith 
the  late  Cardinal  Manning,  many  years  ago,  and  before  I 
had  the  privilege  of  being  able  to  call  him  my  friend,  when 
he  looked  back  upon  the  early  days  of  Englaud,  and  talked 
in  his  sweet  regretful,  and  dreamy  way  of  the  time  '  when 
saints  yet  trod  the  soil  of  England.'  I  do  not  expect  any 
English  Protestant  to  accept  the  views  of  Cardinal  Manning, 
but  an  English  Protestant  may  yet  feel  touched  to  reverence 
even  by  views  which  he  does  not  accept  as  his  own.  I 
always  think  of  Leo  XIII.  as  one  of  those  figures  which 
must  have  been  more  often  seen  in  the  days  when  saints 
walked  the  earth — as,  indeed,  some  saints  do  walk  the  earth 
even  now." 


CHAPTER  VIL 

POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  THIRD  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

"We  have  already  shown  thart  the  Third  French  Republic  will 
be  described  by  future  historians  as  having  merited  a  j)romi- 
nent  mention  among  the  more  virulent  of  the  innumerable 
persecutors  of  the  Church.  Now  we  shall  devote  some  space 
to  the  manner  in  which  Leo  XIII.  endeavored  to  solve  the 
politico-religious  questions  which  necessarily  agitated  the 
Catholics  of  France,  as  the}'  found  themselves  confronted  by 
their  naturally  royalist  predilections,  and  at  the  same  time 
bv  an  evident  necessity  of  procuring  peace  for  the  French 
Church.  Commenting  on  the  position  assximed  by  our  Pon- 
tiff on  the  social  question  in  general,  and  on  the  political 
question  in  France,  an  eminent  writer  whom  Catholics  do 
not  claim  as  their  own,  Melchior  de  Vogue,  thus  describes 


204  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

what  he  would  regard  as  adventurous  daring  on  the  part  of 
a  Chief  Pastor  of  the  Roman  Church  :  "  Think  of  the 
amount  of  decision  that  he  must  have  possessed.  Think  of 
the  crushing  pressure  which  his  habitual  clientele  must  have 
exerted,  in  order  to  make  him  continue  to  act  what  seemed 
to  be  the  necessary  role  of  a  Head  of  the  Church — the  part 
of  a  chaplain  of  a  cemetery,  appointed  to  the  pious  guardian- 
ship of  political  tombs  in  the  shadow  of  the  sanctuary. 
When  he  was  eighty  years  of  age,  Leo  XIII.  issued  forth 
from  that  cemetery  ;  he  threw  himself  into  the  world  of  the 
living,  in  order  to  combat  adversaries  who  thought  that  their 
ownership  of  the  world  could  not  be  challenged.  He  had 
appreciated  the  words  of  his  Master  :  '  Let  the  dead  bury 
their  dead ! '.  .  .  Nothing  will  cause  him  to  hesitate.  The 
manifestations  of  his  idea  succeed  each  other  with  a  pro- 
gressive increase  of  vigor,  and  with  a  lucidity  which, 
considering  his  great  age,  confound  us.  In  his  Encyclical 
on  the  condition  of  the  working-classes,  of  course,  he  has 
not  solved  the  social  problem — who  will  solve  it? — but  he 
has  explained  it  more  precisely  than  it  has  ever  been 
explained,  and  he  has  frankly  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
weak.  And  in  the  same  spirit,  in  his  Encyclical  to  the 
Catholics  of  France,  he  approached  the  political  problems 
with  as  much  practical  moderation  as  doctrinal  hardihood  "  (1). 
Having  made  all  due  allowances  for  certain  absurdities  so 
apodictically  enunciated  by  M.  de  Vogiie,  we  may  say  that 
his  picture  of  Leo  XIII.,  as  the  Pontiff  advised  the  Catholics 
of  France  to  "  rally  "  around  the  flag  of  the  Republic,  was 
that  which  presented  itself  to  the  most  judicious  minds,  not 
only  of  France,  but  of  the  entire  Catholic  world.  The  sole 
object  of  Leo  XIII. ,  when  he  counselled  the  French  Catholics 
to  accept  the  Republic,  was  to  secure  the  true  interests  of 
religion ;  but  his  endeavors  were  more  or  less  opposed  by 
two  very  different  classes  of  Catholics.  In  the  first  place, 
there  were  still  in  France  many  royalists  of  that  stamp 
which  the  reader  has  probably  regarded  as  peculiar  to  the 
old  families  of  the  Faubourg  Saint-Germain  ;  and  these 
traditioual  servants  of  the  monarchy  of  Clovis  and  St.  Louis, 

(1)  Cited  by  T'Serdaes,  hic.  cit..  Vol.  ii.,  p.  310. 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   THE   THIRD   FRENCH    REPUBLIC.  205 

whose  religion  and  whose  royalism  seemed  to  be  the  same 
thing,  or  at  least  inseparably  nnited,  coukl  not  for  a  moment 
conceive  the  possibility  of  an  unchristian  French  monarchy, 
or  of  any  religious  condition  of  affairs  which  would  not  be 
firmly  based  on  royalty.  To  these  noble  relics  of  an  age 
long  vanished,  the  Pontiff  said  :  "  Preserve  your  admirable 
fidelity  to  the  legitimate  monarchy,  if  you  will  ;  but  do  not 
impede  the  paramount  interests  of  religion  by  a  political 
attitude  which  I  believe  to  be  destructive  of  those  interests." 
Then  there  was  another  class  of  Catholics,  whose  acquain- 
tance we  made  when  we  treated  of  Gallicanism,  and  of  the 
relations  between  Louis  XIV.  and  the  Holy  See— politicians 
who  were  almost  as  un-Catholic  as  the  Febronians  of  Ger- 
many ;  that  is,  men  who  were  impregnated  witli  Eegalism 
and  with  a  Liberalism  of  their  own  manufacture  ;  men  who 
willingly  relegated  religion  to  a  rank  inferior  to  that  in 
which  they  placed  the  government  of  tlieir  preference.  To 
these  gentry  Leo  XIIL  said  :  "  Remember  that  religion  can 
be  the  obsequious  servant  of  no  human  being  or  institution. 
Fei'^  no  longer  to  speak  in  her  noble  name.  Assume  not  to 
defend  her  with  weapons  which  disgrace  her,  only  to  exalt 
yourselves."  Of  course  there  was  a  third  and  less  prominent 
sort  of  Catholics,  composed  of  persons  whose  practice,  if  not 
whose  theories,  was  a  mixture  of  those  of  the  other  classes. 
Some  time  before  our  Pontiff  essayed  to  unite  these  classes 
into  a  strong  party  for  the  defence  of  religion,  the  Count  de 
Mun,  then  deputy  for  Morbihan,  took  tlie  iirst  step  in  that 
direction  when  he  thus  defined  the  duties  of  his  Catholic 
compatriots  in  the  circumstances  of  the  day  :  "  We  must 
defend  the  indubitable  rights  of  the  Church,  and  her  neces- 
sary liberties. . .  we  must  cast  into  utter  oblivion  the  wretched 
men  who  have  outraged  all  our  religious  sentiments,  and 
who  have  made  a  war  on  God  the  object  of  tlieir  policy.  . .  . 
No  other  ground,  at  least  in  my  mind,  is  so  appropriate  for 
the  union  of  all  good  citizens  ;  no  other  ground  offers,  either 
a  more  just  cause,  or  more  legitimate  weapons,  or  a  better 
chance  of  success."  And  then  he  summoned  all  Catholics  to 
"  raise  the  banner  of  the  Cross  "  (1).     The  impressions  pro- 

(1)  Letter  to  Admiral  Giqiiel  des  Touches.  Sept.  6.  ISRTi. 


206  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

duced  hj  this  initiative  were  thus  indicated  by  U  Univers  : 
"  The  openly  religious  journals  have  saluted  the  letter  with 
joy ;  the  hostile  ones  have  replied  with  violent  attacks ; 
certain  others  have  organized  a  conspiracy  of  silence  "  (1). 
The  Osservatore  Romano,  then  a  semi-official  organ  of  the 
Pontiff,  applauded  "  the  courageous  endeavor  to  procure 
the  salvation  of  France  by  making  religion  the  basis  of 
the  labor  which  will  be  needed  in  order  to  raise  the 
country  from  the  degradation  to  which  the  Revolution 
has  reduced  it."  After  the  elections  of  Oct.  5,  in  which 
the  Catholics  gained  many  seats  in  the  Legislature,  Count 
de  Mun  made  another  appeal  to  his  co-religionists,  inviting 
them  "  to  march  in  the  advance-guard  with  renewed  energy 
and  unity.  The  Catholic  party  will  thus  be  formed  on  the 
field  of  battle,  and  on  the  day  after  the  fight  we  shall  be  able 
to  organize  it,  and  make  of  it  a  rampart  for  social  order  "  (2). 
This  hint  that  the  Catholic  party  might  soon  be  an  indepen- 
dent organization,  and  not  a  mere  auxiliary  of  the  Conserva- 
tive forces,  caused  several  of  the  royalist  leaders  to  oppose 
the  Count  de  Mun  as  endangering  their  cause ;  but  the 
accessions  to  his  ranks  more  than  counterbalanced  the 
defections.  However,  the  political  disunion  among  the 
Catholics  was  increased.  The  Count  de  Mun  had  pro- 
claimed that  his  party  would  agitate  for  freedom  of  worship 
and  of  Catholic  teaching ;  and  that  its  social  programme 
would  insist  on  a  revision  of  the  testamentary  laws,  upon  a 
legal  amelioration  of  the  lot  of  the  workingman,  and  on  a 
revival  of  the  olden  corporations  or  mediaeval  trades-unions. 
"  In  order  to  carry  out  this  programme,"  said  the  count, 
"  we  must  form  a  compact  and  powerful  party,  which 
will  have  its  authorized  representatives  in  Parliament." 
Out  of  77  important  Catholic  and  Conservative  journals, 
35,  with  Z'  Univers  and  La  Croix  at  their  head,  favored 
the  Count  de  Mun  ;  but  42,  headed  by  Le  Monde,  op- 
posed the  formation  of  a  distinct  Catholic  party.  Most 
of  the  French  bishops  preserved  silence  in  the  matter ;  but 
several,  among  whom  the  most  loud-spoken  were  Freppel  of 
Angers,  and  Thibaudier  of  Soissons,  reproved  the  new  leader 

(1)  Oct.  3,  1885.  (2)  Letter  to  the  Univers,  Oct.  11,  1885. 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   THE   THIRD   FRENCH    UEPUBUC.  207 

as  though  he  desired  "  to  fasten  the  cause  of  the  Church  to 
that  of   an  earthly    monarchy  " — a  thing  which   the   count 
combatted  with  every  force  of  his  soul,  and  which  Freppel 
and  his  friends,  all)eit  (piite   unconsciously,  were  certainly 
promoting.     Great  was  the  surprise  of  both  factions  of  the 
Catholic  party,  when,  on  Nov.  9,  little  more  than  a  month 
after  his  announcement  of  his  great  ambition,  Count  de  Mun 
sent  to  the  press  a  declaration  that  "  in  order  not  to  cause  a 
division  among  the  Cutholics,  he  renounced  the  project  of 
the  organization  which  he  had  meditated."     It  was  generally 
understood,  both  in  Rome  and  in  France,  that  the  sole  reason 
for  this  action  was  an  expression  of  a  wish,   on  the   part 
of  Leo  XIII.,  that  for  the  moment  the  controversy  among  the 
Catholics  should  cease.     The  Pontiff  himself  was  consider- 
ing the  details  of  a  project  for  political  unity  among  all  the 
honest  men  of  France  ;  and  in  the  meantime,  the  good  cause 
could  only  be  injured  by  acrimonious  discussions,  such  as 
too  many  editors  and  pamphleteers  were  fomenting.     The 
plan  which  Leo  XIII.  was  excogitating   differed   very  not- 
ably from  that  of  Count  de  Mun.     In  the  first  place,  Count 
de  Mun  always  avowed   himself  an   ardent   royalist ;  and 
although  he   desired  that   the   Catholic   party   should   be 
independent,  he  intended  that  it  should  be  an  ally  of  the 
Conservative  and  dynastic  forces.     Leo  XIII.,  on  the  con- 
trary, was  to  ask  all  honest  Frenchmen  to  unite,  without  any 
royalist  preoccupations,  in  an  acceptance  of  the  constituted 
Third  Republic.     Secondly,  Count  de  Mun  considered  in  his 
programme  many  social  questions,  which,  however  minutely 
and  exhaustively  the  Pontiff  may   have   treated  them  else- 
where, he  did  not  touch  in  any  of  his  appeals  to  the  French 
on   the  matter  of  their   political   duties.     The   opposition 
experienced  by  Count  de  Mun  showed  Leo  XIII.  that  the 
valiant  successor  of  Montalembert  had  undertaken  a  task 
which  was  above  the  forces  of  any  layman ;  it  remained  to  be 
seen  whether  the  Supreme  Pastor  could  conquer  the  obstacles 
which  impeded  the  great  design.     The  first  clear  indication 
of  the  wishes  of  Leo  XIII.  in  this  matter  was  furnished 
by  the  famous  toast  pronounced  V\v  Cardinal  Lavigerie  at  a 
banquet  given  to  the  officers  of  the  French  fleet  then  in  the 


208  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

harbor  of  Algiers,  on  Nov.  12,  1890.  This  toast,  followed 
by  the  3Iarseillaise,  played  by  the  White  Fathers,  whom  the 
cardinal  had  founded  for  the  extirpation  of  African  slaverj', 
produced  consternation  in  the  ranks  of  the  royalists.  We 
subjoin  some  of  the  salient  passages  of  this  discourse  :  "  In 
the  presence  of  that  past  which  still  bleeds,  and  of  the 
future  which  ever  threatens,  our  great  need  is  unity  ;  and 
allow  me  to  tell  you  that  unity  is  the  sincere  wish  of  the 
Church,  and  of  all  her  pastors  in  every  grade  of  the  hier- 
archy. Undoubtedly  the  Church  does  not  ask  us  to  renounce 
either  the  souvenirs  of  a  glorious  past,  or  those  sentiments 
of  fidelity  and  of  gratitude  which  honor  all  men.  But  when 
the  will  of  a  people  is  clearly  affirmed ;  when  in  the  form  of 
a  government  there  is  nothing — as  Leo  XIII.  has  recently 
proclaimed — which  is  opposed  to  the  principles  which  alone 
can  give  life  to  Christian  and  civilized  nations  ;  when,  in  order 
to  save  one's  country  from  the  abyss  which  yawns  before 
her,  it  is  necessary  to  adhere  conscientiously  to  her  form 
of  government ;  then  the  moment  has  arrived  for  the  sacrifice 
of  all  that  honor  permits  one  to  sacrifice.  ...  It  would  be 
folly  to  hope  to  support  the  columns  of  an  edifice,  without 
entering  into  the  edifice  "itself ,  were  it  only  to  prevent  the 
would-be  destroyers  from  completing  their  work  of  madness." 
Two  days  after  he  had  fired  his  bombshell,  the  cardinal  sent 
to  each  one  of  his  clergy  a  copy  of  his  speech  ;  and  in  the 
accompanying  letter,  he  alluded  to  certain  instructions  of  Leo 
XIII.  concerning  the  participation  of  Catholics  in  public 
affairs,  and  drew  this  conclusion  :  "  It  is  the  duty  of 
Catholics,  and  conducive  to  their  honor,  not  to  allow  the 
present  situation  of  the  Church  in  France  to  be  prolonged  ; 
and  for  the  fulfilment  of  that  duty  there  is  but  one  practical 
meansi  the  course  advised  by  the  Sovereign  Pontiff — to  take 
part  resolutely  in  public  affairs,  not  as  adversaries  of  the 
established  government,  but,  on  the  contrary,  as  claimants 
of  all  the  rights  of  citizenship  in  the  republic  which  governs 
us.  This  adhesion  ought  to  be  a  work  of  resignation,  of 
reason,  and  for  us  Catholics,  after  the  formal  instructions 
which  I  have  cited,  a  work  of  conscience."  The  storm 
excited  by  these  words  of  Cardinal  Lavigerie,   a  prelate  so 


POPE  LEO   Xlir.    AND  THE  THIRD   FRENCH    REPUBLIC.      209 

universally  admired  aud  revered,  impelled  several  French 
bisliops  to  write  to  the  Holy  See,  in  tlie  liope  of  discoverin(> 
-whether  or  not  His  Eminence  had  voiced  the  sentiments  of 
the  Holy  Father ;  and  when  Cardinal  Ilampolla  had  sent  an 
appcwite  letter  to  the  bishop  of  Saint-Flour,  His  Eminence 
of  Algiers  forwarded  to  each  of  his  clergy  a  circuhir,  in 
which  we  read  the  following  recommendations  :  "  Tlie  Holy 
Father  has  officially  undertaken  the  work  .already  begun  ; 
he  has  entered  upon  it  in  the  letter  from  His  Eminence, 
Oardinal  Rampolla,  which  I  have  sent  to  you,  and  in  which 
you  must  have  perceived  three  principal  points,  on  which  I 
myself  have  reflected  on  several  occasions.  The  tirst  is  the 
reiterated  affirmation  that  the  Church  is  hostile  to  no 
particular  form  of  government.  The  second  is  the  advice  to 
Catholics,  considered  as  such,  to  separate  their  political 
cause  and  political  actions  from  those  of  the  old  parties. 
The  third  is  the  advice  given  to  Catholics  to  unite  closely 
on  the  ground  of  their  religious  interests,  simply  for  the 
vigorous  defence  of  those  interests."  Shortly  after  the 
issuance  of  this  circular,  Lavigerie  received  from  the  Pop6 
a  Brief,  dated  Feb.  9,  1892  ;  and  it  so  formally  approved 
of  the  cardinal's  course,  that  His  Eminence  deemed  it  propel 
to  communicate  it  also  to  his  clergy.  The  Pontiff  had 
assured  the  cardinal  tliat  all  that  His  Eminence  had  done  in 
the  premises  had  corresponded  perfectly  with  tlie  needs  of  the 
time,  and  with  the  tokens  of  his  devotion  to  tlie  Apostolic 
See  (1).  Among  the  adhesions  to  the  policy  enunciated 
by  Lavigerie,  that  of  Mgr.  Isoard  is  noteworthy  as  containing 
a  protest  against  the  assumption  of  the  Radicals  that  Radi- 
calism aud  the  French  Republic  must  necessarily  be  syn- 
onymous terms.  "  Ycni  are  not  the  Republic,"  apostrophized 
the  bishop  of  Annecy  ;  "  you  are  not  France.  You  are  not 
masters,  aud  we  are  not  subjects.  We  ask  nothing  of  you  ; 
we  ask  not  to  communicate  with  you ;  wo  have  no  need  of 
you.  The  constitution  of  every  republican  State  gives  to 
everyone  of  its  citizens  the  right  of  place  on  its  soil  ;  and 
we  take  our  place.     If  we  did  not  rake  that  place  long  ago, 

(1)  "  Sttidia  ct  (ifflcia  tita  .  .  .  uptime  connruolMut  ratiiml  temporxit,  cxpectalioni 
nostra:,  ct  aliis  (jnrhjnm  edideras  teetimonili  de  cgregia  ttui  erga  tws  voluntate." 


210  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

it  was  because  many  Conservatives  and  many  Catholics 
deemed  it  better  to  attempt  the  impossible  task  of  changing 
the  form  of  government."  Very  many  of  the  French  bishops, 
however,  refused  to  follow  the  initiative  of  His  Eminence  of 
Algiers  ;  and  the  bishop  of  Bayeux,  in  a  pastoral  to  his 
people,  thus  described  the  variations  in  episcopal  opinion  : 
"  These  differences  turn  on  no  point  of  doctrine,  but  merely 
on  the  manner  of  regarding  a  particular  political  situation. 
All  the  bishops  perceive  the  peril  now  menacing  France ; 
all  denounce  the  sect  which  persecutes  Christianity  ;  all 
proclaim  that  the  present  question  is  more  important  than 
any  merely  political  question.  In  fact,  the  question  is  : 
shall  France  remain  Christian  ?  All  the  bishops  reject  the 
idea  that  the  Church  is  necessarily  attached  to  any  one  form 
of  government,  and  that  she  naturally  anathematizes  all 
other  forms.  All  the  bishops  agree  concerning  the  strict 
obligation  of  all  Catholics  to  unite  for  the  defence  of  their 
yeligion  ;  but  here,  and  here  alone,  there  is  a  diversity  of 
opinion,  some  of  the  bishops  holding  that  without  abjuring 
their  past,  and  without  abandoning  their  hopes,  the  Catholics 
may  unite  for  the  defence  of  religion  under  the  direction  of 
ihe  bishops,  subordinating  their  particular  sympathies  to 
ihe  superior  interests  of  the  defence  incumbent  on  them. 
Others,  however,  believe  that  these  superior  interests  require 
a  loyal  adhesion  to  the  present  government.  .  .  .As  for  my- 
self, I  think  that  the  Church  would  compromise  her  ministry, 
were  she  to  identify  herself  with  either  a  monarchical  or  a 
republican  policy."  While  the  bishops  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Catholic  laity  were  debating,  they  should  have  remembered  the 
adage.  Fas  est  et  ah  Jioste  doceri.  The  Brethren  of  the  Three 
Points  plainly  manifested  their  fear  lest  tlie  Catholics  should 
shake  off  their  political  lethargy,  and  become  the  determining 
factor  in  the  government  of  the  French  State  ;  for  nothing  h 
more  certain  than  the  imminent  ruin  of  Masonic  domination  in 
that  State,  whenever  the  Catholics  of  France  furnish  a  united 
parliamentary  phalanx  for  the  defence  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  In  a  discourse  at  Vic  de  Bigorre,  delivered  on  Apri^ 
20,  1891,  Jules  Ferry  said  :  "  The  evolution  of  the  Catholic 
party  cannot  be  regarded  with  disdain  ;  if  that  evolution  \? 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND   THE   THIIID    FRENCH    UKPDBLIC.      211 

Vfeii  luiiuaged,  ami  if  there  is  sufficient  iutelligeiico  to  follow  it 
out,  it  may  become  a  very  redoubtable  engine  of  war."  In 
the  Masonic  "  convent  "  of  1891,  M.  Thulie,  President  of  the 
Council  in  the  Grand  Orient  of  France,  jx-rorated  in  this 
fashion  :  "  It  is  certain  that  Clericalism  is  trying  to  plant  its 
standard  in  our  camp,  in  order  to  more  easily  throttle 
the  Republic  ;  but,  just  as  we  did  in  1877  and  1889,  we  Free- 
masons will  rise  iu  a  body,  crying  :  '  We  are  here,  and  you 
shall  go  no  further  ! '  Brethren,  I  drink  to  the  Assembly 
which  has  so  well  replied  to  the  hypocritical  attempts  of 
the  Clericals  to  invade  our  Ilepublic."  On  the  same  occasion, 
Brother  de  Serres  reminded  the  adepts  of  the  words  of  the 
cold-blooded  Brissou  :  "  Our  worst  enemies  are  not  the  most 
Clerical  of  the  journals,  but  rather  such  journals  as  Le 
Temps  and  the  Journal  des  Bcbafs,  who  have  masked  as 
republicans  for  a  long  time."  Masonry,  therefore,  feared  a 
coalition  of  the  honest  men  of  France  ;  but,  nevertheless, 
no  less  a  personage  than  the  Count  d'Haussonville,  head  of 
the  "  royalist  group,"  emitted  at  Nimes,  on  Feb.  8,  18i)l,  the 
following  declaration  :  "  Let  us  not  be  afraid,  gentlemen,  to 
use  exact  language.  France  desires  a  king ;  a  king  alone  can 
peacefully  restore  France  to  her  proper  place  in  Europe. . .  . 
It  is  to  this  complement  of  her  destiny,  or  rather  to  this 
return  of  her  prosperity,  that  France  aspires  ;  and  it  is  be- 
cause she  has  a  confused  idea  that  the  Repuljlic  will  never 
give,  this  blessing  to  her,  that  she  is  now  a  prey  to  miser- 
able prognostications."  And  on  July  19,  the  same  Catholic 
champion  insisted  that  a  "  determined  resistance  "  should 
be  opposed  in  the  electoral  field  to  all  the  Catholic  repubUcan 
candidates,  although,  of  course,  the  simple  Catholic  candi- 
dates should  be  sustained.  In  this  emergency,  the  semi- 
ofiicial  Osservatore  lioniano  took  occasion,  while  addressing 
M.  de  Cassagnac,  the  leader  of  the  Catholic  imperialists,  to 
also  rebuke  the  school  of  Count  d'Haussonville  :  "  M.  de 
Cassagnac  should  remember  that  sincere  defenders  of  relig- 
ion ought  not  mix  religious  interests  with  those  of  their 
party  ;  they  should  not  make  use  of  religion  in  order  to  op- 
pose systematically  the  existing  government.  True  Catholics 
know  that  in  matters  of  this  kind  they  owe  complete  sub- 


212  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

mission  to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  and  his  representatives, 
especially  in  regard  to  the  relations  between  the  Church  and 
the  State — relations  which,  in  France,  are  regulated  by  the 
Concordat.  We  trust  that  M.  de  Cassagnac  will  reflect  on 
the  fatal  consequences  of  liis  published  theories."  Such 
advice  might  naturally  have  produced  unimportant  results  ; 
but  greater  promise  of  French  Catholic  harmony  was  given 
when  tlie  five  cardinals  of  France,  on  Jan.  16,  1892,  after  a 
vivid  arraignment  of  the  Third  Republic  at  the  bar  of  his- 
tory and  of  common  justice  (1),  counselled  the  French  Catho- 
lics "  to  terminate  their  political  dissensions,  and  planting 
themselves  squarely  on  constitutional  ground,  to  look  espe- 
cially to  the  defence  of  their  threatened  faith. .  .  to  accept 
frankly  and  loyally  the  political  institutions  them  in  vigor, 
while  resisting,  at  the  same  time,  every  usurpation 
of  the  secular  over  the  spiritual  power  ....  to  be  faitliful 
to  their  electoral  duties,  the  fulfilment  of  which  by  all 
honest  men  would  secure  a  national  representation  which 
would  legislate  for  the  reforms  so  necessary  for  public 
tranquillit3\"  Sixty-six  bishops  endorsed  this  document ; 
but  even  then  the  desired  political  union  of  the  French 
Catholics  was  not  effected.  The  time  for  a  Pontifical  inter- 
vention had  come  ;  and  on  Feb.  16,  1892,  Leo  XIII.  issued 
his  Encyclical  to  the  French  people,  a  document  which 
many  have  regarded  as  signalizing  an  embrace  of  Democ- 
racy on  the  part  of  the  Holy  See,  finally  disgusted  with  the 
mouarchs  of  the  earth,  but  which  others,  and  probably  with 

(I)  The  following  were  the  complaints  of  the  Church  against  the  Third  Republic,  as 
enumerated  by  the  Ave  cardinals.  The  abrogation  of  the  laws  allowing  public  prayers  and 
encouraging  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  The  banishment  of  the  crucifix  from  the 
schools.  The  prohibition,  given  to  the  soldiers,  to  attend  religious  services  In  a  body. 
The  obstacles  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  bishops,  in  the  matter  of  their  relations  with  the 
Holy  See.  and  in  the  matter  of  ecclesiastical  nominations.  The  new  jurisprudence  which 
sanctioned  the  "  marriage  "  of  priests.  The  suppression  of  the  revenues  of  canons,  and  of 
very  many  vicars  ;  and  the  progressive  reduction  of  the  entire  ecclesiastical  budget.  The 
arbitrary  fines  which  deprived  the  clergy  of  the  greater  part  of  their  miserable  subsidy. 
The  ruinous  civil  administration  of  vacant  dioceses.  The  expulsion  of  religious  from  their 
convents,  and  in  the  cases  of  exempted  convents,  such  exceptional  and  tyrannous  taxes  aa 
inevitably  entailed  the  death  of  the  communities.  The  banishment  of  religion  from  the 
programmes  of  the  Universities.  The  laicization  of  the  primary  schools,  including  the 
prohibition  of  entrance  to  any  priest,  and  the  exclusion  of  any  catechetical  Instruction. 
Ths  suppression  of  all  scholarships  In  the  seminaries.  The  enforced  enlistment  of  sem- 
inarians in  the  army.  The  abolition  of  military  chaplaincies.  The  laws  favoring  divorce. 
TU'j  secularization  of  all  hospitals.  Innumerable  difficulties  thrown  in  the  way  of  persons 
who  desired  to  leave  money  for  pious  purposes. 


POPE   LEO   XIII.   AND  THE  THIRD   FRENCH   REPUBLIC.      213 

better  reason,  have  cousidered  as  destined  to  be  a  cause  of  an 
eventual  return  to  her  historic  paths,  on  the  part  of  France- 
The  Encyclical  began  with  an    assurance    of   the    continual 
and  pre-eminent  love  of  the  Pontilis  for  the  people  of  France  ; 
and  then  the  Pope  asserted  the  principle  that  religion  must 
be  the  necessary   foundation   of   all   s(K'ial   stability.     His 
Holiness  then  refuted  the  calumny  that   attributes   to   the 
Pontiffs  "  a  desire  to  obtain  a  political  domination  over  the 
State  " — a  calumny  which  was  advanced  even  in  the  case  of 
the  Divine  Founder  of  the  Church.     The  struggle  which  the 
Church  is  now  called  to  sustain,  said  the  Pope,  is  the  same 
as  it  ever  has  been,  "  and  it  is   scarcely   modified,   even   in 
form."     In  order  to  defend  the  cause  of  the  Church,  "  close 
union  is  necessary  "  ;  and  the  French  were  informed  that 
here   His   Holiness   alluded   to  "  the    political   differences 
among  them  concerning  their  proper   attitude   toward   the 
existing  Republic."     Every   form   of   government,   insisted 
the  Pope,  is  good,  providing  it  conduces  to  the  public  weal  '> 
but  "  Catholics,  like  all  other  citizens,  are  at  full  liberty  to 
prefer  one  form  of  government  to  another,  precisely  because 
none  of  these  forms  are  opposed  to  the   dictates   of  sound 
reason,  or  to  the  maxims   of   Christian   doctrine."     Coming 
then  to  the  domain  of  facts,  Leo  XIII.  remarked  that  while 
principles  never  change,  "  they  frequently  assume  a  charac- 
ter of  contingency,  being  affected  by  the   circumstances   in 
which  they  are  applied  "  ;  and  the   French   were   asked   to 
remember  that  "  whatever  may  be  the  form   of   government 
in  a  nation,  it  cannot  be  considered  as  so  definitive,  that   it 
can  never  be  changed  "  ;  the  Church  alone  enjoys  the  privi- 
lege of  immutability  in  her  constitution,  whereas   we  know, 
concerning  human  organizations,  that  "  time,  the  great  trans- 
former of  all   things   here   below,    works   radical   changes 
in  their  institutions."     When  such   changes   have   entailed 
anarchy  or  other  disorder   on   a   nation,    "  social   necessity 
compels  that  nation  to  provide  for  itself  ;  and  this  necessity 
justifies  the  creation  and  existence  of  a  new  government,  let 
its  form  be  what  you  will."     The  civil  power,  considered  as 
such,  is  from  God  {1  Bom.,  XIII.,  1) ;  and  once  established,  it 
is  permitted,  and  may  be  necessary,  to  accept  it,"  and  this 


214  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

great  duty  of  respect  and  of  dependence  will  be  obligatory, 
so  long  as  the  public  weal  demands  its  fulfilment,  because 
the  common  good  is,  after  God,  the  first  and  last  law  of 
society."  These  jDrincijjles,  continued  the  Pope,  explain 
the  wisdom  of  the  Church,  when  she  maintained  relations 
with  each  of  the  many  governments  which  have  been  estab- 
lished in  France  during  the  last  hundred  years ;  "  this  atti- 
tude of  the  Church  forms  the  safest  guide  for  the  conduct  of 
French  Catholics  in  their  civil  relations  with  the  Republic, 
the  existing  government  of  their  nation.  Let  them  banish 
the  political  dissensions  now  weakening  them  ;  let  them  use 
all  their  energies  for  the  restoration  of  the  moral  grandeur  of 
their  country  !  "  His  Holiness  assured  the  French  that  he 
did  not  forget  the  anti-Christian  character  of  the  Third 
Republic  ;  but  it  was  precisely  because  of  the  iniquity  of 
their  present  rulers,  that  "  putting  an  end  to  all  dissensions, 
all  honest  men  should  unite  in  order  to  combat,  by  every 
legal  and  proper  means,  the  progressive  abuses  of  their 
Legislature."  The  Pontiff  terminated  his  Encyclical  with 
the  wish  that  "  his  words  might  dissipate  the  prejudices  of 
many  men  of  good  faith  ;  and  that  they  might  facilitate 
a  pacification  which  would  end  in  a  perfect  union  of  all  the 
French  Catholics,  so  that  they  would  defend  successfully 
the  cause  of  '  Christ  ivlio  loves  the  French.'  "  In  his  anxiety 
to  seminate  his  ideas,  if  possible,  at  every  fireside  in  France, 
Leo  XIII.  took  the  unprecedented  course,  on  the  part  of  a 
Roman  Pontiff,  of  allowing  himself  to  be  "  interviewed  for 
publication  "  by  an  editor  of  the  Petit  Journal,  not  a 
Catholic  paper,  but  the  one  possessing  the  largest  circula- 
tion in  the  world ;  and  by  such  a  proceeding  our  Pontiff, 
far  from  demeaning  himself  by  adopting  the  chief  weapon 
of  the  day  in  order  to  serve  humanity,  acted  just  as  St. 
Gregory  VII.,  Innocent  III.,  or  Sixtus  V.,  would  have  acted, 
had  they  lived  in  our  days  (1).     Leo  XIII.  thus  popularized, 

(1 )  This  Interview  was  held  shortly  before  the  appearance  of  the  Encyclical,  and  was 
published  at  the  time  when  that  document  was  first  read  in  France.  It  may  be  regarded 
as  a  kind  of  commentary  by  the  illustrious  author  himself.  The  editor  of  the  Petit 
Journal  guaranteed  the  absolute  authenticity  of  the  detailed  convers  ition,  both  as  to 
substance  and  as  to  form.  It  ran  as  follows:  J^rfifor;  "  We  would  be  grateful.  Holy 
Father,  if  you  would  inform  us  as  to  whether  the  continuous  efforts  of  the  Holy  See  for  a 
settlement  of  our  constitutional  disputes  haveany  relation  with  the  views  of  Your  Holiness 


POPE   LEO   Xlir.    AND   THE  THIllD   FRENCH   REPUBUC.      215 

SO  to  speak,  the  importaut  Encyclical  in  places  where  such 
documents  seldom  or  never  entered.  All  the  French  bishops, 
either  explicitly  or  tacitly,  accepted  the  counsels  of  Leo 
XIII. ;  and  when  some  of  the  recalcitrant  royalists  insisted 
that  if  Mgr.  Freppel  were  still  alive  (he  had  died  in  1891), 
he  would  have  kept  aloft  the  standard  of  the  Lilies  in  defiance 
of  Rome,  Mgr.  Sauve,  one  of  the  best  theologians  in  France, 
an  ardent  legitimist,  and  an  intimate  friend  of  the  late  bishop 
of  Angers,  wrote  a  defence  of  the  prelate,  which  he  termi- 
nated with  these  words  :  "  I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  if 
the  late  Mouseigneur  of  Angers  were  with  us  to-day,  he 
would  be  in  line  with  all  the  bishops  of  France,   and   that, 

in  regard  to  the  external  affairs  of  our  conntry ;  whether,  that  is.  Your  Holiness 
wishes  to  assist  In  the  work  of  all  our  patriots,  the  strenKihenlng  of  France."  Pope  ; 
"  My  desire,  like  the  wish  of  the  Church,  is  for  the  happiness  of  France.  France  is  a 
nation  with  a  vivid  spirit  and  a  generous  character.  If  sometimes  she  does  not  follow  the 
right  road,  the  one  most  conducive  to  her  true  Interests,  she  quickly  repairs  her  error, 
when  she  learns  the  truth.  I  greatly  desire,  and  I  do  so  consistently,  in  spite  of  all  oppt)- 
sition.  that  dissensions  disappear  In  France,  and  that  there  may  be  among  you  nothing 
which  will  foster  weakness.  I  believe  that  all  French  citizens  should  unite,  although  each 
may  preserve  bis  private  preferences  ;  but  in  the  domain  of  action,  there  should  be  an  eye 
only  for  the  government  which  France  has  given  to  herself.  The  republican  form  of 
government  is  as  legitimate  as  any  other.  I  lately  received  the  president  of  the  Committee 
on  Organization  of  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago,  who  requested  the  co-operation  of  the 
Holy  See  in  that  great  American  enterprise.  Now,  the  United  States  of  North  America 
area  republic,  and  in  spite  of  the  inconveniences  inseparable  from  unlimited  liberty,  they 
grow  greater  every  day,  and  the  Catholic  Church  has  developed  there,  without  any  contests 
with  the  State.  There  the  Church  and  the  State  agree  well,  just  as  they  should  agree 
everywhere,  neither  encroaching  on  the  rights  of  the  other.  There  liberty  is  the  founda- 
tion of  the  relations  between  the  civil  power  and  the  religious  conscience.  Everywhere 
the  Church  asks  for  liberty,  before  anything  else.  Let  my  authoritative  voice  be  correctly 
underst(iOd,  so  that  my  objects  and  my  attitude  may  not  be  travestied.  Whatever  the 
Church  enjoys  in  the  United  Slates,  she  ought  to  enjoy,  with  much  more  reason,  in  republican 
France.  I  talk  in  this  same  fashion  to  all  Frenchmen  who  come  to  see  me ;  I  want  them  all 
to  know  my  real  sentiments.  I  regret  that  certain  highly-placed  personages  have  not  yet 
dared  to  publish,  as  they  ought  to  have  done,  the  efforts  which  I  have  made  for  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  your  noble  nation,  the  nation  ever  regarded  by  me  as  the  Eldest  Daugh- 
ter of  the  Church.  I  shall  persist  in  this  course,  and  I  shall  encourage  all  who  enter  on  it. 
It  Is  in  order  to  facilitate  this  task  that  the  Church  should  attend  to  her  veritable  mission,  the 
moralizing  of  souls,  the  indoctrinating  of  them  with  a  spirit  of  sacridce  and  of  devoiedness. 
At  the  same  time,  she  interests  herself  in  the  condition  of  the  weivk  ;  my  declaration  con- 
cerning the  rights  of  the  working  classes  ought  to  render  more  easy  the  internal  pacification 
of  France,  by  reducing  to  a  small  minority  the  number  of  those  who  have  no  other  pre- 
occupation than  to  trouble  minds,  and  to  impede  the  union  of  their  countrymen— a  union 
without  which  France  cannot  accomplish  her  grand  destinies.  It  is  by  means  of  the  solid 
internal  constitution  which  Idesirefor  France,  that  In  spite  of  her  enemies,  she  will  fully 
regain  her  olden  pre-eminence.  I  am  pleased  to  learn  that  France  earnestly  desires  peace- 
in  spite  of  her  enormous  military  resources,  and  of  the  grand  counige  of  her  sons.  If 
shecoutinues  unfalteringly  to  cherish  this  wisdom  and  this  patience  :if  she  knows  how  to 
banish  the  dissensions  which  arrest  her  development  and  paralyze  her  influence  ;  if  sht* 
decides  to  abandon  entirely  the  works  of  chicanery  and  of  persecution ;  she  will  soor 
re-occupy  the  glorious  place  in  the  world  which  once  was  her  own." 


216  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

docile  to  the  voice  of  Leo  XIII.,  he  would  exclaim  :  'Rome 
has  spoken ;  the  cause  is  finished.'  And  I  dare  to  assert 
that  he  would  use  his  great  influence  with  the  Count  of 
Paris  and  his  partisans  to  determine  them  to  follow  the 
counsels  of  the  Holy  Father."  In  the  commentary  on  the 
Eucyclical  which  Mgr.  Sauve  published  at  this  time,  he 
indicated,  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  ultra-royalists  who 
misinterpreted  the  real  significance  of  our  Pontifi"'s  advice, 
what  was  to  be  his  own  course,  as  an  unflinching  legitimist 
ind  an  uncompromising  Catholic.  Having  promised  that  he 
would  not  admit  the  intrinsic  legitimacy  of  the  Third  Eepub- 
lic,  he  pledged  himself  "to  abandon  all  attempts  for  a 
monarchical  restoration  ;  to  undertake  no  royalist  prop- 
aganda ;  to  not  only  renouuce  all  illegal  acts  detrimental  to 
the  existence  of  the  Eepublic,  but  to  abstain,  out  of  religious 
deference  to  the  desire  of  the  Pope,  from  even  any  legal 
enterprises  which  might  procure  the  substitution  of  the 
monarchical  for  the  republican  form  of  government."  Such, 
and  perhaps  a  smaller  one,  was  the  sacrifice  which  Leo  XIII. 
demanded  from  the  French  royalists. 


CHAPTER  yill. 

POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  HOME  RULE  MOVEMENT  IN  IRELAND. 

Although  the  reader  is  probably  conversant  with  the 
general  features  of  the  subject,  and  although  he  must  know 
that  Leo  XIII.  did  not  condemn  the  Land  League  and  the 
principle  of  Home  Rule,  as  was  asserted  by  the  entire 
Masonic  press,  and  by  all  the  foes  of  Irish  liberty,  we  propose 
to  consider  briefly  the  reason  for  the  Pontiff's  intervention 
in  the  political  affairs  of  Ireland,  and  the  nature  of  that 
intervention.  Probably  the  most  satisfactory  commentary 
on  this  intervention  is  that  given  by  Justin  McCarthy  in  his 
short  but  admirable  biography  of  the  Pontiff;  and  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  have  not  read  that  work,  we  subjoin 
some   passages  which  will  illustrate  our  subject  (1).     Our 

(1)  "  The  condition  of  Ireland  was,  indeed,  beginning  to  command  the  attention  of  the 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  HOME  RULE  MOVEMENT  IN  IRELAJJD.    217 

purpose  is  to  briug  iuto  bolder  relief  certuiu  features  which 
Mr.  McCarthy  has  left  iu  shadow.  The  Land  League, 
formed  iu  1879  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  a  reduction  of 
farm-rents  in  Ireland,  and  for  n  facilitation  of  an  accpiiremeut 
of  freeholds  on  the  part  of  the  tenants,  had  for  its  most  practi- 
cal and  immediately-resulting  feature  the  fact  that  when  a  ten- 
ant was  unjustly  threatened  with  ejectment,  he  was  sustained 
by  all  the  other  members  of  the  League.  A  very  slight  ac- 
quaintance with  Irish  history  will  prevent  any  sane  mind  from 
feeling  surprise  at  the  sympathy  extended  by  the  immense 
mass  of  the  Irish  clergy,  following  the  initiative  of  the 
archbishop  of  Cashel,  to  the  new  patriotic  movement. 
Scarcely  a  year,  however,  had  elapsed  since  the  foundation 
of  the  League,  when  the  violence  of  a  considerable  section 
of  the  Irish  press,  an  extravagant  development  of  the  ever-to- 
be-remembered  system  of  "  Boycotting,"  and  numerous  out- 
rages on  the  part  of  a  mysterious  society  of  "  Moonlighters," 
gave  to  the  Parnellite  engine  so  ultra-revolutionary  an  aspect, 

whole  civilized  world ;  and  it  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  sympathy  between  the  Papacy 
and  the  Irish  Catholics  had  been  close  and  constant  for  generations  and  for  centuries. 
There  were  two  great  agitations  going  on  in  Ireland— one  political,  and  one  agrarian— but 
the  two  workinir  together,  and  forming  between  them  a  complete  national  movement. 
The  political  movement  was  for  Home  Rule;  the  agrarian  movement  was,  roughly  speak- 
ing, for  the  abolition  of  despotic  landlordism,  and  the  creation  of  a  peasant  proprietary  all 
over  Ireland.  ...  The  Pope  did  at  last  intervene— not  directly,  and  not  by  way  of  any 
Papal  fulmination  ;  but  the  Vatican  decidedly  issued  an  opinion  and  a  warning  to  the  Irish 
people  on  the  national  movement,  the  political  and  the  agrarian  ;  and  the  intervention 
was  received  with  a  chorus  of  applause  from  the  landlord  class,  and  the  Conservatives 
and  the  anti-Nationalists  of  Ireland.  The  counsellors  of  the  Pope  naturally  relied  a  good 
deal  upon  the  representations  and  the  advice  of  the  English  Catholics.  Now  the  English 
Catholics  belong  almost  always  to  the  higher  classes  in  social  life.  They  belong  for  the 
most  part  to  the  landlord  order,  and  their  sympathies  would  naturally  go  with  the  claims 
of  their  own  order.  Then,  again,  the  English  Catholics,  as  a  rule,  have  no  sympathy  with 
the  Irish  national  cause— the  cause  of  Home  Rule.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  is  true 
of  all  the  English  Catholics.  I  know  far  too  well  for  that.  I  know  that  the  sympathies  of 
men  like  Lord  Ripon,  and  Lord  Acton,  and  Lord  Ashburnham,  and  many  of  the  most 
distinguished  of  the  English  Catholic  priesthood,  are  cordially  with  the  principle  of  national 
self-government  for  Ireland.  But,  as  a  rule,  neither  the  cause  of  the  political  reforms 
which  Ireland  claims,  nor  that  of  the  agrarian  reforms  which  Ireland  has  so  long  needed, 
can  be  said  to  have  the  sympathy  of  the  English  Catholics.  Now  it  is  In  the  very  nature  of 
things  that  a  good  deal  of  the  ideas  of  the  English  Catholics  must  have  made  a  way  into 
the  councils  of  those  who  advised  Pope  Leo.  For  a  long  time,  too,  the  Archbishopric  of 
Dublin  had  been  in  the  hands  of  men  like  Cardinal  Cullen  and  Cardinal  MacCabe— good 
men,  pious  men.  learned  men  ;  but  men  who  shrank  In  alarm  from  any  agitation  that 
seemed  likely  to  be  troublesome,  and  who  were  apt  to  hear  the  first  thunder  of  approaching 
revolution  In  every  rising  sound  of  popular  agitation.  It  must  be  owned  that  Ireland  was 
pa-ssing  through  something  very  like  a  national  revolution  —  No  doubt  .some  wild  things 
were  said  on  national  platforms,  and  in  the  terrible  death-struggle  between  the  lundlordi 


218  STUDIES  IN   CHUKCH   HISTOKY. 

that  Pope  Leo  XIII.  deemed  it  wise  to  address  a  warning 
letter  to  Archbishop  MacCabe  of  Dublin.  This  salutary 
caution,  dated  Jan.  3, 1881,  began  with  the  recognition  of  the 
deplorable  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  people,  a 
state  of  affairs  which  had  endured  for  centuries,  but  which,  as 
a  rule,  the  Irish  had  borne  with  exemplary  patience,  sustained 
by  their  invincible  constancy  in  the  Faith.  The  Pontiff 
reminded  the  archbishop,  and  through  him  the  Irish  nation, 
that  during  the  long  course  of  its  terrible  sufferings,  his 
predecessors  had  never  ceased  to  warn  it  not  to  depart  from 
the  paths  of  moderation  and  justice,  even  when  those  suffer- 
ings appeared  to  justify  revolution ;  and  he  besought  the 
bishops  of  Ireland  to  restrain  their  flocks  within  the  bounds 
of  legality,  since  it  was  evident  that  within  those  bounds 
the  Irish  cause  would  ultimately  conquer,  with  the  least 
possible  additional  misery  for  the  people.  The  Irish  bishops 
communicated  and  explained  the  pontifical  letter  to  their 
diocesans  ;  and  in  a  meeting  held  at  Maynooth,  they  drew  the 
attention  of  the  people,  but  especially  of  the  English  Govern- 

and  the  tenants  some  wild  deeds  were  done  on  both  sides.  If  the  tenants  had  no  just 
claim  in  what  they  demanded,  then  Jt  has  to  be  pointed  out  that  every  recent  Government, 
Liberal  or  Tory,  has  abetted  them  since  in  their  unjust  demands ;  for  every  Government 
has  yielded  more  and  more  to  their  claim,  and  has  proclaimed  that  each  subsequent  con- 
cession was  a  concession  to  the  cause  of  justice  and  of  order.  The  truth  had  at  last  begun 
to  be  officially  recognized,  which  John  Stuart  Mill  preached  in  vain  thirty  years  before,  when 
he  insisted  that  the  Irish  land-tenure  system  was  entirely  exceptional  and  apart,  a?idsitc/i(K; 
W)  civilized  legislation,  except  that  of  Euglaml,  iuouM  tolerate —  There  had  always  been 
an  agrarian  agitation  in  modern  Ireland ;  but  up  to  the  formation  of  the  Land  League  it  was 
crude,  unorganized,  sporadic,  spasmodic— each  locality,  each  group  of  tenantry,  acting  for 
itself,  upon  its  own  impulse,  and  by  its  own  ways.  The  effort  and  the  purpose  of  the 
Land  League  was  to  consolidate  all  the  agrarian  agitation  of  Ireland  into  one  system, 
acting  under  directions  from  headquarters.  Such  a  movement,  under  the  guidance  of 
men  like  those  who  directed  it,  might  be  trusted  to  be  a  check  on  disorder  and  crime  :  not 
a  stimulant  to  disorder  and  crime.  But  it  is  easy  to  understand  that,  to  observers  at  a 
distance,  it  may  have  seemed  at  first— as  it  did  seem  indeed  to  some  observers  close  at  hand 
—the  methodising  and  embattling  of  all  the  forces  of  agrarian  revolution.  It  was  in 
reality  a  strike  of  the  tenantry  against  an  intolerable  system.  To  the  counsellors  of  the 
Vatican  It  seemed,  as  at  one  time  it  seemed  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  a  rebellion  against  the  most 
sacred  principles  of  social  law.  The  Vatican  intervened,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  also  inter- 
vened   To  the  advisers  of  the  Pope  it  undoubtedly  appeared  that  they  were  only  uttering  a 

much  needed  appeal  in  favor  of  law  and  order,  social  and  moral.  To  the  majority  of  the 
Irish  Nationalists  it  seemed  that  the  Vatican  had  come  to  the  help  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  of 
the  English  Government  in  the  effort  to  stamp  out  a  great  national  and  patriotic  agitation. 
At  that  time  Mr.  Gladstone  had  not  become  fully  acquainted  with  the  realities  of  Ireland's 
condition  and  of  Ireland's  needs.  No  one  can  doubt— no  calm  observer  among  Irish 
Nati^malitits  ever  doiiht—the  absolnte  good  faith  and  sumpathy  of  the  advice  which 
the  Vatican  gave  to  Ireland.  To  the  aiithorities  in  the  Papal  Court,  nothing  that  could 
happen  to  Ireland  seemed  so  terrible  as  that  Ireland  should  commit  crime." 


POPE  LEO  Xril.  AND  THE  HOME  RULE  MOVEMENT  IN  IRELAND.    210 

ment  (which  had  drawn  great  comfort  from  the  document),  to 
that  part  of  the  letter  which  express!}-  avowed  that  the  Irish 
grievances  were  eidireJy  legifiiiKiic.  The  prehites  insisted, 
before  the  worki,  that  the  land  laws  of  Ireland  created  and 
fostered  a  continual  danger  for  peace  ;  and  they  declared 
that  reformative  legislation  alone  would  restore  order.  Ie 
their  reply  to  His  Holiness,  they  thanked  the  Holy  See  for 
the  letter  to  His  Grace  of  Dublin,  and  they  declared  that 
they  shared  the  pontifical  grief  for  the  few  violences  which 
compromised  the  cause  of  a  people  who  were  clamoring  for 
their  rights.  But  the}'  besought  the  Holy  Father  not  to 
give  implicit  credit  to  the  interested  reports  of  these  violences 
which  were  circulated  by  the  organs  of  the  oppressor. 
During  the  stress  of  difficulties  caused  by  the  '*  Act  of 
Coercion,"  introduced  in  parliament  by  Gladstone,  and  tyran- 
nically applied  by  Forster,  the  attitude  of  the  Irish  clergy 
was  as  moderate  as  the  Pontiff  could  have  desired ;  and  His 
Holiness  expressed  his  satisfaction  by  enrolling  Archbishop 
MacCabe  in  the  Sacred  College  on  March  27,  1882.  But  the 
Land  Act  of  1881  had  proved  to  be  almost  entirely  nugatory  ; 
for  in  the  year  which  followed  its  application,  there  were 
17,341  evictions,  and  consequently  a  large  increase  of  agrarian 
outrages.  Therefore  our  Pontiff  wrote  another  letter,  under 
date  of  Aug.  1,  1882,  in  which  he  declared  that  the  condition 
of  the  Irish  jDeople  gave  him  "  more  anxiety  than  consola- 
tion," because  of  the  continuous  miseries  of  the  island,  and 
because  of  the  consequent  and  frequent  abandonment  of  many 
to  the  dictates  of  unreasoning  passion,  "  as  though  it  were 
possible  for  a  hope  of  public  happiness  to  be  found  in  dis- 
honor and  crime."  The  Irish  had  a  perfect  right,  said  His 
Holiness,  to  struggle  for  their  rights  ;  "  we  cannot  suppose 
that  what  is  granted  to  all  other  peoples  should  be  denied  to 
the  Irish ;  but  they  should  remember  that  the  useful  is  subject 
to  the  laws  of  justice,  and  that  it  is  shameful  to  defend  even 
the  most  just  of  causes  with  unjust  means."  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  this  pontifical  letter  was  almost  barren  of  results 
among  a  people  who  were  then  groaning  under  the  goad  of  the 
Coercion  Act,  and  who  had  just  seen  Parnell  and  their  other 
chief  champions  shut  up  in  Kilmainham  Jail.     Their  zeal 


220  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

in  subscribing  to  the  "Parnell  Testimonial  Fund,"  designed 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  defence  of  their  leader  in  his 
forthcoming  trial,  did  not  diminish ;  nor  would  the  Holy  See 
have  wished  it  to  grow  less,  had  the  original  object  not  soon 
included  the  j^rovision — secret,  but  no  less  evident— of  a 
fund  wherewith  to  produce  and  sustain  an  open  "  rebellion." 
In  consequence  of  this  apprehension,  the  Cardinal-Prefect  of 
the  Propaganda  addressed  a  circular,  on  May  11,  1883,  to 
all  the  Irish  bishops,  prohibiting  the  priests  from  taking 
any  part  in  the  subscription  ;  but  taking  care  to  subjoin  :  "  It 
is  perfectly  proper  for  the  Irish  to  try  to  better  their  miser- 
able lot ;  it  is  not  wrong  for  them  to  contribute  money  for 
that  purpose."  It  was  in  this  year  1893  that  occurred  the 
much-talked-of  mission  of  Mr.  Errington  to  the  Vatican — a 
mission  which  was  not  at  all  "  official,"  but  which  could  well 
be  termed,  in  diplomatic  parlance,  "officious,"  and  concern- 
ing which  a  Roman  gentleman  of  reliability,  one  who  was 
well  versed  in  the  secular  affairs  of  the  Vatican,  did  not 
hesitate  to  write  :  "  Mr.  Errington,  a  Catholic  and  an  Irish- 
man, proved  to  be  vo  honor  to  this  double  qualijication. 
After  many  endeavors  to  negotiate  in  the  sole  interests  of 
those  who  wanted  the  agitation  to  end  without  any  cessation 
of  Ireland's  miseries — men  who  hoped  to  deprive  the  Irish 
people  of  that  Pontifical  sympathy  which  has  always  been 
accorded  to  the  victims  of  tyranny  and  injustice,  Errington 
ended  by  throwing  off  the  mask  in  an  impertinent  and 
mocking  letter,  piiblished  in  the  United  Ireland  of  Aug.  1, 
1885  "  (1).  Justin  McCarthy  thus  comments  on  this  Erring- 
ton mission  :  "  The  mission,  as  it  was  sometimes  called,  of 
Sir  George  Errington,  then  Mr.  Errington,  to  Home,  was  a 
ridiculous  incident  in  a  serious  story.  Mr.  Errington  was 
then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  of  that  group 
of  Irish  representatives  whom  Mr.  Gladstone,  with  uninten- 
tional humor,  once  called  '  the  nominal  Home  Rulers.'  He 
was  a  man  of  position  and  of  education,  but  he  certainly  was 
not  a  striking  political  figure.  He  was  more  a  Liberal  than  a 
Nationalist.  He  was  well  liked  in  society,  but  had  made 
no  mark  whatever  in  the  House  of  Commons.     Somehow  or 

(1)  Casoli  ;  Chronicle  of  the  Life  and  Pontificate  of  Leo  XllL,  p.  3^.    Rome,  1890. 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  HOME  RULE  MOVEMENT  IN  IRELAND.   221 

other  the  hite  Lonl  GranviUo  iiHowed  liimself  to  be  perHiuuled 
for  a  momeut  that  Mr.  Erriugtou  had  great  iufluence  -with  the 
Vatican ;  aud  that  it  woukl  be  a  good  thing  to  make  use  of 
that  influence  in  order  to  secure  for  the  Englisli  Govern- 
ment the  lielp  of  the  Pope  in  the  struggle  against  the  Irish 
national  agitation.  The  facts  of  the  whole  story  never  came 
full}'  out,  although  many  attempts  in  and  out  of  Parliament 
were  made  to  get  tlie  full  tale  told.  Mr.  Errington  un- 
doubtedly was  under  the  impression  that  he  had  a  formal 
authority  from  Lord  Granville.  Lord  Granville  was  under 
the  impression  that  he  had  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  was  ad- 
mitted that  a  letter  of  recommendation  had  been  conceded  to 
Mr.  Errington,  but  it  was  denied  that  the  letter  imposed  on 
him,  or  entrusted  to  him,  any  manner  of  diplomatic  author- 
ity or  function.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  question  and 
answer,  statement  and  counter-statement,  denial  and  qualifi- 
cation, until  at  last  the  English  public  began  to  get  tired 
of  it.  Finally,  a  letter  of  Mr.  Errington's,  never  intended 
for  publication,  found  its  way  somehow  into  the  newspapers, 
and  proved  that  Mr.  Errington  himself  had  not  taken  his 
mission  very  seriously.  Then  the  whole  subject  soon  passed, 
in  England  at  least,  away  from  the  attention  of  the  public. 
In  Ireland,  however,  the  national  feeling  still  remained  for 
a  time  unsatisfied  and  excited.  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
anger  among  the  Nationalists  because  of  the  manner  in  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  and  Lord  Granville  were  supposed  to  have 
acted.  It  was  fii-mly  believed  by  many  persons,  for  a  time, 
that  the  English  Government  had  insidiously  endeavored 
to  bring  influence  to  bear  upon  the  Vatican,  in  order  that  the 
Pope  might  be  prevailed  upon  to  censure  the  Nationalist 
movement  in  Ireland.  Assuredly  nothing  could  have  been 
more  unwise  on  the  part  of  any  English  Government  than  to 
make  such  an  attempt ;  but  Pope  Leo  was  the  last  man  in 
the  world  likely  to  allow  himself  to  be  drawn  into  such  a 
piece  of  diplomatic  artifice.  Let  it  be  added  that  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  the  last  man  in  the  world  likely  to  make  such  an 
attempt.  I  am  satisfied  that  on  the  side  of  the  Vatican,  anti 
on  the  side  of  the  English  Government,  tliere  was  absolut^' 
good  faith  and  high  purpose.     The   one   mistake    )uade  hy 


222  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

the  Government  was  in  paying  any  attention  wiiatever  to 
Mr.  Errington,  or  in  allowing  him  or  anybody  else  to  sup- 
pose for  a  moment  that  he  had  been  entrusted  with  any 
diplomatic  mission.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
as  the  Pope  became  more  closely  acquainted  with  the  reali- 
ties of  the  Irish  struggle,  he  came  to  take  a  more  liberal 
view  of  the  objects  which  inspired  it,  and  of  the  men 
who  guided  it.  The  sympathies  of  the  Pope  with  the 
Irish  Nationalist  cause  grew  and  grew  as  that  cause  more 
and  more  justified  itself.  Only  the  other  day,  the  Pope 
sent  his  blessing  to  Mr.  Dillon,  on  the  wedding  morning 
of  the  man  who  had  taken  so  prominent  a  part  in  the 
political  and  the  agrarian  agitation  throughout  Ireland." 
Again  reminding  the  reader  that  we  have  not  proposed 
to  give  even  a  sketch  of  this  momentous  period  in  the 
history  of  Ireland,  since  an  abundance  of  trustworthy 
sources  of  information  are  at  his  command  ;  and  that  our 
sole  object  is  to  note  the  relations  of  Leo  XIII.  with  the 
Irish  movements  of  his  day  ;  we  now  touch  on  his  course  in 
reference  to  the  "  Plan  of  Campaign,"  instituted  in  1888  by 
Messrs.  Dillon  and  O'Brien.  This  method  of  warfare  on  the 
tyrannous  landlords  of  Ireland,  conceived  in  minds  which 
were  at  least  sincere,  seemed  at  first  to  be  both  pacific  and 
invincible.  All  the  farmers  in  a  given  estate,  rich  as  well  as 
poor,  were  to  form  a  kind  of  "  solidarity  "  ;  each  tenant  was 
to  contribute  to  a  common  fund,  to  be  held  by  a  chosen  com- 
missioner, the  sum  of  money  which  he  could  afford ;  this 
commissioner  was  to  treat  with  the  landlord  or  his  agent ; 
and  if  the  landlord  hearkened  to  the  representations  of  his 
farmer-tenants,  and  agreed  to  a  reduction  of  rent,  such  as 
was  demanded,  then  he  would  be  paid  by  the  representative 
commissioner.  If  the  landlord  refused  the  compromise,  he 
was  to  receive  no  rent ;  and  if  he  did  not  capitulate,  his  sole 
alternative  was  the  ejectment  of  all  his  tenants.  And  where 
would  he  find  new  tenants  ?  While  the  landlord  was  con- 
sidering this  conundrum,  the  ejected  tenants  would  be 
supported,  at  least  to  some  extent,  by  the  sums  that  they 
had  entrusted  to  their  commissioner.  Certainly  this  "  Plan 
of  Campaign "  was  attractive ;  but  nevertheless,  the  Holy 


rOPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  HOME  RULE  MOl-EMENT  IN  IRELAND.    223 

See  could  uot  approve  of  the  universal  "  Bojcottage  "  which 
it   involved.     Notwithstanding   tliis    objection,    the    Pontiff 
appointed  to  the  see  of  Dublin,  on  July  3, 1885,  Mgr.  AValsli, 
one  of  the  most  pronounced  Nationalists  in  Ireland  ;  and 
the  question  of  "  Boycotting,"  so  far  as  its  morality  was 
concerned,  seemed  to  be  in  abeyance  until  1887.     Then  the 
Pontiff  appointed  Mgr.  Persico,  a  prelate  of  experience,  a 
Capuchin  who  had  been  vicar-apostolic  of  Agra  in  India,  and 
afterward   bishop   of   Savannah    in   the    United   States   of 
America  to  make  on  the  spot  a  severe  and  minute  inves- 
tigation into   the   afiiiirs    of  poor,    long-suffering   Ireland. 
According  to  the  slow-and-sure  fashion  of  the  Roman  curia, 
Persico  worked  during  a  year  before  he  submitted  his  report ; 
and  then,  on  April  13,  1888,  there  was  emitted  by  the  Holy 
Office  a  decree  which  condemned  the  "  Plan  of  Campaign," 
as  well  as  the  system  of  "  Boycotting,"  as  contrary  to  Chris- 
tian morality.     We  give  the  condemnatory  passage  of  the 
decree,  as  noted  in  the  circular  which  announced  it  on  April 
20  :     "  The  following  question  has  been  submitted  to  the 
Most   Eminent   Lords    Cardinals   who,   together   with   me 
(Cardinal  Monaco  La  Valletta),  form  the  Tribunal  for  Inquiry 
into   Heretical   Depravity :  In  the  disputes   between  tenants 
and  landlords  in  Ireland,  is  it  jyermissible  to  make  use  of  the 
means,  commonly  termed  '  Plan  of  Campaign '  and  '  Boycott- 
ing '  ?     After    a    long    and    careful    consideration.     Their 
Eminences  unanimously  replied :  '  It  is  not  permissible.'     This 
solution  of  the  question  icas  approved  and  confirmed  by  the 
Holy  Father  on  the  18th  of  this  month."     Great   indeed  was 
the  commotion  excited  in  Ireland  by  this  decree  ;  and  the 
bishops,  assembled  in  Dublin  for  the  jourpose  of  allaying 
the  excitement,  could  only  draw  attention  to  the  fact  which 
is  elementary  in  the  mind   of  every  Catholic,  namely,  that 
the  Eoman  Pontiff  is  supreme  in  all  definitions    on  moral 
questions.     At  the  same  time,  however,  for  the  consolation 
of   the  complaining  victims  of  English  tyranny,  the  bishops 
asked  the  people  to  observe  that  the  Head  of  their  Cliurch  had 
assured   them  (the  bishops)  that  the  decree  of  the  Holy 
Ofl&ce  "  did  not  pretend  to  interfere  in  any  manner  with  the 
Irish  National  Movement ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  said  decree 


224  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

was  intended  to  remove  every  obstacle  to  the  success  of 
that  Movement."  The  Pontiff  liimself  hastened  to  reassure 
his  faithful  children  in  Ireland  by  his  Encyclical  Saj^e  rios, 
issued  on  June  24  of  the  same  year.  His  Holiness  told  the 
Irish  that  they  ought  not  to  need  an  assurance  of  the  love  of 
the  Holy  See  for  them  ;  but  he  deemed  it  necessary  to  remind 
them  of  their  duty  of  obedience  to  the  pontifical  decisions 
in  matters  of  morality.  "  Our  office,"  he  declared,  "  will 
not  allow  us  to  permit  so  many  Catholics,  whose  salvation  is 
entrusted  to  our  care,  to  follow  in  a  dangerous  path  which 
would  lead  to  destruction,  rather  than  to  a  betterment  of 
their  condition.  We  must  consider  things  as  they  are  ;  and 
Ireland  should  discern  in  this  decree  our  love  for  her. 
Nothing  can  be  so  fatal  to  any  cause,  be  it  ever  so  just,  as 
to  be  defended  b}^  violence  and  injustice."  Catholic  to  the 
core,  the  Irish,  almost  to  a  man,  obeyed  the  voice  of  the 
Head  of  the  Church  ;  and  it  required  monumental  impudence 
iudeedfor  theassurance  emitted  by  that  "Austrian  diplomat " 
whom  we  shall  soon  meet  in  the  Coukmporary  Review  as 
the  apologist  of  certain  German  Catholic  friends  of  the 
Triple  Alliance,  to  the  effect  that  the  Irish  refused  to  accept 
"  the  doctrine  of  the  Vatican,  based  on  the  principle  that 
the  Holy  See  has  the  right  to  interfere  in  all  kinds  of 
political  questions."  The  assertion  that  the  Holy  See  was 
or  is  averse  to  Home  Eule  for  the  Irish  people  was  well 
refuted  by  Cardinal  Manning  when,  in  his  discussion  with 
Gladstone  in  1890,  he  showed  how  Leo  XIII.  could  have 
obtained  the  re-opening  of  formal  diplomatic  relations  with 
England,  had  he  been  willing  to  oppose  Home  Rule  for  the 
sister-kingdom — an  offer  which  he  spurned  with  indigna- 
tion (1).  And  let  us  not  forget  that  the  system  of  "  Boycott- 
ing "  and  the  "  Plan  of  Campaign,"  the  sole  features  of  the 
Irish  Movement  which  our  Pontiff  opposed,  "  were  never 
adopted  by  the  National  Organization,  and  they  were  rejected 
by  Parnell,  the  recognized  head  of  the  National  Party,  and 
by  Gladstone  "  (2).  Would  the  hypercritics  of  the  Leonine 
policy  have  wished  our  Pontiff  to  be  more  of  a  Nationalist 
than  the  Nationalists  themselves  ? 

(1)  See  the  Cir/ffd  Cattolita.  \m\  p.  745. 

(!i)  See  the  Dublin  Frcemaii''i  JoimnaL  May  25,  1888. 


THE   DECISION   ON   ANGLICAN    "ORDERS."  225 


CHAPTER  IX. 

POPE  LEO    Xm.    AND   THE    ENGLISH    PEOPLE.       THE    DECISION   ON 
ANGIJCAN  "  ORDERS." 

If  the  student  has  carefully  assimihited  what  we  said 
conceruiug  Auglicau  "  Orders  "  in  our  dissertation  on  the 
Protestautization  of  England,  as  well  as  our  reflections  on 
the  Gunpowder  Plot  and  on  the  Emancipation  of  the 
Catholics  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  he  will  be  equipped 
lor  an  appreciation  of  the  short  disquisition  now  awaiting 
him,  without  any  preamble  on  our  part.  Nearly  all  intelli- 
gent persons  in  Great  Britain  knew,  in  1885,  that  the  Pope  of 
Rome  had  granted  an  audience  to  Lord  Halifax,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  "  English  Church  Union,"  and  the  prominent 
champion  of  what  a  few  Anglican  Ritualists  somnoriferously 
acclaimed  as  "  Corporate  Reunion  "  with  Rome.  But  great 
was  the  astonishment  of  all  good  Protestants,  when  there 
appeared  in  the  English  journals  a  letter  dated  at  St. 
Peter's  in  Rome  on  April  14,  1895,  and  accounting  for 
itself  in  these  opening  words:  "Leo  XIIL,  to  the  English 
people  who  seek  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  unity  of 
the  faith."  The  most  important  of  the  passages  of  this 
document  read  as  follows  :  "  Some  time  since,  in  an  Apos- 
tolic Letter  to  princes  and  people,  we  spoke  to  the  English 
as  weil  as  to  the  other  nations ;  but  we  now  address  the 
English  by  a  special  communication,  wishing  to  testify  our 
sincere  affection  for  their  illustrious  race.  This  desire  has 
been  nourished  by  the  gr'^at  yearning  of  our  heart  for  a 
people  whose  glorious  deeds  in  the  olden  time  the  Church 
has  always  praised.  And  we  have  often  been  affected  by 
conversations  with  Englishmen  who  testified  to  the  kindly 
feeling  of  the  English  people  toward  us  personally,  and  to 
their  anxiety  for  peace  and  eternal  salvation  through  unity 
of  faith.  God  is  our  witness  how  keen  is  our  wish  that 
some  effort  of  ours  might  tend  to  assist  and  further  the  great 
work  of  obtaining  the  reunion  of  Christendom  ;  and  we 
render  thanks  to  God  who  has  so   far  prolonged  our  life 


226  STUDIES  IN  (JHURCH  HISTORY. 

that  we  may  put  forth  some  efforts  in  this  direction.  But 
since,  as  is  but  right,  we  place  our  confidence  of  a  happy 
issue  principally  in  the  wonderful  power  of  God's  grace,  we 
have,  with  full  consideration,  determined  to  invite  all  English- 
men who  glory  in  the  Christian  name  to  this  same  work, 
and  we  exhort  them  to  lift  up  their  hearts  to  God  with  us, 
to  fix  their  trust  in  Him,  and  to  seek  from  Him  the  help 
necessary  in  such  a  matter,  by  assiduous  diligence  in  holy 
prayer,"  The  Pope  describes  the  work  done  by  St.  Gregory 
for  England,  "  those  great  and  glorious  events  in  the  annals 
of  the  Church,  which  must  surely  be  remembered  with 
gratitude  by  the  English  people."  The  solicitude  of  Gregory 
for  England  was  inherited  by  all  the  Pontiffs  who  succeeded 
him.  Their  care  for  England  was  soon  rewarded,  "  for  in  no 
other  case,  perhaps,  did  the  faith  take  root  so  quickly,  or 
was  so  keen  and  intense  a  love  manifested  toward  the  See  of 
Peter.  That  the  English  race  was,  in  those  days,  wholly 
devoted  to  this  centre  of  Christian  unity,  and  that,  in  the 
course  of  ages,  men  of  all  ranks  were  bound  to  it  by  ties 
of  loyalty,  are  facts  too  abundantly  and  plainly  testified  by 

the  pages    of  history   to  admit  of   doubt   or   question 

In   the   storms   which   devastated   Catholicity   throughout 
Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century,  England  also  received  a 
grievous   wound,   for   she   was  unhappily   wrenched   from 
communion  with  the  Apostolic  See,  and  thus  was  bereft  of 
that  holy  faith  in  which,  for  long  centuries,  she  had  rejoiced 
in  perfect  liberty. "     The  Pope  speaks  of  the  prayers  offered 
up  for  the  return  of  England  to  the  Catholic  faith.     "  We, 
indeed,"  he  says,  "  long  before  being  raised  to  the  Supreme 
Pontificate,  were  also  deeply  sensible  of  the  importance  of 
holy  prayer  offered  for  tliis  cause,  and  heartily  commended 
it.     For  we  gladly  recall  that  while  we  acted  as  nuncio  in 
Belgium,  we  became  acquainted  with  an  Englishman,  Igna- 
tius Spencer,  himself  a  devout  disciple  of  St.  Paul  of  the 
Cross  ;  he  laid  before  us  the  project  he  had  already  initiated 
for  extending  a  society  for   pious  people   to  pray  for  the 
return  of  the  English  nation  to  the  Church."     The  Pope 
tells  of  the  results  which  followed  that  effort.     "  Very  many 
Englishmen  were  led  to  follow  the  divine  call,  and  among 


THE  DECISION  ON  .\NGLICAN  "  OliDEUS."  227 

vliem  not  a  few  nieu  of  clistinfj;uishp(l  omiueuce,  and  many, 
who,  in  doing  so.  iiad  to  make  ])ersonal  and  heroic  sacri- 
fices. Looking  at  all  this,  we  do  not  doubt  that  the  united 
and  humble  supplications  of  so  many  to  God  are  hastening 
the  time  of  further  manifestations  of  His  merciful  d(>sign8 
toward  the  English  people.  Our  confidence  is  strengthened 
by  observing  the  legislative  and  other  measures,  which,  if 
they  do  not  perhaps  directly,  still  do  indirectly  help  forward 
the  end  we  have  in  view,  by  ameliorating  the  condition  of 
the  people  at  large  by  giving  efi'ect  to  the  laws  of  justice 
and  charity.  We  have  heard  with  singular  joy  of  the  great 
attention  which  is  being  given  in  England  to  the  solution 
of  the  social  question,  of  which  we  have  treated  with  much 
care  in  our  Encyclicals,  and  of  the  establishment  of  benefit 
and  similar  societies  whereby,  on  a  legal  basis,  the  condition 

of  the  working-classes  is  improved Everyone  knows  the 

power  and  resources  of  the  British  nation,  and  the  civilizing 
influence  which,  with  the  spread  of  liberty,  accompanies  its 
commercial  prosperity  even  to  the  most  remote  regions. 
But,  worthy  and  noble  in  themselves  as  are  all  those 
varied  manifestations  of  activity,  our  soul  is  raised  to  the 
origin  of  all  power,  and  the  perennial  source  of  all  good 
things.  . . .  The  time  cannot  be  far  distant  when  we  must 
appear  to  render  an  account  of  our  stewardship  to  the  Prince 
of  Pastors  ;  and  how  happy,  how  blessed  should  we  be  if 
we  could  bring  to  Him  some  fruit,  some  realization  of  these 
our  wishes,  which  He  has  inspired  and  sustained.  In  these 
days  our  thoughts  turn  with  love  and  hope  to  the  English 
people,  observing,  as  we  do,  the  frequent  and  manifest  works 
of  Divine  Grace  among  them;  how  the  number  of  those 
religious  and  discreet  men,  who  sincerely  labor  much  for 

reunion  with  the  Catholic  Church,    is  increasing With 

loving  heart  we  tiirn  to  you  all  in  England,  desiring  to 
recall  you  to  this  holy  unity.  We  beseech  you,  as  you  value 
your  eternal  salvation,  to  offer  up  humble  and  continuous 
prayer  to  God,  who,  with  gentle  power,  impels  us  to  the  good 
and  the  right,  and  without  ceasing  to  implore  light  to  know 
the  truth  in  all  its  fulness,  and  to  embrace  the  designs  of 
His  mercy  with  single  and  entire  faithfulness The  time 


228  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY, 

is  not  far  distant  when  thirteen  centuries  will  have  been 
completed  since  the  English  race  welcomed  those  apostolic 
men  sent,  as  we  have  said,  from  this  very  city  of  Rome,  who, 
casting  aside  the  pagan  deities,  dedicated  the  first  fruits  of 
the  faith  to  Christ,  our  Lord  and  God.  This  encourages  our 
hope.  It  is,  indeed,  an  event  worthy  to  be  remembered  with 
public  thanksgiving.  Would  that  this  occasion  might  bring 
to  all  reflecting  minds  the  memory  of  the  faith  then  preached 
to  your  ancestors — the  same  which  is  now  preached. . .  .  We 
humbly  call  upon  St.  Gregory,  whom  the  English  have  ever 
rejoiced  to  greet  as  the  apostle  of  their  race,  on  St.  Augustine, 
his  disciple  and  his  messenger,  on  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
those  special  patrons,  and  above  all,  on  Mary,  the  Holy 
Mother  of  God,  whom  Christ  Himself  on  the  cross  left  to  be 
the  Mother  of  mankind,  to  whom  your  kingdom  was  dedicated 
by  your  forefathers  under  that  glorious  title,  '  The  Dowry 
of  Mary.'  All  these  with  full  confidence  we  call  upon  to  be 
our  pleaders  before  the  throne  of  God,  that  renewing  the 
glory  of  ancient  days,  He  may  'fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace 
in  believing,  that  ye  may  abound  in  hope  through  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.' "  There  were  few  manifestations  of 
displeasure  in  England,"  when  this  letter  was  read ;  its 
thoroughly  Christian  tone,  its  utter  want  of  any  spirit  of 
aggressiveness,  its  indication  that  the  writer  hoped  merely 
that  God  would  warm  the  hearts  of  Englishmen  to  a  desire 
for  reconciliation  wdth  the  Mother  Church,  prevented  any  of 
those  ebullitions  which  a  communication  from  "  the  Scarlet 
Woman  "  would  have  produced  in  the  early  days  of  Wise- 
man's episcopate  (1).     The  letter  produced  even  a  consider- 

(1)  "  This  letter,"  says  Justin  McCarthy,  ••  must  have  done  good  in  England,  if  merely 
by  showing  to  even  the  most  anti-papal  populations  here,  that  the  Pope  after  all  is  not 
anti-Christ,  but  only  a  man  and  a  brother.  From  the  days  when  Pope  Pius  IX.  was 
denounced  from  every  Protestant  platform  in  Great  Britain,  and  when  Cardinal  Wiseman, 
driving  in  his  carriage  to  deliver  a  lecture  in  the  Philharmonic  Hall  in  Liverpool,  was 
pelted  with  stones  by  a  crowd,  what  a  distance  we  have  traversed  !  Let  it  be  admitted 
that  the  improved  tone  of  public  feeling  on  both  sides  has  been  brought  about  in  the  first 
instance  by  the  statesmanship,  the  temper,  and  the  demeanor  of  Pope  Leo  himself. 
Never  was  there  in  modern  history  a  time  when  the  mind  of  Protestant  Englishmen  was 
so  set  against  t'-r  Papacy,  as  the  time  when  Pope  Leo  succeeded  to  Pope  Pius  IX.  Never 
since  the  Ueforn-.ation  was  there  a  time  when  the  public  heart  of  England  was  filled  with 
a  more  general  kindliness  and  cordiality  toward  the  head  of  the  Roman  Church  than  that 
which  prevails  now.  The  Pope  has  shown  himself  a  lover  of  all  men,  and  he  has  won  in 
return  «,he  regard,  the  confidence,  and  the  afTectlon  of  all  men  who,  whatever  their  creed. 


THE  DECISION  ON  ANGLICAN  "  OHDEIIS."  229 

able  amount  of  cliiiritable  feeling  toward  the  Roman  Pontiff, 
and  sucli  a  sentiment  might  eventuate  in  a  more  undesirable 
consummation ;  therefore  it  was  to  be  answered  by  those 
who  sometimes  claimed  to  be  able  to  speak  in  the  name  of 
the  Rojal  Establishment,  The  incumbent  of  Canterbury 
published  a  "  Pastoral,"  in  which  he  undertook  to  treat  of 
"a  certain  friendly  advance  made  from  n  foreign  CJiurch  to 
the  people  of  England,  without  reference  or  regard  to  the 
Church  of  England."  Having  introduced  the  subject  of 
union,  as  being  desired  by  "  almost  all  the  Christian  botlies 
known  among  us,  including  the  Roman  communion,"  the 
prelate  warns  Anglicans  of  a  peril  which  he  discerns  "  in 
any  haste  which  would  sacrifice  part  of  our  trust,  and  in 
narrowness  which  would  limit  our  vision  of  Christendom." 
Then  we  are  treated  to  an  observation  which  would  be  worthy 
of  a  schoolboy  :  "  The  Roman  Communion  in  which  "Western 
Christendom  once  found  unity  has  not  proved  itself  capable 
of  retaining  its  hold  on  nations  which  were  all  its  own.  At 
this  moment  it  invites  the  English  people  into  reunion  with 
itself,  in  apparent  unconsciousness  of  the  position  and  history 
of  the  English  Church.  It  parades  be/ores  t(s  modes  ofworsh  ip 
and  rewards  of  worship  the  most  repugnant  to  Teutonic  Chris- 
tendom, and  to  nntioiis  ivliich  have  become  readers  of  the  Bible." 
Then  the  prelate  accurately  defines  the  Anglican  position  in 
regard  to  union  with  Rome,  and  he  plainly  implies  what  any 
tyro  in  Catholic  theology  could  tell  Lord  Halifax  and  his 
fellow-dreamers  of  "  Corporate  Reunion,"  that  all  conversions 
from  English  Protestantism  must  be  individual — that  a 
reunion  en  masse  is  impossible,  since  Rome  cannot  recognize 
the  English  Establishment  and  her  American  daughter  as 
churches,  as  organizations  possessing  a  priesthood  and  the 
correlatives  of  a  priesthood.  If  the  Holy  See  would  only 
recognize  the  incumbent  of  Canterbury  and  his  companions 
as  Christian  bishops,  all  might  be  well,  says  this  represen- 
tative Anglican  :  "  Recognition  might  have  lent  a  meaning  to 
the   mention    of  reunion.      But,   otherwise,    what    is   called 

are  open  to  the  claims  of  reason,  of  statesmanship,  and  of  foinnon  pliilanttiropy.  The 
Pope's  appeal  to  the  English  pt-ople  may  have  greater  and  deeper  results  hereafter,  but. 
happen  what  may.  it  has  done  much  already  to  win  English  sympathy." 


230  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTOllY. 

reunion  would  not  only  be  our  I'areAvell  to  all  other  Christian 
races,  all  other  churches,  but  we  are  to  begin  by  forgetting 
our  own  church,  by  setting  aside  truth  regained  through 
severe  sacrifice,  cherished  as  our  very  life,  and  believed  by 
us  to  be  the  necessary  foundation  of  all  union."     Probably 
the  general  sentiment  of  the  Anglican  party,  when  both  the 
papal  letter  and  its  reputed  answer  had  been  read,  was  voiced 
bv  the  London  Daily  C/ironide,  when  it  said  that  the  gist  of 
the  Pontiffs  appeal  was  simply  the  declaration,  "  You  are  not 
of  my  flock  ;  God  pity  you  !  "     But  such  an  appreciation  of 
the  intention  of  Leo  XLEL  is  an  injustice  to  His  Holiness. 
Justin  McCarthy  grasps  the  situation  when  he  says  :  "The 
truth  is,  that  the  Pope  expressed  in  his  letter  exactly  what 
he  wanted  to  express  ;  his  cordial  aflection  for  the  English 
people,  and  his  earnest  wish  that  they  might  be  brought 
back  to  the  old  Church.     The  season  must  have  seemed  to 
him  appropriate  to  the  expression  of  such  a  wish.     Many 
great  and  prominent  High  Churchmen  were  avowedh'  look- 
ing  to   some   sort   of   possible   reunion    between   spiritual 
England   and   spiritual   Eome.     Many   sermons   had  been 
preached  from  Anglican  pulpits,  which  breathed  this  spirit 
in  all  sincerity.     The  time  seemed  fitting  to  the  Pope  to  utter 
a  pious  wish,  were  it  only  a  wish,  to  utter  also  a  prayer,  that 
such  a  reunion  might  be  accomplished  on  the  only  terms 
which  to  him  could  make  it  a  genuine  reunion.     It  is  hard  to 
see  how  any  impartia  critic  could  say  that  the  tenor  of  the 
Pope's  letter  was  only,  '  You  are  not  of  my  flock  ;  God  pity 
you.'     It  reads  to  me  much  more  like, '  Be  of  my  flock  ;  God 
bless  you.'     The  Pope  could  have  accomplished  nothing  by 
issuing  a  sort  of  command  to  the  English  people.     He  could 
have  accomplished  nothing  by  merely  imploring  them  for 
their  own  sakes   to  become  Catholics   again.     By   merely 
expressing  his  pious  hope,  his  pious  wish,  at  all  events  he 
expected  to  touch  some  chord  of  sympathetic  feeling  in  the 
mind  and  heart  of  English  Protestantism,  which  might  bring 
out  the  first  impulse  toward  a  future  reconciliation." 

While  the  English  mind,  or  at  least  that  of  such  English- 
men as  take  any  interest  in  religion  of  any  form,  was  being 
agitated  by  the  appeal  of  Leo    XIII.  for   religious   unity,  it 


THE  DECISION  ON  ANGUCAN  "  ORDERS."  231 

became  known  thiit  the  Holy  See,  yielding  to  the  request  of 
many   Ritualists,    ami   to  the    persistency   of   two   French 
enthusiasts  who  hoped  to  thus  "smooth  over"  the  way  of 
conversion  for   many  English   and   American   Protestants, 
had   consented   to   examine   again  the  "  question "    of   the 
validity  of  Anglican  "  Orders."     We  have  already  treated 
this  matter  exhaustively,  from  a  historical  point  of  view  (1) ; 
we  touched  only  incidentally  on  the  matter,  as  viewed  from 
a  theological  standpoint.     In   the  Apostolic  Letter,   dated 
Sept.  13,  1896,  in  which  our  Pontiff  gives  his  decision,  the 
subject  is  treated  only  with  regard  to  the  constant  i^ractice 
of  the  Church  in  reference  to  converted  Anglican  "  bishops  " 
and   ministers,  and  with  regard  to   the   Anglican   form   of 
"  Ordination."     Why  the  Holy  See  should  have  contravened 
its  custom  of  not  reconsidering  a  matter  which  had  been 
already  decided,  can  be  understood  only  in  the  supposition 
that  it  wished  to  avail  itself  of    an    opportunity    to    lay 
before  Anglicans  the  utter  futility  of  their  claims  to  the 
Apostolic  Succession.     The  accomplishment  of  this  task  is 
the  object  of  the  Apostolic   Letter,   only   some   portion   of 
which  our  space  will  allow^   us   to   give :   "  For   some   time, 
and  especially  in  these  last  years,  there  has  been  a  contro- 
versy as  to  whether  the  Sacred  Orders  conferred  according 
to  the  Edwardiue  Ordinal  possessed  the  nature  and  effect  of 
a  Sacrament :  those  in  favor  of  the  absolute  validity,  or  of 
a  doubtful  validity,  being  not  only  certain  Anglican  writers, 
but  some  few  Catholics,  chiefly  non-English.     The  consider- 
ation of  the  excellency  of  the   Christian   priesthood  moved 
Anglican  writers  in  this  matter,  desirous  as  they  were  that 
their  own  people  should  not  lack   the  twofold   power   over 
the  Body  of  Christ.     Catholic  writers  were   impelled  by   a 
wish  to  smooth  the  way  for  the  return  of  Anglicans  to  holy 
unity.     Both,  indeed,  thought  that  in  view  of  studies  brought 
up  to  the  level  of  recent  research,  and  of   some   documents 
rescued  from  oblivion,  it  was  not  inopportune  to  re-examine 
the  question  by  our  authority.     And  we,  not  disregarding 
such  desires  and  opinions,  and  above  all,  obeying  the  dic- 
tates   of   Apostolic  charity,   have  considered   that  nothing 
should  be  left  untried  that  might  in  any  way  tend  to  preserve 

(1 »  See  Vol.  jii.,  p.  492,  ct  gtqq. 


232  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

souls  from  injury  or  procure  their  advantage.  It  has,  there- 
fore, pleased  us  to  graciously  permit  the  cause  to  be  re- 
examined so  that  through  the  extreme  care  taken  in  the 
new  examination  all  doubt,  or  even  shadow  of  doubt,  should 
be  removed  for  the  future.  To  this  end  we  commissioned  a 
certain  number  of  men  noted  for  their  learning  and  ability, 
whose  opinions  in  this  matter  were  known  to  be  divergent, 
to  state  the  grounds  of  their  judgments  in  writing.  We 
then,  having  summoned  them  to  our  person,  directed  them 
to  interchange  writings  and  further  to  investigate  and  dis- 
cuss all  that  was  necessary  for  a  full  knowledge  of  the 
matter.  We  were  careful  also  that  they  should  be  able  to  re- 
examine all  documents  bearing  on  this  question  which  were 
known  to  exist  in  the  Vatican  Archives,  to  search  for  new 
ones,  and  even  to  have  at  their  disposal  all  the  documents  on 
this  subject  which  are  preserved  by  the  Holy  Office— or  as 
it  is  called  the  Siqjreme  Council — and  to  consider  whatever 
had  lip  to  this  time  been  adduced  by  learned  men  on  both 
sides.  We  ordered  them,  when  prepared  in  this  way,  to 
meet  together  in  special  sessions.  These  to  the  number  of 
twelve  were  held  under  the  presidency  of  one  of  the  Cardinals 
of  the  Holy  Eoman  Church  appointed  by  ourselves,  and  all 
were  invited  to  free  discussion.  Finally  we  directed  that 
the  acts  of  these  meetings,  together  with  all  other  documents, 
should  be  submitted  to  our  Venerable  Brethren,  the  Cardinals 
of  the  same  Council,  so  that  when  all  had  studied  the  whole 
subject,  and  discussed  it  in  our  presence,  each  might  give 
his  opinion."  Then  the  Pontiff  shows  how  the  commission 
inquired  into  the  practice  of  the  Church  in  the  premises,  as 
illustrated  ever  since  the  dawn  of  Protestantism  in  England  ; 
and  having  reviewed  the  evidence,  His  Holiness  says  :  "  It 
must  he  clear  to  every  one  that  the  lately-revived  controversy 
was  settled  definitively  long  ago  by  this  Apostolic  See  (by 
Julius  III.,  Paid  IV.,  and  Clement  XI.) ;  and  that  it  is  to  the 
insufficient  knoivledge  of  these  documents  that  ive  7nust perhaps 
attrihnte  t lie  fact  that  any  Catholic  writer  shoidd  have  con- 
sidered it  still  an  open  question."  Then  His  Holiness  proceeds 
to  an  examination  of  the   Anglican  Ordinal  (1) ;  also  of  the 

(1)  "  In  the  examination  of  any  rite  for  the  effectinsr  and  administering  of  a  Sacrament, 


THE   DECISION  ON  ANGLICAN  "ORDERS."  233 

mind  and  aim  oi  those  who  composed  that  Ordinal — a  point 
which  we  have  already  considered  when  treating  of  the  dawn 
of  the  English  Reformation.  Finally,  the  PoutiflF concludes  -. 
"All  these  matters  have  been  hnig  and  carefully  considered  by 
ourselves  and  by  our  Venerable  Brethren,  the  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Council,  of  whom  it  pleased  us  to  order  a  special 
meeting  on  the  Feria  V.,  the  16th  day  of  July  last,  upon  the 
solemnity  of  Our  Lady  of  Mount  Carmel.  They,  with  one 
accord,  agreed  that  the  question  laid  before  them  had  been 
already  adjudicated,  and  with  the  full  approval  of  the  Apos- 
tolic See,  and  that  this  renewed  discussion  and  examination  of 
the  issues  had  only  served  to  bring  out  more  clearly  the  wis- 
dom and  accuracy  with  which  that  decision  had  been  made. 

distinction  is  riRhlly  made  between  the  part  which  is  ceremonial  and  ttiat  which  is  essen- 
tial, usually  called  the  matter  and  form.  All  know  that  the  Sacraments  of  the  New  Law, 
as  sensible  and  efficient  sisrii*  of  invisible  prace.  ouirht  both  to  signify  the  prace  which 
they  effect  and  effect  the  grace  which  they  signify.  Although  the  signiflcation  ought  to 
be  found  in  the  whole  essential  rite,  that  is  to  say.  In  the  matter  and  form,  it  still  pertains 
chiefly  to  the  form,  since  the  matter  is  the  part  which  is  not  determined  by  itself  but  which 
is  determined  by  the  form,  and  this  appears  still  more  clearly  in  the  Sacrament  of  orders, 
the  matter  of  which,  in  so  far  as  we  have  to  consider  it  in  this  case,  is  the  imposition  of 
hands,  which  indeed  by  itself  signifies  nothing  dtllnite.  and  is  equally  used  loi  several 
orders,  and  for  Confirmation,  but  the  words  which,  until  recently,  were  commonly  held  by 
Anglicans  to  constitute  the  proper  form  of  priestly  ordination  -namely,  "  Receive  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  certainly  do  not  in  the  least  definitely  express  the  sacied  order  of  priesthood 
or  its  grace  and  power,  which  is  chiefly  the  power  "  of  consecrating  and  of  offering  the  true 
Body  and  Blood  of  the  Lord."  (Council  of  Trent,  Sess.  XXIH.  De  Sacr.  OriL,  Can.  1.)  In 
that  sacrifice  which  is  no  '*  nude  commemoration  of  the  sacrifice  offered  on  the  cross." 
{Ibid.,  Sess.  XXn.  De  Stacrif.  Mi-fsa,  Can.  3.)  This  form  had,  indeed,  afterwaid 
added  to  it  the  words,  "  for  the  office  and  work  of  a  priest,"  etc.,  but  this  rather  shows 
that  the  Anglicans  themselves  perceiveil  that  tlie  first  fortn  was  defective  and  inadetiuate. 
But  even  if  this  addition  could  give  to  the  form  its  due  signification,  it  was  introduced  too 
late,  as  a  century  had  already  elapsed  since  the  adoption  of  the  Edwardine  Ordinal,  for  as 
the  Hierarchy  had  bwome  exinct  there  remained  no  power  of  ordaining.  In  vain  has  help 
been  recently  sought  for  the  plea  of  the  validity  of  Orders  from  the  other  prayers  of  the 
same  Ordinal.  For,  to  put  iiside  other  reasons  which  show  this  to  be  insufficient  for  the 
purpose  in  the  Anglican  rite,  let  thisargument  suffice  for  all ;  from  them  has  been  deliberately 
removed  whatever  set  forth  the  dignity  and  office  of  the  priesthood  in  the  Catholic  rite.  That 
form  conse<tuently  ought  not  to  be  considered  a  ptor  sufficient  for  the  Sacrament  which 
omits  what  it  ought  essentially  to  signify.  For  in  the  formula,  "  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost." 
not  only  were  the  words,  "for  the  office  and  work  of  a  bishop,"  added  at  a  later  period,  but 
even  these,  as  we  shall  presently  state,  must  be  understood  in  a  sense  different  to  that  which 
they  bear  in  the  Catholic  rite.  Nor  is  anything  pained  by  quoting  "  Almighty  Go<l."  since 
it  in  like  manner  has  been  stripped  of  the  words  which  denote  the  Sunimum  Sncrrilntiiim. 
It  Is  not  here  revelant  to  examine  whether  th"  episcopate  be  a  completion  of  the  priest- 
hood or  an  Order  distinct  from  it,  or  whether  when  bestowed  as  they  say  ;>cr  xaltiim  on 
one  who  is  not  a  priest,  it  has  or  has  not  its  effect.  But  the  episcopaU-  undoubtedly  by  the 
institution  of  Christ  most  truly  belongs  to  the  Sacrament  nf  f)rders,  and  constitutes  the 
Sncrtiliitiiiin  in  the  hichest  degree— namely,  that  which  by  the  teaching  of  the  Holy  Fathers 
and  our  Liturgical  customs  is  called  the  "■  firtmrnuni  S^uinlntittiti  Sdiri  Miuistftii  Sniu- 
w'l."    So  it  comes  to  pass  that  as  the  Sacrament  of  Orders  and  the  true  Sacertlotium  of 


234  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Nevertheless  we  deemed  it  better  to  defer  our  decision  in 
order  to  afford  time,  both  to  consider  whether  it  would  be 
fitting  or  expedient  that  we  should  make  a  fresh  authorative 
declaration  upon  the  matter,  and  to  humbly  pray  for  a  fuller 
measure  of  Divine  guidance.  Then,  considering  that  this 
matter  of  practice,  although  already  decided,  had  been  by 
certain  persons,  for  unknown  reasons,  recalled  into  discussion 
auci  vliat  thence  it  might  follow  that  a  pernicious  error  would 
be  fostered  in  the  minds  of  many  who  might  suppose  that 
they  possessed  the  Sacrament  and  effects  of  Orders,  though 
these  are  certainly  wanting,  it  has  seemed  good  to  us  in 
the  Lord  to  pronounce  our  judgment.     Wherefore,  strictly 

Christ  were  utterly  eliminated  from  the  Anglican  rite,  and  hence  the  Sacerdotium  is  in 
no  wise  conferred  truly  and  validly  in  the  Episcopal  Consecration  of  the  same  right,  for 
the  like  reason,  therefore,  the  episcopate  can  in  no  way  be  truly  an  validly  conferred  by 
it,  and  this  the  more  so  because  among  the  first  duties  of  the  episcopate  is  that  of  ordain- 
ing ministers  for  the  Holy  Eucharist  and  sacrifice.  For  the  full  and  accurate  understand- 
of  the  Anglican  Ordinal,  besides  what  we  have  noted  as  to  some  of  its  parts,  there  is 
nothing  more  pertinent  than  to  consider  carefully  the  circumstances  under  which  it 
was  composed  and  publicly  authorized.  It  would  be  tedious  to  enter  into  details,  nor  is  it 
necessary  to  do  so,  as  the  history  of  that  time  is  sufficiently  eloquent  as  to  the  animus  of 
the  authors  of  the  Ordinal  against  the  Catholic  Church,  as  to  the  abettors  whom  they 
associated  with  themselves  from  the  heterodox  seats,  and  as  to  the  end  they  had  in  view. 
Being  fully  cognizant  of  the  necessary  connection  between  faith  and  worship,  between  the 
law  of  believing  and  the  law  of  praying,  under  a  pretext  of  returning  to  the  primitive  form 
they  corrupted  the  liturgical  order  in  many  ways  to  suit  the  errors  of  the  reformers.  For 
this  reason  in  the  whole  Ordinal  not  only  is  there  no  clear  mention  of  the  Sacrifice  of 
Consecration  of  the  Sacerdotium  and  of  the  power  of  consecrating  and  offering  sacrifices, 
but  as  we  have  just  stated,  every  trace  of  these  things  which  had  been  in  such  praise  of 
the  Catholic  rite  as  they  had  not  entirely  rejected,  was  deliberately  removed  and  struck 
out.  In  this  way  the  native  character  or  spirit,  as  it  is  called,  of  the  Ordinal  clearly  mani- 
fests itself.  Hence  if  vitiated  in  its  origin,  it  was  wholly  insuflBcieut  to  confer  Orders.  It 
was  impossible  that  in  the  course  of  time  it  would  become  sufficient,  since  no  change  had 
taken  place.  In  vain  those  who  from  the  time  of  Charles  I.  have  attempted  to  hold  some 
kind  of  sacrifice  or  of  priesthood,  have  made  some  additions  to  the  Ordinal.  In  vain  also 
has  been  the  contention  of  that  small  section  of  the  Anglican  body  formed  in  recent  times 
that  the  said  Ordinal  can  be  understood  and  interpreted  in  a  sound  and  orthodox  sense. 
Such  efforts,  we  affirm,  have  been  and  are  made  in  vain,  and  for  the  reason  thatany  words 
in  the  Anglican  Ordinal  as  it  now  is  which  lend  themselves  to  ambiguity  cannot  be  taken 
in  the  same  sense  as  they  possess  in  the  Catholic  rite.  For  once  a  new  rite  has  been  insti- 
tuted in  which,  ai?  we  have  seen,  the  Sacrament  of  Orders  is  adulterated  or  denied,  and 
from  which  all  idea  of  consecration  and  sacrifice  has  been  rejected,  the  formula,  "  Receive 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  no  longer  holds  good,  because  the  spirit  is  infused  into  the  soul  with  the 
grace  of  the  Sacrament,  and  the  words  "  For  the  office  and  work  of  a  priest  or  bishop,"  and 
the  like  no  longer  hold  good,  but  remain  as  words  without  the  reality  which  Christ  insti- 
tuted. Several  of  the  more  shrewd  Anglican  interpreters  of  the  Ordinal  have  perceived  the 
force  of  this  argument,  and  they  openly  urge  it  against  those  who  take  the  Ordinal  in  a 
new  sense,  and  vainly  attach  to  the  orders  conferred  thereby  a  value  and  efficiency  they 
do  not  possess.  By  this  same  argument  is  refuted  the  contention  of  those  who  think  that 
the  prayer  "  Almighty  God  giveth  of  all  good  things,"  which  is  found  at  the  beginning 
of  the  ritual  action,  might  suffice  as  a  legitimate  fo^m  of  Orders,  even  in  the  hypothesis 
thnt  it  might  he  held  to  be  sufficient  in  a  Catholic  ritb  approved  by  the  Church." 


THE    DECISION   ON   ANGLICAN   "ORDERS."  235 

adhering  in  this  matter  to  the  decrees  of  the  Pontiflfs  our 
predecessors,  ami  confirming  tliem  most  fully,  and,  as  it 
were,  renewing  them  bj  our  authority,  of  our  own  motion 
and  certain  knowledge  toe  pronounce  and  declare  that  Ordin- 
ations carried  out  accordiiuj  to  the  Anglican  rite  have  been  and 
are  absoluteli/  null  and  utterly  void.''  To  the  immense  major- 
ity of  Anglicans,  persons  who  had  no  conception  of  the 
meaning  of  the  term  "  priest,"  i)eople  whose  "  parson  "  was 
merely  a  talker  on  religion  established  for  the  sake  of  good 
order  and  respectability  in  the  State,  this  Papal  decision  had 
no  meaning.  To  another  class  of  Anglicans,  persons  whose 
notion  of  a  "  priest "  was  that  of  a  something  more  genteel 
than  a  Non-Conformist  preacher,  a  something  to  be  classed 
with  a  "  so  cute  "  ecclesiastical  millinery,  their  supposedly 
poetical  incense,  and  their  mystifying  vestments,  the  Papal 
pronouncement  was  merely  a  blow  to  an  unintelligent  pride 
— the  Pope  had  dared  to  say  that  their  pastor  was  to  be  re- 
vered no  more  than  a  Presbyterian  or  Methodist  dominie  (1). 

(I)  That  Dr.  Potter,  the  present  head  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  "diocese  "  of  Southern 
New  York,  belongs  to  this  second  class  of  Anglicans,  would  seem  to  be  Indicated  not  only 
by  his  recent  (1899>  "ordination  "  of  the  anti-Biblical  Dr.  Briggs,  but  also  by  the  following 
extract  from  the  Annual  Address  which  he  delivered,  on  Sept.  30,  18%,  before  the  Diocesan 
Convention  of  the  ministers  of  his  jurisdiction,  as  his  deliberate  appreciation  of  the  Pope's 
decision  on  the  validity  of  Anglican  Orders:  "  A  year  ago  I  referred  in  this  place  to  the 
courteous  Communication  addressed  to  those  in  anothnr  land,  who  are  of  our  spiritual 
lineage  and  ancestry,  by  a  venerable  Roman  ecclesiastic,  of  whose  kindly  purpose  nobody. 
I  suppose,  had  any  smallest  doubt;  and  I  endeavored  to  point  out  how  vain  and  illusory, 
from  any  such  standpoint  as  he  then  occupied,  were  the  hopes  and  aspirations  which  he 
then  e.xpressed.  Since  then  he  has  made  them  oven  more  so  by  describing  all  other  chief 
pastors  than  those  who  are  his  own  curates  as  '  a  lairhsK  and  disoriirti]/  crrw  '  (in  what 
Papal  document  can  we  tlnd  this  exhibition  of  a  very  un-Roiuan  style?  ),  and  by  pronounc- 
ing all  other  orders  than  those  derived  from  the  See  of  Peter  as  invalid  and  worthless. 
It  is  a  declaration.  . .  .made  in  large  ignorance  nf  the  fact.<.  and  from  a  somewhat  nar- 
row and  provincial  vision  of  the  situation,  (but  this)  does  not  wholly  take  away  from  the 
value  of  this  unshrinking  frankness  ;  while  one  cannot  but  hope  that  its  effect  upon  those 
(the  self-styled  "  Anglo-Catholic  "  party)  whose  fatuous  and  nnnuudii  procedure  has 
Invited  and  provoked  it  may  be  deep  and  lasting.  Anglican  churchmen  and  American 
Christians  of  the  same  lineage  have  nothing  whatever  to  hope  from  the  Italian  prelate  who 
makes  bold  to  call  himself  the  Vicar  of  God.  It  is  matter  for  profound  th;in.ifulness  that 
thev  have  not. . .  .  Dismissing  at  last  that  superincuinlx'ut  nias>i  nf  midi(ct-nl  mid  WKxf- 
ernhi.'<torir(d  ignorance  historical  distortion,  ami  historical  imjxistnrt.  irhich  sur- 
vives to-day  as  the  Latin  tradition,  and  which  has  for  centuries  buried  fjjt  of  sight  the 
primitive  and  apostolic  foundations,  men  will  rfturn  totho.se  scriptural  and  uidversally 
accepted  symbols  to  which  that  oldest  branch  of  the  Church  Catholli — the  branch  which  Is 
Eastern  and  not  Western — still  adheres,  and  nn  which  the  best  learning  and  the  purest 
faith  of  Anglo-Saron  Christendom  e(iually  rest.  There  is  inu<'h  to  be  Ifjirnt-d  by  all  of  us 
before  we  may  hope  to  see  the  dawn  of  a  better  day  for  the  divided  r.inks  of  Christendom 
...  but  believe  me,  when  that  day  dawns.  I'M/'i/i  not  he  in  anmitr  to  anu  heckoning 
from  an  Italian  prelate— or  not,  at  any  rate,  until  he,  or  thoae  who  may  come  aftci 


236  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

But  to  a  very  small  class  of  Auglicans,  those  who  believed  in 
a  "  sacrificing  priesthood,"  and  who  knew  that  without  that 
priesthood  no  organization  could  be  a  Church,  could  have 
valid  Sacraments,  could  be,  as  it  were,  a  continuation  of 
Christ's  incarnation  in  regard  to  the  individual  soul,  the 
decree  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  was  a  bitter  disappointment.  It 
caused  them  to  meditate  as  they  had  never  yet  meditated. 


CHAPTER  X. 

POPE  LEO  Xni.  AND  THE  AUSTRIAN  EMPIRE.      THE  QUESTIONS 
OF  MIXED  AND  CIVIL  MARRIAGES  IN  HUNGARY. 

Among  the  injustices  which  Pope  Leo  XIII.  has  been 
obliged  to  suffer  at  the  hands  of  certain  German  Catholic 
publicists,  is  the  charge  that  his  hostility  to  the  Triple 
Alliance  has  led  him  to  sacrifice  the  interest  of  Catholicism 
in  Germany,  and  especially  in  Austria.  The  Pontiff,  said 
these  gentry,  could  hope  for  no  aid  from  the  Triple  Al- 
liance in  the  matter  of  a  restoration  of  the  papal  temporal 
power ;  but  he  could  hope  for  aid  from  France,  and  there- 
fore he  flattered  the  French  Republic,  even  to  the  detriment 
of  the  Church  in  France.  Such  assertions  come  naturallv 
from  Professor  Geffcken  ;  they  do  not  astound  us  when  they 
are  proffered  by  the  anonymous  "  Austrian  diplomat  "  of 
the  Contemporary  Bevieiv  :  but  they  are  sadly  inappropriate 
in  the  pages  of  prominent  organs  of  the  German  Centre. 
Certainly  those  editors  were  not  of  the  calibre  of  Mon- 
talembert,  who  was  Caiholique  avant  tout,  and  who  would 
never  have  asked  the  Italian  Catholics  to  accept  "  accom- 
plished facts,"  and  to  shake  hands  with  the  school  of  Crispi. 
And  this  politico-religious  evolution  was  demanded  in  the 
interest  of  the  Triple  Alliance  ;  for  by  it  that  unnatural  com- 
pact would  have  been  strengthened,  since  the  Papacy  and 
the  Italy  of  the  Quirinal  would  have  kissed  in  a  rapture  of 
"  patriotism."     The  Contemporary  Review  loaned  its  pages 

him,  have  unlearned  pretensions  so  unscriptural  as  to  be  grotesque,  and  surrendered 
claims  which  the  growing  enlightenment  of  mankind  makes  daily  more  and  more 
pathetic  and  ridiculous." 


POPE  LEO  Xin.    AND  THE   AUSTRIAN   EMPIRE.  237 

to  tlie  partisans  of  these  theories  ;  aud  the  carious  reader 
will  find  their  moutliiujjjs  refuted  in  the  ClvUta  Cuitolica  (1), 
if  his  study  of  the  Poutitioate  of  Pius  IX.  has  left  him  still 
in  need  of  such  mental  pabulum.  Concerning  the  "  Austrian 
diplomat  "  of  the  dnifempomry  Review,  whose  ravings  were 
until  quite  recently  endorsed  l)y  many  German  Catholic 
friends  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  the  Abbe  Kannengieser,  an 
Alsatian  polemic  who  knows  well  the  French,  German,  and 
Italian  worlds  of  which  he  treats  (2),  emits  some  notewor- 
thy reflections  as  he  places  the  Austrian  essayist  on  the 
same  plane  with  two  famous  ecclesiastical  rebels  of  our  day  : 
"  Dcellinger  and  Curci !  These  celebrated  men  personify, 
to  some  extent,  the  opposition  to  the  papal  temporal 
power  which  a  certain  class  of  Catholics  has  manifested 
during  the  last  thirty  years.  They  were  priests ;  but 
they  attacked  the  royalty  of  the  Vatican  with  a  violence, 
and  often  with  a  bad  faith  and  a  perfidy,  which  were  bor- 
rowed from  the  worst  enemies  of  the  Church.  Dcellinger 
had  begun  his  campaign  ten  years  before  the  invasion  of 
Kome,  at  first  in  a  fashion  of  dissimulation,  but  i»:  time  and 
by  degrees  with  increasing  audacity  in  each  successive  book 
or  article,  until  finally  he  indicated  his  disgust  with  not 
only  the  temporal  power,  but  also  with  the  spiritual  author- 
ity of  the  Holy  See,  with  Catholicism,  and  with  Christian- 
ity itself.  At  this  time  Curci  was  one  of  the  most  intrepid 
defenders  of  the  Royal  Vatican  :  but  very  soon  he  also 
entered  on  the  way  of  apostasy.  His  first  bombshell— it  is 
with  design  that  I  use  his  favorite  expression — was  explod- 
ed in  1874  ;  and  certainly  the  pure  gold  of  his  early  writings 
had  changed  to  the  vilest  of  metals.  Curci  was  then 
already  decrepit  on  the  verge  of  the  grave  ;  but  he  furnished 
to  the  Church  the  sad  spectacle  of  an  ungrateful  son  strik- 
ing his  mother.  Before  long,  to  these  two  names  we  were 
obliged  to  join  that  of  an  Austrian  diplomat  who,  proclaim- 
ing himself  a  Catholic,  published  in  a  Protestant  periodical 
of  England  an  odious  pamphlet  which  assailed  the  policy 
and  the  person  of  Leo  XIII.     This  diplomat  pretended  to 

(1)  Especially  In  the  issue  of  Dec.  17,  1892. 

(2^  The  Advermries  of  the  Tcmtxiral  Power  and  the  Triph  Alliance.    Pans.  1898. 


238  STUDIES  IN   CHUKCH   HISTOKY. 

be  a  most  faithful  son  of  the  Pontiff,  'his  real  and-well- 
beloved  superior'  ;  but,  nevertheless,  he  dared  to  issue  'the 
most  perfidious  diatribe  which  has  been  written  against  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  '  (1).  A  Catholic  of  this  stamp  is  worthy 
of  figuring  in  the  company  of  Doelliuger  and  Curci ;  the 
three  publicists  have  a  community  of  thought,  and  complete 
each  other  admirably.  Their  harmony  is  perfect.  Doel- 
liuger had  called  for  the  fall  of  the  Pope-King ;  Curci  re- 
echoed the  demand  ;  and  the  Austrian  diplomat  upbraids  the 
Pope  for  not  accepting  their  invitation  with  gratitude.  This 
is  all  pre-eminently  natural ;  since  here  we  find  in  evidence 
representatives  of  the  nations  composing  the  Triple  Alli- 
ance. Curci  was  an  Italian ;  the  writer  in  the  Contempor- 
ary was  an  Austrian ;  and  Doellinger  was  a  German.  It  is 
possible  that  this  coincidence  is  merely  fortuitous ;  if  so, 
the  journals  of  the  Triple  Alliance  will  inform  us.  Acciden- 
tal though  it  may  be,  it  is  interesting,  and  it  should  be 
noted.  One  thing  is  certain.  The  blows  struck  against  the 
papal  temporal  power  (in  our  day)  have  not  come  from  that 
impious  France,  before  whose  gaze  the  three  allied  nations 
so  modestly  veil  their  faces  ;  nor  from  that  schismatical 
Russia,  for  whom  the  treasury  of  anathemas  is  too  small ; 
nor  from  that  heretical  England,  for  whose  sake,  as  the  men 
of  the  Triple  Alliance  tell  us,  Leo  XIII.  sacrificed  the  poor 
Irish.  The  Pontiff  is  despoiled  of  his  dominions,  held  a 
prisoner  in  the  Vatican,  simply  because  such  is  the  good 
pleasure  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  It  is  the  Italy  of  Curci,  the 
Germany  of  Doellinger,  and  the  Austria  of  the  diplomat  of 
the  Contemporary  Revieiv,  that  have  desired  and  procured 
the  loss  of  the  papal  temporal  power  ;  the  governments  of 
these  three  countries  are  the  responsible  causes  of  the  '  intol- 
erable situation  '  (2)  in  which  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  now 
finds  himself."  There  is  not  a  word  of  exaggeration  in  these 
sentiments  of  Abbe  Kannengieser ;  and    in  complement    of 

(1)  These  two  citations  are  words  of  Father  Brandi,  S.  J.,  the  author  of  the  admirable 
refutation  of  the  pleas  of  the  partisans  of  the  Triple  Alliance  which  was  published  in  the 
Civilta.  Cattolica.  To  the  student  who  has  not  access  to  this  periodical,  we  would  observe 
that  a  French  version  of  Brandi's  work,  due  to  the  pen  of  M.  Vetter,  was  published  by 
Lethielleux  of  Paris  in  1892. 

(2)  Such  are  the  words  with  which  Leo  XIH.  has  frequently  qualified  the  present  circum- 
stances of  the  Holy  See. 


POPE  LEO   XIII.    AND   THE   AUSTRIAN   EMPIRE.  239 

them  we  woukl  adduce  the  following  appreciation  of  the 
Austrian  diplomat's  ideas  which  was  formed  by  the  judici- 
ous editor  of  the  Cirilfd  Catfolicx  :  "  Acconliug  to  this  diplo- 
mat, the  Supreme  Pontiff  is  '  an  idealist,'  an  egotist  who 
thinks  more  of  his  own  immediate  protit  than  of  the  general 
ffood  ;  a  man  who  transforms  ends  into  means.  Se  uses  his 
power  '  in  order  to  develop  the  Catholic,  to  the  detriment 
of  the  man  and  of  the  citizen.  He  uses  his  children  as  so 
many  players  of  the  ignoble  role  of  political  Mamelukes, 
'  traitors  to  their  party,  and  for  reasons  which  are  absolutely 
foreign  to  politics,  and  often  opposed  to  the  demands  of 
common  sense.'  And  then  we  are  told  that  the  Pope's 
policy  '  is  deficient  in  that  power  of  scent  which  is  so  usual 
with  Italian  diplomatists.'  This  deficiency  gives  color  '  to 
the  accusations  of  the  Pontiff's  enemies,  to  the  effect  that 
he  is  only  a  politic  courtier  toward  tiie  powerful,  despising 
the  weak,  abandoning  the  unfortunate.'  But  there  is  more  ; 
in  the  mind  of  this  anonymous  writer,  '  the  venerable  and 
well-beloved  superior '  is  a  monster  of  iniquity.  '  He  favors 
and  caresses  an  atheistic  government  (that  of  France),  every 
one  of  whose  acts  are  inspired  by  a  diabolical  hatred  for 
our  religion ;  and,  what  seems  to  be  almost  incredible,  he 
systematically  places  at  the  service  of  that  government  the 
most  noble  sentiments  of  Catholicism,  in  order  that  France 
may  continue  to  prosper,  and  to  insult  our  religion.'  " 

The  otherwise  Catholic  German  sympathizers  with  this 
doctrine,  most  of  whom  have  now  seen  their  mistake,  were 
very  eloquent  in  their  praises  of  the  orthodoxy  of  Austria- 
Hungary  ;  and  undoubtedly  that  empire  is  substantially 
Catholic,  and  some  of  its  institutions  still  bear  the  stamp  of 
Catholicity.  But  unfortunately,  Josephism,  Freemasonry, 
and  Judaism  have  too  frequently  and  too  extensively  tam- 
pered with  that  vast  governmental  machine  which  was  a  work 
of  the  Age  of  Faith.  In  our  day,  one  would  remain  within 
the  limits  of  truth,  if  he  asserted  that  the  Catholic  appear- 
ance of  Aany  of  the  Austrian  institutions,  and  the  external 
respect  for  religion  in  those  regions,  are  too  much  like  that 
which  a  shadow  is  to  a  substance  ;  in  fact,  we  may  apply  to 
the  religious  spirit  of  modern  Austria-Hungary  nearly  all 


240  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

that  we  have  predicated  of  that  same  spirit  in  modern 
Portugal  (1).  In  the  Haps  burg  empire,  as  Mgr.  T'Serclaes 
observes,  "  We  see  in  a  land  where  the  inhabitants  are  deeply 
religious,  and  where  the  legislation  appears  to  be  Catholic, 
nearly  all  the  journals  in  the  hands  of  Jews  or  of  other  ene- 
mies of  the  Church.  We  see  the  schools  delivered  to  a 
heterodox  neutrality,  under  the  control  of  atheistic  teachers. 
We  see  Catholic  interests  defended  in  parliament  only  by  a 
petty  number  of  champions,  who  are  badl}-  organized.  And 
we  see  a  clergy,  rich  indeed,  but  victims  of  an  inactivity  and 
a  powerlessness  which  are  astonishing  in  a  laud  where  there 
is  so  much  faith "  (2).  Such,  in  brief,  was  the  religious 
condition  of  Austria-Hungary  when  Leo  XIII.  ascended  the 
steps  of  the  papal  throne.  In  1888,  he  convoked  a  General 
Chapter  of  the  Benedictines,  so  powerful  in  those  regions. 
He  commanded  the  monks  to  legislate  for  an  exact  observance 
of  poverty  by  an  abolition  of  the  abuse  allowing  an  individ- 
ual Benedictine  to  have  his  own  peculmm  :  the  "  common 
life  "  was  to  include  meals,  all  exercises  of  piety,  and  the 
recreations  ;  the  monks  were  to  have  no  domestics  who  did 
not  belong  to  the  order.  The  Pontiff  also  extended  his 
reforming  hand  to  the  Franciscans,  who  are  very  numerous 
in  Austria-Hungary.  He  insisted  on  an  exact  observance  of 
their  rule  of  poverty  ;  the  friars  resisted,  and  the  entire 
Jewish  press  of  Vienna  and  Buda-Pesth  took  up  the  bad 
cause  with  virulent  attacks  on  Roman  despotism.  In  this 
contest  the  government  remained  neutral ;  but  it  did  not 
show  the   same   spirit  in   the    agitation   concerning   mixed 

(1)  See  our  Vol.  v.,  p.  267. 

(3)  Speaking  of  the  attitude  of  hesitancy  and  incoherency  which  seems  to  be  common 
among  modern  Austrian  Catholics,  Kannengieser  says:  "  It  is  well  known  that  energy 
is  not  their  dominant  virtue.  Subjugated  at  once  by  the  Jews  and  the  Liberals,  they  yield 
to  the  influence  of  the  air  that  they  breathe,  and  are  swept  along  by  the  current  that  is 
created  by  the  foes  of  the  Church.  They  should  have  a  thousand  motives  for  an  antipathy 
toward  that  official  Italy  which  has  deprived  them  of  Lombardy  and  Venice,  and  which 
foments  Irredentism  in  the  southern  provinces  of  the  empire.  Naturally  they  should 
sympathize  with  the  Holy  See  in  the  conflict  now  being  waged  between  the  Vatican  and 
the  Quirinal.  But  some  strange  play  of  fortune  has  ranged  the  Austrianson  the  side  of  the 
Revolution,  against  the  Papacy.  Of  course  I  do  not  speak  of  the  zenlous  Catholics  who 
hold  Congresses,  and  whose  number  increases  every  day.  The  diplomat  of  the  Contempo- 
rary Review  isastriking  proof  of  this  inexplicable  anomaly  ;  and  his  example  ought  toopen 
the  eyes  of  even  the  blindest.  Sympathy  for  revolutionary  Italy  is  dangerous.  The  cause 
of  the  Papacy  cannot  be  betrayed  with  impunity  in  favor  of  the  persecutors  of  the  Church  ; 
sooner  or  later,  the  felony  is  punished,  and  often  by  a  loss  of  faith." 


POPE  LEO   Xm.    AND   THE   AUSTRIAN   EMPIRE.  24l 

marriages,    wliicli   began,    or  rather  was   revived   iu  1890. 
The  reader  should  kuow  that  for  manj  years  a  Hungarian 
law,  sanctioned  by  that  government  which  certain  German 
Centrist  critics  of  the  Leonine  policy  would  have  us  regard 
as  "  very  orthodox,"  commanded  that  all  the  children  of  a 
mixed  marriage  should  be  educated,  according  to  their  sex, 
in  the  religion  of  the  father  or  of  the  mother.     Such  a  law 
no  Catholic  could  observe  ;  every  Catholic  knows  that  when 
the   Church    tolerates  a  mixed  marriage  she  does  so  only 
when  the  heretical  party  has  solemnly  promised  that  all  the 
resulting  offspring  shall  be  baptized  and  trained  as  Catholics. 
In  the  case  of  a  Hungarian  mixed  marriage,  before  the  year 
1890,  the  law  could  be  evaded,  whenever  the  heretical  party 
was    conscientious  ;    said    party    could    simply   avow  that 
he  or  she   wished   the  child   to   be  a  Catholic.     But   the 
Masonico-Jewish  element,  then  dominant  in  the  Hungarian 
governmental  councils,  decided  that  a  parent  should  not  have 
a  voice  in  the  religious  training  of  his  or  her  children,  unless 
perchance  the  wish  was  favorable  to  Satanism,  or  to  some- 
thing  of   similar   stamp.     Therefore,    in    1890,    Czaki,    the 
Hungarian  Minister  of  AVorship,  decreed  that  whenever  a 
Catholic  priest  baptized  the  offspring  of  a  mixed  man-iage, 
he  should  furnish  the  Protestant  minister  of  the  locality  a 
certificate  of  said  baptism  within  eight  days  ;  then,  iu  case 
the  priest  had  violated  the  law  by  baptizing  the  daughter  of 
a  Protestant  mother,  or  the  sou  of  a  Protestant  fatlier,  the 
government,  by  means  of  the  intervention  of  the  Protestant 
minister,    would    see   that   the  infant  received   a    Protest- 
ant  training.     Instantly   there    was  a  conflict   between  the 
Church  and  the  State ;  no  Catholic  pastor  could  connive  at 
an  abandonment  of  a  Catholic  child  to  the  miseries  of  heresy, 
and  innumerable  priests  were    "  suspended  "  by  the-  secular 
autocrat,  and  sent  to  jail  for  a  mouth,  the  punishment  to  be 
repeated  for   every   new  offence.     Strange   to   say,   during 
nearl}'   the  whole  of  this   conflict   there  were  found  many 
bishops  who  regarded,  or  feigned  to  regard  as  a  mepe  "  civil  " 
act  that  which  was  demanded  by  the  government ;  but  the 
holy   indignation  of  their  priests    forced   these  prelates  to 
retract  their  assertion,  and  Mgr.  Samassa,  the  archbishop  of 


t54:2  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Erlau,  was  sent  to  Kome  for  the  purpose  of  laying  the  xoJit- 
ter  before  the  Pontiff.  Tlie  infamous  Czaki  law  was  con- 
demned by  His  Holiness  ;  and  this  condemnation  furnished 
the  German  Centrist  hypercritics  of  the  Leonine  policy  with 
material  for  their  charge  that  the  Pope  was  more  severe 
with  "  orthodox "  Austria-Hungary,  than  with  the  infidel 
French  Republic. 

The  contest  in  regard  to  mixed  marriages  in  Hungary 
began  with  the  introduction  of  Protestantism  into  the  King- 
dom of  St.  Stephen  ;  and  in  accordance  with  the  Catholic 
law  on  the  subject,  in  every  case  of  such  a  contract,  the 
Protestant  party  was  at  first  compelled  to  sign  a  promise, 
called  Beversalia,  whereby  he  or  she  engaged  to  educate  all 
the  resultant  children  in  the  Catholic  faith.  But  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  was  born  a  custom, 
among  Protestant  prospective  brides  of  Catholic  husbands, 
of  exacting  from  their  too  frequently  subservient  swains  a 
document  of  Beversalia  drawn  up  in  favor  of  heresy.  In 
vain  Maria  Theresa  prohibited  this  practice  ;  and  when  that 
would-be  philosopher,  the  "  sacristy-sweep  "  Joseph  II.,  as- 
cended the  throne  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  one  of  his 
first  acts  as  King  of  Hungary  was  to  publish  what  he 
styled  an  "  Edict  of  Toleration,"  whereby  he  abolished  the 
Beversalia,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant,  and  decreed  that 
whenever  a  Catholic  woman  espoused  a  Protestant,  only  her 
daughters  were  necessarily  to  be  raised  as  Catholics.  Even 
this  wicked  concession  did  not  satisfy  the  Protestants  of 
Hungary.  They  continually  distorted  the  edict  so  as  to 
procure  greater  latitude  for  themselves  ;  and  in  a  decree  of 
May  24,  1782,  the  imperial  weakling  complained  of  their 
"  abominable  impudence."  But  his  disgust  did  not  prevent 
Joseph  II.  from  sanctioning,  in  1790,  a  law  which  declared 
that  sons  of  a  Protestant  father  and  a  Catholic  mother 
might  be  educated  as  Protestants— a  provision  which  was 
immediately  distorted  by  interpreting  the  might  as  m^ist,  and 
which  was  actuated  in  that  sense  wherever  and  whenever 
the  Protestant  element  was  sufficiently  strong.  During  the 
years  which  elapsed  between  the  death  of  Joseph  II.  ( 1790  ) 
and  the  year  1840,  the  Hungarian  clergy   were   almost  uni- 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   THE    AUSTRIAN    EMPIRE.  243 

versally  derelict  in  this  matter;  instead  of  insisting  on  tlie 
lieversalia,  most  of  them  asked  for  no  promise  whatever  in 
regard  to  the  future  progeny,  when  they  were  about  to  offi- 
ciate at  a  mixed  marriage.  But  in  1840,  thanks  to  the  en- 
ergy of  Mgr.  Seitowsky,  bishop  of  Kosnavia  (llosenau), 
ami  of  Mgr.  Lajtsak,  bishop  of  Nagy-Varad  (Grosswar- 
deiu),  the  clergy  began  to  observe  the  laws  of  the  Church. 
Quite  naturally,  the  revolution  of  1848  confirmed  and  ex- 
tended all  the  losses  which  the  Church  had  thus  far  suffered 
in  Hungary.  But  the  Catholics  found  no  reason  for  com- 
plaint in  the  Twelve  Points,  voted  on  March  15,  whereby 
all  religions  were  pronounced  free  and  equal  (1)  ;  although 
indeed  it  seemed  strange  that  the  Greek  Schismatics  and 
the  Protestants  should  be  entirely  autonomous  in  their  re- 
ligious affairs,  while  the  Latin  and  Greek  Catholics  were 
kept  in  a  state  of  dependence  on  the  State.  We  have  said 
that  in  1840  the  Hungarian  clergy  began  to  observe  the  law 
of  the  Church  concerning  mixed  marriages ;  but  unfortu- 
nately this  beginning  was  neither  universal  nor  hearty. 
Often  the  Catholic  party  to  a  mixed  marriage  gave  to  the 
Protestant  one  Reversalia  couched  in  the  Protestant  sense, 
and  the  pastor  closed  his  eyes  to  the  fact ;  the  bishops  were 
just  as  conveniently  blind,  and  naturally  the  priests  did 
not  feel  that  they  should  be  more  courageous  than  their 
prelates  (2).  Such  a  state  of  affairs  should  have  satisfied 
the  Hungarian  Protestants;  but  in  1868,  thanks  to  the 
Dualism  which  rendered  the  Austrian  laws  against  Free- 
masonry inoperative  in  the  Kingdom   of   Hungary  (3),   the 

(1)  In  Hungary  some  reliRions  are  "  received  "  or  recognized  by  the  State,  while  others 
are  not  "  received,"  but  tolerated.  Before  1848  there  were  three  *'  received  "  Churches  ; 
the  Catholic,  the  Greek  "  Orthodox,"  and  the  Protestant.  The  Church  of  the  United 
Greek  Bite' was  recognized  in  1848. 

(2)  Kannengieser  ;  Jcu-n  and  Catholics  in  Awtria- Hungary,  p.  213.     Paris.  1W5. 
(.S)  The  fact  of  these  laws  existing  on  the  statute-books  of  Austria  must  not  lead  the 

student  to  believe  that  Freemasonry  has  been  seriously  and  permanently  hampereii  in  that 
empire  since  the  sect  fell  under  the  ban  of  the  Church.  But  when  the  Hungarian  author- 
ities practically  recognized  the  Masonic  Order  as  a  benetlcent  and  civilizing  agency,  they 
lifted  to  the  plane  of  respectability  a  sect  which  the  weak  amonir  the  good  had  avoldetl, 
but  which  the  same  lukewarm  Christians  might  thereafter  join.  A  brief  description  of  the 
rise  and  progress  of  Masonry  in  Austria-Hungary  will  be  of  value  to  the  reader.  Francis 
I.,  the  husband  of  Mary  Theresa,  allowed  a  few  Masonic  Lodges  to  be  established  in  bis 
dominions  ;  and  during  the  reign  of  Joseph  H..  in  1770,  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Germany, 
established  in  Berlin,  sent  a  delegate,  Sudthausen,  to  afHllate  these  lyodges  to  itself.  This 
delegate  was  received  in  audience  by  the  philosophlslic  emperor,  and  he  succeeded  in 


244  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Judaeo-Protestant  element  became  so  influential  in  the  Hun- 
garian parliament,  that  it  was  able  to  procure  the  passage 
of  a  law  declaring :  "  All  the  male  children  of  a  mixed 
marriage  must  follow  the  religion  of   their   father,   and   all 

the   daughters   the    religion    of    their    mother Every 

arrangement  contrary  to  this  law,  let  it  be  of  any  nature  what- 
soever, is  null  and  void."  Instead  of  protesting  against 
this  iniquitous  enactment,  nearly  all  the  bishops  of  Hungary, 
whose  "orthodoxy"  the  German  critics  of  our  Pontiff's 
policy  so  earnestly  extol,  followed  the  example  of  Cardinal 
Haynald,  the  intimate  friend  of  the  Minister  of  Worship, 
Baron  Eotvos,  in  affecting  to  credit  the  assurance  of  that 
statesman  that  the  enactment  was  of  no  practical  importance, 
and  would  not  be  enforced.  "  With  the  exception  of  Cardinal 
Simor  (archbishop  of  Gran)  and  his  friends,"  said  Kannen- 
gieser  in  1895,  "  none  of  the  Hungarian  prelates  seemed  to 

inspirint;  the  conceited  sovereiffn  with  an  idea  of  rivalling  Frederick  \1.  of  Prussia  as  a 
protector  of  a  glorious  and  powerful  order.  During  the  next  quarter  of  a  century.  Masonry 
developed  in  the  Austrian  empire  so  well,  that  in  1794  there  were  forty-flve  Lodges  of  the 
different  rites  (See  the  ZirkeU  organ  of  the  Lodge  Humanitas  in  Vienna,  July  1,  1874). 
But  Joseph  II.  was  disappointed  in  his  protegees.  The  war  with  Turkey,  which  disturbed 
his  last  years,  was  the  work  of  the  Dark  Lantern,  having  been  excited  by  the  Prussian 
adept,  Herzberg  in  concert  with  the  English  premier,  Pitt.  At  the  same  time,  the  leader 
of  the  Hungarian  Masons,  Count  Iforgatzck,  went  to  Berlin  In  order  to  prepare  with 
Herzberg  a  Hungarian  insurrection  ;  and  he  was  aided  by  the  lUuminati,  then  guided  by 
Martinowiez,  the  provost  of  ffidenburg  (See  the  Univeriial  Biograpltu  of  Michaud,  art. 
Martinowkz).  In  1789.  Joseph  II.  tried  in  vain  to  undo  his  foolish  work  by  subjecting 
the  Lodges  to  police  surveillance.  In  1794,  Francis  II.  prohibited  the  order  absolutely,  and 
exacted  from  every  public  functionary  an  oath  that  he  belonged  to  no  secret  society. 
Probably  it  was  to  this  act  of  Francis  II.  that  the  peoples  of  the  Austrian  Empire  owe,  to  a 
very  great  extent,  their  preservation  of  the  faith  to  this  day  ;  certainly  it  was  to  this  act 
that  was  due  the  origin  of  the  Masonic  watchword,  "  Dcleuda  at  Austria,'''  the  motto 
which  was  to  be  proclaimed  when  success  had  attended  the  cry,  "  Lilia  pedibus  destrue." 
This  interdiction  of  Masonry  persisted  throughout  the  reigns  of  Francis  II.  and  of  Ferdi- 
nand I.  ;  but  the  order  subsisted  by  means  of  students,  piofessors,  merchants,  and  others 
whose  travels  enabled  them  to  join  foreign  Lodges,  especially  those  of  Prussia  and  Saxony. 
Imnwdiately  after  the  revolution  of  1848,  a  Lodge  was  instituted  in  Vienna,  and  was  en- 
titled St.  Jogeph  ;  its  Venerable  was  a  professor  in  the  Academy  of  Engineers,  Dr.  Ludwlg 
Lewis.  But  the  restoration  of  the  empire  brought  a  revival  of  the  antl-Masonlc  edicts,  and 
the  brethren  were  obliged,  for  a  time,  to  work  in  the  dark.  In  1866  came  the  promise  of 
;rlorious  days  for  the  Brethren  of  the  Three  Points  ;  Sadowa  filled  them  with  a  joy  which 
they  cared  not  to  conceal.  Immediately  they  began  a  combat  against  the  Church,  which 
was  frustrated  only  by  the  will  of  Francis  Joseph  (See  Deschamps,  Secret  Societies,  Bk. 
li.,  ch.  11)  ;  and  by  means  of  the  press  of  Vienna,  every  journal  of  which,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Vaterland,  had  succumbed  to  their  gold  or  promises,  they  began  a 
campaign  for  the  uniflcation  of  Germany  under  the  aegis  of  the  HohenzoUern.  In  this 
latter  task  they  were  assisted  by  the  gold  of  the  Jews,  natural  foes  of  the  Christian 
name,  and  therefore  partisans  of  everything  which  promised  to  injure  the  Church  which  is 
the  sole  effective  champion  of  that  name.  The  ministry  of  the  Saxon,  Von  Beust,  sup- 
pressed the  oath  against  secret  societies  which  the  public  oQlcials  were  then  still  obliged  to 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND  THE   AUSTRIAN   EMPIRE.  245 

comprehend  the  aggressive  nature  of  the  fatal  hiw  of  1808, 
None  suspected  that  it  was  to  be  the  basis  for  an  implacable 
war  against  the  Catholics.  For  more  than  twenty  years 
the  Masonic  Lodges,  inspired  by  the  Jews,  took  advantage 
of  this  law  in  order  to  harass  the  Church,  and  to  in- 
aufrurate  that  Hnu'^arian  '  War  for  Civilization '  which  has 
just  entered  into  its  decisive  phase.  This  law  was  a  tem- 
porary weapon,  used  by  the  Masons  until  the  day  when, 
throwing  off  their  hypocritical  disguise,  they  attacked  every 
Christian  denomination  with  their  Bill  for  the  introduction  of 
Civil  Marriage." 

The  credit  of  this  enterprise  of  Civil  Matrimony  for  the 
Hungarians  belongs  to  Koloman  Tisza,  who  became  Minis- 
ter of  the  Interior  in  the  Wentheim  cabinet  in  1875,  and  of 
whom  the  chief  Protestant  organ  in  Germany,  the  Krenzzei- 
tnng,  was  to  say,  ere  long,  that  he  was  "the  great  intriguer 
who  systematically  sowed  the  seeds  of  evil  which  have 
already  produced  such  frightful  crops."  In  order  to  actuate 
his  infernal  design,  this  "  Calvinist  Pope,"  as  he  was  styled, 
relied  on  two  allies  who  were  worthy  of  him— Freemasonry 

take  ;  and  although  the  statutes  still  prohibited  Masonry,  there  was  formed  in  Prasrue  a 
'•  society  "—it  was  not  termed  a  "  Lod(?e  "-entitled  AmUitia.  The  Lodge  Humanitds 
of  Vienna  begau  to  hold  Its  meetings  at  Neudorff.  in  Hungary  ;  and  it  was  offlciully  recog- 
nized by  the  Hungarian  authorities  in  1872.  Already,  in  1869,  this  Lodge  had  begun  to 
publish  its  offlcial  journal,  the  Zirkd  or  •'  The  Compass."  Other  Masonic  organizations, 
however  did  not  feel  the  need  of  taking  Hungary  as  a  base  of  operations  ;  at  first  in 
Vienna  and  then  in  many  other  provinces,  there  vrere  \nsmnteA  lutcrnatinnal  Circles 
nf  Fnemaxom,  the  organ  of  which  was  the  AlUiemeine  (Extcrremhe  Freimaurer 
Zi'ituiig  When  the  year  1874  arrived,  the  Cisleithan  provinces  of  the  empire  counted  ten 
diHerent  Masonic  "  societies  "  ;  and  although  the  emperor  succeeded  sometimes  in  com- 
pelling his  ministers  to  check  the  growing  audacity  of  the  brethren,  we  find  the  Hmvie 
d'Union  in  1881  (p.  437).  quoting  the  Zirkd  of  recent  date  to  prove  that  Masonry  was 
then  very  active  in  the  realm  of  the  Hapsburgs.  As  for  Masonry  in  Hungary,  1848  saw  a 
Lodge  called  Ko^-uth  established  in  Pesth  ;  and  in  1861,  a  new  Lodge  was  projected,  but 
not  founded,  by  Edward  Caroly.  Stephen  Estherasy,  Julian  Teleky.  Bela  Bay.  George 
Coraaromy,  and  the  two  counts.  Theodore  and  Coloman  Czaky.  Not  until  the  campaign  of 
Sadowa  had  been  fought,  however,  did  Masonry  make  much  progress  in  the  Kingdom  of 
St  Stephen  ;  then  the  constitution  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  enabled  the  brethren  to  show 
themselves  In  the  light  of  day,  and  very  soon  the  sect  attained  to  the  dignity  of  a  quasi- 
offlcial  position  in  the  State.  Thus  in  1874  the  Minister  of  Finance  deliberately  addressed 
the  Grand  Orient  of  Pesth.  asking  it  to  contribute  to  the  expenses  of  the  charitable  institu- 
tions of  the  capiUl.  and  the  Zirhrl  congratulate.1  the  brethren  on  the  governmental 
recognition  of  the  order  as  a  social  force.  The  policy  of  Hungarian  Masonry  needs  no 
elucidation  :  the  history  of  the  last  thirty  years  shows  the  significance  of  the  following 
words  emitted  bv  the  Chaine  cVUnion  in  March.  1874  :  "  Thanks  to  the  activity  of  our 
brethren  who  now  occupy  the  highest  political  positions,  we  are  confident  that  we  shal. 
destroy  the  influence  of  that  Ultramontantsm  which  has  hitherto  dominated  the  reigning 
H..u«e  of  Hapsburg  ;  and  success  in  that  matter  will  enable  us  to  ,;,}iuht>n  Austria." 


246  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTOK'X 

and  the  Jews.  "  With  the  aid  of  these  two  forces,"  says 
Kannengieser,  "  he  felt  sure  of  victory  oveir  Catholicism  ;  it 
was  certain  that  he  could  count  on  their  t'licrough  devotion. 
The  Lodges  regarded  him  as  an  excellent  instrument ;  and 
the  Jews  seemed  to  recognize  in  him  flesh  of  their  flesh, 
blood  of  their  blood.  And  indeed  there  must  have  coursed 
some  Israelitic  blood  in  the  veins  of  this  arrogant  Calvinist 
with  manners  which  were  now  falsely  humble,  and  then 
rabidly  impertinent.  When  one  saw  hiia  in  the  tribune 
with  his  tall  but  bent  figure,  his  white  beard  covering  his 
breast,  his  emaciated  countenance,  his  frame  wrapped  in 
dirty  and  threadbare  garments ;  and  when  one  heard  him 
snuffling  a  dull  and  monotonous  discourse  ;  one  felt  that  a 
Jew  had  awakened  in  the  Magyar,  after  a  sleep  of  many 
generations."  Scarcely  had  Tisza  entered  the  Wentheim 
cabinet,  than  he  became  President  of  the  Council ;  and  in  this 
capacity  he  scourged  Hungary  for  fifteen  years,  substituting 
everywhere  the  Judgeo-Masonic  for  Catholic  influences,  and 
trying  with  diabolic  persistency  to  un-Christianize  the  an- 
cient "  Marianic  Kingdom."  One  of  his  most  impudent  es- 
says was  his  Bill  providing  for  the  "  Marriages  of  Jews  with 
Christians  " — a  Bill  which  might  have  produced  the  desired 
effects,  without  any  mention  of  his  Jewish  protectors  in  its 
title,  but  which  intentionally  blazoned  the  fact  that  at  length 
the  Israelite  was,  in  very  truth  the  superior  of  the  Magyar, 
In  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  the  members  of  which  had  been 
"  elected  "  under  the  law  of  1876,  which  was  a  mere  engine  for 
ministerial  corruption,  the  Bill  met  but  little  opposition  ;  but 
in  the  Upper  House  it  was  rejected.  Then  the  Judseo-Calvin- 
ist  "  reformer  "  undertook  to  change  radically  the  composition 
of  the  Upper  House ;  he  succeeded  in  1883,  and  found  him- 
self assured  of  a  servile  majority  for  all  of  his  anti-Christian 
projects.  Little  by  little  he  now  "  laicized  "  the  University 
of  Buda-Pesth,  appointing  free-thinkers  to  all  the  chairs ; 
he  confided  the  administration  of  ecclesiastical  property  to 
Freemasons  ;  and  nearly  all  the  governmental  offices  were 
filled  with  Protestants  and  Jews,  preferably  with  the  lat- 
ter. In  1879  the  law  of  1868  on  mixed  marriages  was  rein- 
forced with  tliis  disposition  :  "  Whoever,   in    opposition   to 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND   THK    AUSTRIAN    EMPIRE.  '247 

the  provisions  of  tlio   law   of   ISOS,    receives   iuto  auother 
religious  deiioniination  a  iiiiuor  of  less  than  eighteen  years 
of  age,  is  liable  to  a  jjenaltj  which  may  be  imprisonment 
for  two  mouths,  ami  a  tine    of  300    florins."     Fortunately 
the   Hungarian    magistracy  had  not  been,   as  yet,    so    far 
Masonicized  or  Judaicized  as  to  willingly  obey  the   behests 
of  the  triumphant  sectarians  ;  and  in  the  many  hundreds  of 
eases  where    the    governmental    police  and   the  Protestant 
ministers  dragged  Catholic  pastors  before  the   tribunals  to 
answer  for  the  "  crime  "  of  having  baptized   the   child  of  a 
mixed  marriage,  the  accused  were  immediatelv  dismissed. 
The  law  of  1879,  contended  the  magistrates,  did  not  cover 
the  case  of  baptism.     It  spoke  of  a  conversion,  of  a  passage 
from  one  Christian  denomination  to  another — a  thing  which 
does  not  happen  in  the  baptism  of  a  babe,  since  before  his 
baptism  an  infant  belongs  to  no  Christian  denomination  what- 
soever, being  as  yet  a  pagan.     Until  1890  the  Tisza  cabinet  did 
no  more  than  fidminate  menaces  against  the  Catholic  pastors  ; 
but  being  determined  to  attain  distinction  in  his  "  War  for 
Civilization,"  the  President  of  the  Council  finally  called  to 
his  aid  Count  Albinus  Czakj,  a  man  whose  hatred  for  the 
Catholic  clergy  was  notorious  (1).     Having  been  appointed 
Minister  of  Worship,  Czaky  issued,   on  Feb.  26,  1890,  the 
rescript  which  ordered  every  priest  to  deliver  to  the  Prot- 
estant pastor  of  the  locality,  within  eight  days,  a  certificate 
of  each  baptism  conferred  by   him  on  children    of   mixed 
marriages.     The   decree  also  enjoined  that  all  recalcitrant 
priests  should  be  taken,  not  before  the  ordinary  magistrates, 
but  before  the  prefect  of  police,  who  would  be,  of  course,  a 
creature  of  the  cabinet  of  the  day.     The  reader  may  imagine 
the  consternation  of  such  of  the  Catholic  clergy  as  were  de- 
termined to  do  their  duty.     If  they  obeyed  the  law,  and  gave 
to  the  Protestant  ministers  the  certificates  demanded,  by 
that  very  fact  they  proclaimed,  according  to  the  law,  that  the 
children  in  question  were  Protestants  ;  and  from   the  dawn 
of  reason  in  those  children,  they  would  be  obliged  to  attend 
Protestant  schools,  and  to  receive  consequently  an  heretical 

fl)  Czaky  was  nominally  a  Cathollr  ;  but  from  his  motlHT,  a  Slovak  Liilheran,  he  had 
•  mblbed  a  strong  prejudice  agaltiSt  the  Church,  and  furthermore,  his  wife  was  a  CalFluisl 


248  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH   HISTORY. 

education.  By  this  official  declaration  of  war  against  the 
Catholic  Church,  the  "  Calviuist  Pope  "  had  gained  a  great 
triumph  ;  but  his  official  participation  in  the  ensuing  com- 
bat was  of  short  duration,  for  scarcely  had  the  rescript 
been  communicated  to  the  bishops,  when  a  ministerial  crisis 
deprived  him  of  power.  Tisza  had  foreseen,  shrewd  politi- 
cian as  he  was,  that  at  any  moment  he  might  be  relegated  to 
private  life ;  and  it  was  with  the  design  of  leaving  a  succes- 
sor who  would  prosecute  his  plans,  that  he  had  brought 
Czaky  into  the  cabinet.  But  when  the  feeble  Francis 
Joseph  was  requested  to  charge  Czaky  with  the  task  of 
forming  a  new  ministry,  the  monarch  strangely  dared  to 
prefer  another  deputy  of  the  Liberal  majority,  Count  Julius 
Szapary,  a  Moderate  of  the  school  of  Deak.  Czaky,  however, 
was  retained  in  the  cabinet,  and  the  spirit  of  Tisza  contin- 
ued to  predominate.  Szapary  was  a  gentleman  in  every 
proper  sense  of  the  term,  a  man  of  experience,  loyal  to  his 
country  and  to  his  sovereign,  and  desirous  of  being  faithful 
to  the  Church.  Throughout  his  administration  he  proved 
that  his  own  intentions  were  of  the  best ;  and  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  if  the  Hungarian  bishops  had  been  men 
of  the  school  of  Sts.  Hilary  and  Thomas  a  Becket,  and 
not  of.  the  school  of  Febronius,  he  would  have  dismissed 
the  representative  of  the  Judseo-Calvinists,  and  his  suc- 
cess in  regard  to  ecclesiastical  matters  would  have  equalled 
that  of  his  civil  administration  (1).  It  cannot  be  supposed 
that  the  Hungarian  prelates  favored  mixed  marriages 
in  their  hearts ;  we  must  believe  that  some  of  them 
were  actuated  by  a  desire  of  pleasing  the  government  from 
which  they  expected  promotion  and  other  honors,  and  that 
others  were  merely  animated  by  a  desire  of  avoiding  every 
uncomfortableness.     By  whatever  motives  they  were  guided, 

(1)  During  the  administration,  or  rather  dictatorship  of  Tisza.  the  Lutheran  Saxons  of 
Transylvania  were  the  objects  of  an  oppression,  on  the  part  of  his  Judso-Calvinist  func- 
tionaries, which  was  said  to  have  been  more  unendurable  than  the  much-decried  system  of 
Gessler  in  Switzerland.  Pre-eminent  among  these  functionaries  was  the  distiDguished 
ex-Garibaldian,  Gabriel  Bethlem  ;  and  when  Szapary  became  premier,  he  deprived  Belh- 
lem,  Desiderius  Banffy,  and  other  petty  tyrants, of  theirofflces.  The  Saxons,  in  fine,  were 
treated  so  justly  by  Szapary,  that  they  left  the  ranks  of  the  opposition,  and  joined  the 
governmental  majority.  Szapary  was  equally  successful  with  the  Serbs  of  Hungary,  who 
had  been  oppressed  by  Tisza.  Had  time  permitted,  he  would  have  gained  the  sympathies 
of  the  Roumanians. 


row.    I.KO    XIII.    AND    THK    Al'STRIAN    EMTIRE.  '21'.> 

when  tliey  met  iu  couiereuce,  ou  April  12, 18iK),  in  the  pahice 
of  Canliujil  Simor  at  Ofeu,  the  priiuate  was  iininediately 
couviuoed  that  the  majority  of  his  colleagues  were  supporters, 
if  not  accomplices,  of  the  Judiuo-Calvinist  cabal,  Simor  sug- 
gested a  collective  protest  from  all  the  bishops  to  the  Minister 
of  Worship;  but  he  found  that  m)ue  shared  his  apostolic 
seutiments.  Would  that  the  firmness  of  Cardinal  Simor  had 
been  ecpially  apostolic!  His  weakness  induccnl  him  to  con- 
sent to  the  miserable  compromise  of  sending  a  circular  to  all 
the  pastors,  eujoiuiug  a  submission  to  the  ministerial  re- 
script, until  the  Holy  See  should  decide  in  the  matter.  "When 
this  circular  was  received  by  the  clergy,  they  must  have  felt 
as  though  their  prelates  had  ordered  them  to  commit  murder 
until  the  Pontiff  interfered  for  the  safety  of  their  victims. 
But  the  pastors  had  been  taught  by  a  sad  experience  of  the 
results  of  the  law  of  1868  ;  and  now  they  were  almost  a  unit 
in  their  determination  to  obey  the  laws  of  the  Church.  More 
than  a  hundred  meetings  of  the  clergy  were  held  throughout 
the  kingdom,  and  nearly  unanimous  resolutions  for  resistance 
were  adopted — a  declaration  of  righteous  insubordination, 
to  which  the  supine  or  recreant  bishops  w'ere  obliged  by  mere 
decency  to  close  their  eyes.  The  primate  now  asked  the 
Holy  See  to  decide  two  questions  which  could  have  been 
properly  and  immediately  decided  by  the  veriest  tyro  iu  his 
seminary  :  "  Could  the  Hungarian  clergy  obey  the  rescript  of 
February,  1890 ;  and  could  the  bishops  grant  dispensations 
for  mixed  marriages,  while  that  rescript  remained  in  force  ?  " 
On  July  7,  Cardinal  EampoUa  replied  in  the  negative  to  both 
of  these  questions  ;  and  the  prelates  were  told  to  communi- 
cate the  decision  to  all  their  parochial  clergy,  "  so  that  they 
might  understand  how  much  the  law  of  1868  and  the  rescript 
of  1890  were  at  variance  with  Catholic  principles."  Had 
the  cardinal-primate  obeyed  the  order  of  the  Holy  See,  it  is 
very  improbable  that  Czaky  and  his  comrades  would  have 
lifted  the  gauntlet  which  he  would  thus  have  flung  at  their 
feet.  Czaky  gave  proof  of  an  unwillingness  or  unreadiness 
to  have  the  issue  thus  neatly  drawn  ;  he  rushed  at  once  to 
Vienna,  and  prevailed  on  Francis  Joseph  to  bring  his  im- 
perial influence  to  bear  on  Simor,  in  the  interests  of  teinpor- 


i50  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

ization.  The  monarch  yielded ;  the  primate  temporized  ;  the 
Koman  decisions  were  not  published.  Meanwhile,  Czaky 
was  engineering  for  a  certain  majority  in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  ;  and  in  November  his  friends  adopted  a  motion 
declaring  the  legality  of  the  law  of  1868.  The  House  of 
Magnates  was  to  act  on  the  motion  on  December  18  ;  and  the 
primate  suddenly  resolved  to  publish  the  pontifical  decisions 
in  time  for  the  members  to  learn  their  duty.  He  convoked 
the  bishops  for  a  meeting  on  December  16,  intending  to 
present  for  their  signatures  an  already  prepared  collective 
pastoral  which  would  dutifully  promulgate  the  papal  pro- 
nouncement ;  and  it  was  understood  that  from  his  place  in 
the  House  of  Magnates,  on  the  day  of  the  discussion.  His 
Eminence  would  defend  the  Catholic  position.  The  meeting 
of  the  bishops  was  held,  but  no  decisions  were  published ; 
the  Upper  House  discussed  the  Czaky  measure,  but  the 
cardinal-primate  remained  mute.  On  the  previous  day,  the 
imperial  influence,  again  invoked  by  Czaky,  had  persuaded 
Simor  to  continue  in  what  his  apologists  term  the  path  of 
temporization,  but  which  nearly  approached  the  broad  and 
headlong  road  of  disobedience  to  the  pontifical  authority. 
In  accordance  with  the  attitude  of  their  primate.  Count 
Zichy  and  Bishop  Schlauch,  in  behalf  of  the  Catholic  party 
—the  immense  majority — in  the  House  of  Magnates,  declined 
"  to  discuss  the  religious  question  "  ;  and  Czaky  triumphed. 
Four  weeks  afterward,  the  otherwise  pious  and  zealous  Car- 
dinal Simor  ceased  to  be  tempted  to  temporization;  and 
Czaky  assigned  the  administration  of  the  primatial  office  to 
Mgr.  Samassa,  archbishop  of  Erlau,  trusting  that  the  Holy 
See  would  confer  the  primacy  itself  on  one  who  had  been 
hitherto  as  wax  in  his  hands.  But  Mgr.  Samassa  was  to  be 
of  little  service  thereafter  to  the  Judaeo-Calvinist  conspira- 
tors ;  in  the  first  place,  because  the  task  now  became  repug- 
nant to  his  instincts  or  to  his  conscience,  and  secondly, 
because  the  priests  and  the  laity  had  now  taken  the  great 
matter  into  their  own  hands.  Throughout  the  kingdom  the 
parish  priests  had  preferred  imprisonment  to  priestly 
degradation  ;  and  in  the  elections  of  1892,  the  people  showed 
that  such  devotion  was   appreciated.     As   for  the   appoint- 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND    THE    AUSTRIAN    KMriHE.  251 

ment  of  Mgr,  Samassa  t()  the  priinatial  see  of  Gran,  the 
Holy  See  was  superior  to  all  the  inmiinerable  iiitrif^uos 
whifh  were  devised  iu  the  politico-ecclesiastical  circles  of 
Hungary  in  order  to  effect  that  purpose ;  and  after  ten  months 
of  consideration,  the  Pontiff  ajipointed  an  almost  unknown 
Benedictine  monk,  Nicholas  Yaszary,  the  abbot  of  the  mon- 
astery of  Martinsberg. 

On  Nov.  22,  1802,  the  Jud.Bo-Calvinists  having  resolved 
to  free  themselves  from  even  the  htissez-faire  Catholicism  of 
Count  Szapary,  a  new  cabinet,  under  the  presidency  of 
Weckerle,  a  creature  of  Tisza,  undertook  to  govern  Hungary. 
Weckerle  was  a  Rationalistic  Lutheran,  and  a  German. 
Three  of  his  colleagues,  Szilagyi,  Count  Louis  Tisza,  and 
Count  Bethlem,  were  bitter  Calvinists  ;  the  others  did  not 
profess  Calvinism,  but  they  owed  their  political  advance- 
ment to  the  Lodges  and  to  Tisza.  The  new  cabinet  imme- 
diately announced  its  programme  to  the  Chambers.  They 
were  to  consider  projects  for  the  entire  emancipation  of  the 
Jews  (1),  for  freedom  of  worship,  and  above  all,  for  com])ul- 
sory  civil  marriage.  The  first  and  second  articles  of  the 
programme  caused  no  sensation ;  but  when  the  third  was 
announced,  the  leader  of  the  Nationalists,  Count  Albert 
Apponyi,  declared  that  his  party  would  be  found  in  opposi- 
tion. Three  of  the  most  influential  among  the  ministerial 
deputies,  among  whom  was  an  ex-president  of  the  Chamber, 
Pechy,  curator  of  the  Evangelicals  in  Hungary,  announced 
their  abandonment  of  the  Liberal  party,  because  they 
regarded  civil  marriage  as  injurious  to  society.  But  this 
parliamentary  opposition  was  comparatively  trivial,  when 
the  conspirators  contemplated  the  horror  excited  among  the 
populations  of  the  kingdom  by  their  designs  against  the 
sanctity  of  the  marriage  tie.  Perhaps  the  Tisza  clique  was 
not  surprised  when  the  Greek  Schismatics  showed  them- 
selves no  less  hostile  than  the  Latin  and  Greek  Catholics  to 


(1)  The  reader  must  remember  that  France  was  the  (Irst  country  in  Europe  to  (rrant  civil 
rights  to  the  Jews.  She  elTected  this  enfranchisement  by  a  decree  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly  on  Sept.  27,  1791.  Denmark  followed  in  1849;  England  in  1819  and  I8.'>«  ;  Austria- 
Hungary  In  1867  ;  Italy  In  1869  and  1H70  ;  (iermany  in  1869  and  M71  ;  Switzerland  in  1866 
And  1874  ;  and  Bulgaria  In  1878  and  1879.  As  yet,  Russia,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Roumani* 
do  not  se«  tbeir  way  to  this  enfranchisement. 


252  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

its  pet  measure  ;  but  even  the  Lutherans,  especially  th© 
Saxons  of  Transylvania,  although  their  deputies  had  joined 
hands  with  the  Szapary  cabinet,  insisted  on  preserving 
their  traditional  matrimonial  legislation.  Of  course  the 
Catholics,  against  whom  the  design  was  specially  aimed, 
were  more  sensitive  than  others  to  the  indignity  with  which 
they  were  menaced ;  therefore  it  is  not  strange  that  when 
the  primate  convoked  the  bishops  for  the  consideration  of  a 
plan  of  action,  the  hitherto  negligent  prelates  manifested  a 
proper  Catholic  zeal,  and  condemned  obligatory  civil  marriage 
as  a  profanation  of  a  Sacrament.  To  the  pastorals  which 
the  bishops  now  issued,  to  the  sermons  which  the  pastors 
preached,  to  the  murmurs  of  the  populations,  "Weckerle 
frequently  replied  in  the  parliament  that  he  would  not  aban- 
don his  design  ;  therefore  in  the  session  of  the  Upper  House, 
held  on  May  9,  1893,  on  the  motion  of  Count  Geza  Szapary, 
the  magnates  adopted,  by  a  majority  of  25  votes,  an  order 
of  the  day  which  severely  blamed  the  government.  Certainly 
there  was  hope  that  in  a  kingdom  where  the  Catholics 
numbered  ten  millions  to  the  three  millions  of  Protestants 
and  Jews  combined,  where  the  sovereign  and  the  Upper 
House  were  Catholic,  the  Catholic  cause  would  triumph.  But 
again  the  bishops  of  Hungary  were  derelict ;  after  the  emis- 
sion of  a  few  pastorals,  and  very  ordinary  discourses  in  the 
Upper  House  by  the  bishops  of  Yessprim  and  Nagy-Varad, 
the  prelates  relapsed  into  their  olden  lethargic  silence.  Seven 
months  after  the  episcopal  conference  which  had  excited  so 
many  consolatory  anticipations,  the  editor  of  the  KathoUkvs 
Szemie  of  Buda-Pesth  wrote  to  the  Abbe  Kannengieser  : 
"  What  did  we  not  hope  for  after  that  conference  at  Of  en  ? 
We  thought  that  on  the  horizon  we  perceived  an  aurora  of  a 
veritable  Catholic  renaissance.  And  to-day  all  that  enchant- 
ing mirage  has  vanished,  and  we  are  sunk  into  the  swamp 
up  to  the  necks.  Our  bishops  might  have  played  a  magnifi- 
cent part ;  they  were  sure  that  the  priests  and  the  people 
would  support  them.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  break  loose 
suddenly  from  a  compromising  past ;  Cardinal  Haynala 
mna  not  the  sole  bishop  7rho  had  relations  loith  the  Free- 
masons. . .  .When  such  is  the  state  of  affairs,  is  it  strange 


POPE  LEO  Xni.   AND  THE   AUSTRIAN   EMPIRE.  '^SS 

that  we  have  sunk  so  low  ;  that  tlie  euemies  of  tlie  Church 
dare  so  much,  since  they  can  rely  ujion  the  i-onnivance  of 
the  episcopate  ?  Wheuce  will  come  our  liberator  ?  If  the 
ardent  words  of  a  man  of  God  could  penetrate  into  our 
episcopal  chanceries,  rest  assured  that  happy  days  would 
soon  dawn  for  the  Kingdom  of  St.  Stephen."  Such  was  the 
emergency  which  incited  Leo  XIII.  to  write  his  Encyclical 
Con,sfa))fi  Huiujarorinii  in  1893  ;  and  he  took  care  to  date  it 
on  Sept.  2,  the  two  hundred  and  seventh  anniversary  of  the 
deliverance  of  Ofen  from  the  Turks.  We  give  a  synopsis 
of  this  important  document :  "  With  great  grief  we  have 
learned  that  besides  other  laws,  concerning  which  we  have 
already  complained  to  you  (1),  and  which  are  very  detri- 
mental to  the  Catholic  faith,  there  have  been  enacted  and 
enforced  among  the  Hungarians  ordinances  which  have 
entailed  grave  injury  on  the  Church  and  her  interests  ;  and 
if  we  may  judge  by  the  general  trend  of  political  aflfairs  in 
your  empire,  those  enactments  will  soon  cause  much  more 
damage  than  they  have  already  inflicted. ...  In  the  first  place, 
in  order  to  obviate  these  perils,  both  clergy  and  laity  must 
obey  the  Holy  See  in  all  things  ;  and  in  the  second  place, 
the  faithful  must  be  enjoined  to  avoid,  as  much  as  possible, 
the  evil  of  mixed  marriages,  so  dangerous  to  the  faith  of 
those  contracting  them."  Among  other  practical  instruc- 
tions, the  Pope  insists  on  a  better  education  of  the  people, 
in  both  the  religious  and  the  worldly  sense  ;  on  the  holding 
of  frequent  Catholic  Congresses,  and  on  the  immediate 
establishment  of  an  efficacious  Catholic  press.  "  The  time 
for  serious  eflforts  of  this  sort  lias  come  ;  cost  what  it  may, 
you  must  oppose  writings  to  writings,  if  you  desire  to  remedy 
the  evils  which  afflict  3-011 "  (2).  Speaking  of  catechetical  in- 
struction in  the  schools,  His  Holiness  insists  on  its  being 
given  by  the  pastors  themselves ;  "  and  do  not  think, '  he 
adds,  "  that  your  activity  in  the  development  of  your  schools 
has  been  so  great,  that  it  can  bear  no  increase."  Then  the 
Pontiff  turns  to  the  point  which  must  ever  occupy  a   tj.'"^ 

(1)  In  his  Encyclical  of  Aujr.  22,  188C. 

Ci)  At  this  time,  only  two  journals  in  Vienna,  the  Vatcrlnml  and  the  Dcut»-hA»iVulkM- 
hlatt,  were  not  either  owned  by  Jews,  or  edited  according  to  their  spirit. 


254:  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

eminent  position  in  a  Papal  Encyclical  which  deals  with 
wickedness  of  a  government,  for  which,  in  the  last  anal^^sis, 
the  people  are  responsible  :  "  The  good  example  of  a  priest 
is  weighty  indeed ;  therefore  let  each  one  of  your  clergy 
exhibit  himself,  to  the  eyes  of  his  people,  as  an  incarnation 
of  virtue  and  continence.  Let  no  priest  pay  more  atten- 
tion to  civic  and  political  matters,  than  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary. Undoubtedly,  as  St.  Gregory  the  Great  advises  us,  we 
ought  not  so  occupy  ourselves  with  the  interior  life,  as  to 
neglect  entirely  the  external ;  especially  when  there  is  a 
question  of  defending  religion,  or  of  furthering  the  gene- 
ral good — things  which  owe  ught  to  consider,  adopting  for 
their  attainment  all  the  proper  resources  which  may  be 
furnished  by  the  circumstances  of  time  and  place."  The 
Pope  lays  great  stress  on  the  folly  and  even  wickedness  of 
the  "  political  priest "  ;  and  he  fears  that  many  bishops  and 
priests,  under  a  pretext  of  the  prosperity  of  their  flocks, 
may  pay  more  attention  to  earthly  than  to  heavenly  things. 
"  Well  did  St.  Gregory  the  Great  say  :  '  For  the  sake  of 
charity,  we  may  sometimes  mingle  in  the  affairs  of  the 
world  ;  but  for  the  gratification  of  a  taste  for  them,  we 
should  never  approach  them,  lest  they  soil  our  minds,  drag 
us  down  by  their  weight,  and  cause  our  souls  to  prefer  them 
to  the  things  of  heaven '  (1).  ...  If  you  labor  energetically 
with  united  hearts  for  the  good  of  religion,  God  will  be  with 
you  ;  and  we  believe  that  you  will  have  the  support  of  your 
sovereign,  the  Apostolic  King,  who  has  given  so  many  proofs 
of  his  love  for  your  nation,  from  the  very  beginning  of  his 
reign."  In  this  Encyclical  the  Pontiff  showed  himself  as 
the  diplomat,  no  less  than  as  the  theologian  and  the 
shepherd  of  souls.  No  people  in  Christendom  are  so  jeal- 
ous of  foreign  interference  as  the  Hungarian ;  but  Leo  XIII. 
knew  how  to  respect  all  legitimate  susceptibilities,  while 
scorning  to  repress  the  reproof  which  had  been  merited  by 
iiie  sleeping  guardians  of  the  Temple.  He  opened  the  eyes 
of  the  Hungarian  bishops  tenderly  but  determinedly  ;  and  no 
unguarded  point  in  his  own  lines  of  defence  invited  the  attack 
of  the  Liberal  forces.    Henceforth  the  Liberal  press  could  not 

(1)  2.  Reg.  Past.,  H.,  ch.  7. 


POPE   LKO    XIII.    .\XD   THE   AUSTRIAN    EMPIRE.  255 

hope  that  simple  minds  ■would  credit  the  impudent  assertion 
chat  the  projected  ecclesiastical  laws  affected  no  dogmas 
of  the  Church  ;  that  even  the  bishops  regarded  the  prospect 
of  those  laws  with  a  well-justitied  equanimity. 

It  could  scarcely  be  expected  that  the  prelates  of  Hungary, 
hitherto  so  persistently  supine,  would  be  suddenly  trans- 
formed into  so  many  Lions  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah  ;  but  the 
arousing  effect  of  the  Encyclical  on  many  was  soon  visible. 
On  Dec.  7,  Mgr.  Zalka,  bishop  of  Raab,  sent  to  each  ot  his 
parish-priests  the  following  instruction  :  "  Write  to  the  dep- 
uty representing  your  district  that  he  must  resist  the  eccle- 
siastical policy  of  the  government.  Make  him  understand 
that  the  new  laws  will  entail  evils  much  greater  than  those 
which  the  government  hopes  to  avoid.  We  shall  never  aban- 
don the  principles  of  the  Church  of  St.  Stephen,  and  we  shall 
never  consent  to  the  imposition  of  Protestant  ecclesiastical 
law  on  more  than  nine  millions  of  Catholics.  Marriage  is  a 
Sacrament,  and  indissoluble  ;  the  Church  alone  can  legislate 
concerning  invalidating  impediments;  totlie  Church  alone  be- 
longs all  matrimonial  jurisdiction."  This  document  might 
have  been  imitated  with  great  advantage  to  their  cause  by 
the  other  prelates  of  Hungary  ;  but  they  preferred  to  emit  a 
collective  pastoral,  which  was  read  in  all  the  churches  on  Jan. 
6,  1894,  and  which  was,  indeed,  a  mastrely  instruction.  "  In 
presence  of  the  danger  threatening  our  flocks,  we  have  assem- 
bled before  the  holy  relics  of  our  King,  St.  Stephen,  in  order 
to  devise  means  for  the  dissipation  of  that  danger.  For  a 
long  time  the  Church  has  been  obliged  to  combat  a  legisla 
tion  which  ignored  the  rights  of  parents  concerning  the  souls 
of  their  children.  In  reply  to  our  protests,  there  have  been 
designed  new  measures  destined  to   rivet  more    firmly   the 

chains  which  had  been  placed  on  Catholic  consciences 

We,  the  bishops  of  Hungary,  have  pushed  our  condescen- 
sion and  our  conciliatory  spirit  to  the  uttermost  limits  ; 
and  now  we  find  that  we  can  go  no  further  in  that  path— 

that  we  must  defend  the  rights  of  the  Church It  is  the 

duty  of  the  faithful  to  fight  for  the  Church;  to  shirk 
that  obligation  is  a  proof  of  cowardice.  The  greatest  dan- 
ger for  the  Chur?h  is  in  the  apathy  of  her  children  ;  for 


256  STUDIES   IN    CHUflCH    HISTORY. 

such  indolence  forms  tlie  strength  of  her  adversaries.  TJn^ 
doubtedly,  the  gates  of  hell  will  never  prevail  against  the 
Church ;  but  through  the  fault  of  Catholics  entire  nations 
may  be  lost  to  her.  Therefore,  be  not  ashamed  of  the 
Gospel !  Arm  yourselves  for  the  liberty  of  your  religion  ; 
manifest  your  faith  bravely  ;  combat  perseveringly  ;  always 
showing,  however,  moderation  and  respect  for  the  civil 
authority.  Together  with  your  bishops  and  your  other 
leaders,  protest  against  the  projected  laws,  and  in  such  a 
fashion,  that  your  parliamentary  representatives  will  under- 
stand and  fulfil  their  duty.  Your  combat  will  be  defensive, 
not  aggressive  ;  when  we  demand  that  our  religious  belief 
be  respected,  we  merely  repel  attack.  It  is  impossible  for 
us  not  to  profess  the  ancient  faith  of  our  ancestors,  not  to 
proclaim  our  devotion  to  the  Church — to  that  Church  which, 
during  the  last  ten  centuries,  has  made  Hungary,  has  been 
her  benefactor,  her  educatrix,  her  mother,  and  whom  we  can- 
not deny  without  crime.  We  do  not  attack  the  civil  power , 
but  that  power  is  limited  by  the  divine  law^s,  and  we  cannot 
allow  it  to  pass  those  limits.  We  are  not  enemies  of  pro- 
gress. The  present  onslaught  on  the  Church  is  not  progress, 
but  a  retrogression  ;  a  State  cannot  be  built  on  the  ruins  of 
Christian  ideas.  .  . .  Follow  the  examples  of  your  ancestors. 
Above  all,  pray  that  the  spirit  of  God  may  inspire  our  legis- 
lators in  this  grave  emergency."  In  accordance  with  the  in- 
junctions of  this  pastoral,  many  mass-meetings  of  Catholics 
were  held  throughout  the  kingdom  ;  so  great  was  the  throng 
which  came  from  the  surrounding  country  into  Buda-Pesth 
for  that  purpose,  that  the  capital  ceased,  for  several  days,  to 
wear  the  appearance  of  a  Jewish  city.  But  the  sectarians 
also  held  their  mass-meetings  ;  as  the  Protestant  Kreuzzei- 
fung  said  :  "  The  Masonic  Lodges  of  Pesth,  which  ar'-  all 
directed  by  Jeivs,  have  decided  to  agitate  in  favor  of  the 
new  ecclesiastical  laws.  The  expenses  of  the  rampaign 
will  be  defrayed  partly  by  the  government,  and  partly  by 
Jewish  contributions  "  (1).  On  March  4,  theve  paraded  the 
streets  of  the  capital,  according  to  the  Liberal  organs, 
100,000  men  who  loudly  proclaimed  the^r  devotion  to  the 

(1)  Issuteof  Jan.  26,  1894. 


POPE  LEO  Xm.  AND  THE  AUSTRIAN  EMPIRE.      257 

policy  of  tlie  Weckerle  cabinot.     Sad  to  rdatc,  among  those 
who   officially    reviewed    the    motley     crowd    of    RadicalH, 
Socialists,  Freemasons,  Jews,  and    Calvinists,    were   seen  a 
few  magnates.     Orczy,  Theodore    Andrassy,   John   Palffy, 
Stephen  Esterhazy,  and  Karolyi  wore  in  those  anti-Catliolic 
ranks ;  and  if  the  reason  for  so   strange  a   fact   be   sought, 
probably  the  correct  answer  will  be  found  in  these  words 
of  Kaimengieser  :  "  If  one  could  have  read    the   minds    of 
some   of  those  Jews  who   passed   in   review   before   those 
noble  lords,  and  if  he  could  also  have  consulted  the  mort- 
gage-records, he  would  have  solved  the  enigma  very  quickly. 
Many  of  the  estates  of  the  nobles  are  unfortunately  in  the 
hands  of  the  Jews  (1)  ;  and  it  was  noticed  on  the  fourth  of 
March  that  certain  magnates  walked  arm  in  arm  with  men 
whom  their  dignified  ancestors  would  not  have  recognized. 
Certainly,  such  a  fall  was  not  foreseen  by  the  heroes  who 
spilled  their  blood  at  Yarna,  at  Noliacs,  at  St.  Gothard,  in 
order  to  save  the  Kingdom  of  St.  Stephen  from  the  Moham- 
medan yoke."     Finally  the  Hungarian  parliament  proceeded 
to  a  vote  on  the  question  of  obligatory  civil  marriage.     On 
April  9,  the  Deputies  passed  the  law  by  a  majority  of  175. 
On  May  7  the  debates  began  in  the  House  of  Magnates,  and 
when  the  vote  was  taken  on  the  10th,  it  stood  139  against 
the  law,  and  118  for  it.     But  at  length  a  sufficient  number 
of  the  magnates  were  induced  to  join   the   Judseo-Masonic 
combination  ;  and  on  June  21,  the  conspirators  gained  their 
point  by  a  majority  of  four.     What  had  caused  this  change  ? 
The  great  German  Liberal  organ,  the   AUgerneirie    Zeitimg, 
replies  that  "  the  Weckerle  cabinet  could  boast   of   having 
the  influence  of  the  court  on  its  side  "  (2).     The  Nene  Freic 
Presse  said  that "  the  monarch  remained  absolutely  neutral "  ; 
that  is,  he  aided  the  anti-Catholic  hosts,  albeit  unwillingly, 
as   we  know.     Certainly  it  was   a  sad    reflection    for   the 

(1)  The  Jews  in  Hungary  form  scarcely  five  per  rent,  of  the  population  :  hut  ilx-y  have 
su<-cee<led  in  hecominp  owners  of  at  least  half  of  the  soil.  Out  of  3,I!tt  preat  proprietors, 
1,031  are  Jews.  Of  the  lessees  of  the  State  lands,  sixty-seven  per  cent,  are  Jews.  The 
majority  of  the  smaller  estates  are  mortgaged  to  Jews.  The  worlds  of  finance  and  com- 
merce heloHR  to  the  Jews.  Nearly  all  the  journals  of  Buda-Pesth  are  owned  hy  Jews. 
But  they  do  not  wish  to  be  styled  Jews  ;  a  rescript  issued  by  Czaky  ordered  that  thej 
should  always  he  termed  Israelites. 

(2)  Issue  of  June  22,  1894. 


258  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Catholic  friends  of  Francis  Joseph,  when  they  contemplated 
the  absence  of  everyone  of  the  twenty-one  archdukes  from 
Buda-Pesth  Avhile  the  crucial  vote  was  being  taken ;  and 
when  they  saw  only  two  out  of  the  eleven  great  dignitaries  of 
the  court  deposit  their  ballots.  However,  the  Catholics 
were  not  discouraged.  The  immense  majority  thought  that 
the  emperor  would  never  sanction  the  iniquitous  law  ;  and  in 
the  meantime  they  resolved  to  encourage  the  imperial  resist- 
ence  by  an  energetic  campaign  throughout  the  country — a 
campaign  in  which  they  would  have  the  assistance  of  those 
bishops  who  had  responded  to  the  call  of  Leo  XIII.  But 
judge  of  the  dismay  of  the  Catholic  party,  when,  in  the 
beginning  of  September  the  primate  of  Hungary,  Cardinal 
Vaszary — that  Benedictine  monk  on  whom  the  Pontiff  had 
so  confidently  relied — ordered  his  clergy  to  abstain  entirely 
from  "  politics."  That  this  order  was  meant  to  minimize  the 
opposition  to  the  ministry,  was  the  belief  of  both  Catholics 
and  Liberals ;  the  latter  openly  congratulated  His  Eminence, 
by  means  of  the  mayor  of  Gran,  who  waited  upon  him  at 
the  head  of  a  Masonic  delegation,  on  his  "loyalty  and 
prddence."  The  event  proved  that  the  primate  had  no 
intention  of  betraying  the  Catholic  cause ;  that  he  had 
yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  Francis  Joseph,  trusting  that  the 
sovereign  would  withhold  his  signature  from  the  obnoxious 
law.  The  Catholics  knew  Iioav  to  excuse  their  primate  ;  but 
s^iiother  prelate,  the  archbishop  of  Erlau,  Mgr.  Samassa, 
committed  himself  so  overtly  to  the  side  of  the  Judseo-Cal- 
vinist  cabinet,  that  he  almost  paralyzed  the  Catholic  action. 
Addressing  the  "  Delegations  "  (1)  on  Sept.  19,  Samassa  intro- 
duced the  subject  of  the  next  Conclave,  thus  affording  some- 
thing like  a  picture  of  a  son,  while  his  father  was  still  living, 
urging  strangets  to  seize  the  estate  ;  but  such  indelicacy 
Wa!s  not  surprising  on  the  part  of  a  prelate  who  had  but 
recently  figured  in  the  Masonic  funeral  of  Kossuth,  walking 
behind  the  coffin  of  that  Calvinist  arch-revolutionist,  the 
bosom-friend  of  Mazzini.  "  The  question  of  the  Conclave," 
observed  Samassa,  "  may  soon  be   a   present   one,    and   we 

(1)  The  "  Delegations  "  are  commissions  composed  of  sixty  members,  that  is,  twenty 
senators  and  forty  deputies,  who  meet  alternately  in  Vienna  and  in  Buda-Pesth,  in  ord«r 
to  discuss  Important  matters  in  a  "  Council  of  tiie  Empire." 


POPE  LEO    XIII.    AND   THE    AUSTRIAN   EMPIRE.  259 

ought  to  occupy  ourselves  with  it ;  for  while  it  is  true  that 
the  Papac}'  is  an  ecclesiastical  institution,  it  is  of  great 
importance  to  the  State,  siuce  to-daj  the  Supreme  Pontifi"  is 
more  powerful  than  he  was  when  he  disposed  of  crowns." 
Then  the  prelate,  choosing  to  ignore  the  fact  that  the  last 
Conclave,  as  well  as  common  sense,  showed  that  the  "  right  oi 
exclusion  "  is  a  thing  of  the  past,  reminded  the  government 
of  its  supposed  duty  to  so  arrange  matters  that  Austro- 
Hungarian  influence  might  be  brought  to  bear  in  the 
selection  of  a  successor  to  Leo  XIII.  Samassa  then  put  two 
questions  to  the  cabinet :  "  Is  the  Ministry  determined  to 
use  all  its  power  to  the  end  that  the  Conclave  may  perform 
its  duty  with  complete  independence ;  and  has  the  govern- 
ment resolved  to  exercise  its  '  right  of  exclusion  '  "  ?  The 
cabinet  was  but  too  willing  to  reply,  using  Kalnoky  as  its 
mouthpiece,  that  it  had  good  reason  to  believe  that  the 
king  of  Italy  would  respect  the  freedom  of  the  next  Con- 
clave, just  as  he  had  respected  that  of  the  last  one ;  and 
that  he  ( the  Minister )  did  not  believe  that  the  emperor 
had  any  intention  of  holding  his  "  right  of  exclusion  "  in 
abeyance.  This  "  slap  in  the  face  of  the  Papacy,  given  by  an 
archbishop,"  as  the  interpellation  of  Samassa  was  rightly 
termed  at  the  time,  could  not  have  been  the  result  of  a 
sudden  impulse ;  all  parties  agreed  in  regarding  it  as  a 
deliberate  effort  to  place  difficulties  in  the  path  of  the  Holy 
See.  At  any  rate,  the  unity  of  action  which  was  so  neces- 
sary to  the  Catholic  party,  and  which  had  already  been 
weakened  by  the  counsels  of  Cardinal  Vaszary,  was  now 
nearly  destroyed  ;  and  the  Weckerle  cabinet  was  able  to  hope 
for  an  early  actuation  of  its  entire  anti-Christian  pro- 
gramme. In  fact,  on  Dec.  10,  the  emperor-king  gave  his 
approbation  to  the  anti-religious  laws  ;  the  Marianic  King- 
dom w^as  destined  to  become  a  modern  "  Liberal  "  State.  For 
a  moment  the  primate  and  other  bishops  had  recovered  their 
courage,  and  had  sent  their  blessings  to  the  Congress  of 
10,000  Catholics  which  met  at  Szehes-Feiiervax  on  Nov  18, 
and  founded  a  new  Popular  Party  ;  but  ere  that  party  could 
be  organized,  Weckerle  had  forced  the  liand  of  Francis 
Joseph,  and  Hungary  was  endowed  with  tlie  benefits  of  an 


£60  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

atheistic  civilization.  Weckerle  now  resigned  his  office  ;  but 
when  seeking  for  a  new  Hungarian  premier,  Francis  Joseph 
had  eyes  for  none  other  than  partisans  of  Weckerle,  and  from 
among  these  he  selected  Baron  Banlfy,  a  fanatical  Prot- 
estant, and  the  supreme  curator  of  the  Evangelicals  of 
Transylvania.  For  his  Minister  of  Worship  and  of  Public 
Instruction,  the  new  premier  chose  Dr.  Wlassics,  a  profes- 
sor in  the  Masonicized  University  of  Buda-Pesth,  and  a 
Kadical  whose  policy  the  Liberal  Hanzak  thus  foreshadowed  : 
"  Let  us  remember  the  speeches  made  by  Wlassics  during 
the  debates  on  the  politico-ecclesiastical  laws.  He  mani- 
fested the  most  extreme  Radicalism ;  and  we  would  not  be 
surprised  if  the  programme  of  the  Banffy- Wlassics  cabinet 
embraced  a  complete  secularization  of  the  Church."  The 
bishops  now  published  a  pastoral  in  which  they  insisted 
that  they  had  used  every  possible  means  to  prevent  the 
triumph  of  the  enemies  of  the  Church  ;  they  drew  attention 
to  their  supplications  to  the  emperor-king,  to  their  collective 
pastoral  condemning  civil  marriage,  and  to  the  unanimity 
with  which  they  had  voted  against  the  Bill  in  the  House  of 
Magnates.  But  no  sooner  had  this  pastoral  been  heard  by 
the  faithful,  than  Mgr.  Bubics,  bishop  of  Kaschan,  issued  a 
pamphlet  in  which  he  tried  to  explain  the  teachings  of  the 
collective  pastoral  in  a  sense  diametrically  opposed  to  that 
which  the  other  prelates  had  intended  ;  and  not  to  be  outdone 
in  Liberalism,  Archbishop  Samassa  published  a  connnentary 
on  the  teachings  of  Leo  XIII.  in  which  he  travestied  their 
meaning.  Meanwhile,  the  organization  of  the  new  Popular 
Party  was  being  effected  under  the  guidance  of  Count  Ferdi- 
nand Zichy  and  Count  Nicholas  Esterhazy  ;  and  as  its  first 
consequences  Catholic  journals  were  founded  in  many  cities, 
Catholic  clubs  were  opened,  and  the  existing  Catholic  so- 
cieties were  greatly  developed.  It  soon  became  evident  that 
at  the  next  elections  a  large  majority  of  foes  to  the  new 
ecclesiastical  laws  would  be  sent  to  the  parliament.  Then 
the  Judaeo-Masonic  machinery  was  set  to  work  ;  and  in  scores 
of  places,  when  the  day  of  election  arrived,  the  govern- 
mental inspectors  rejected  Catholic  votes  by  the  hundreds  (1). 

(1)  As  an  instaoce  of  this  Liberal  method  of  ascertainin*' '  je  will  of  the  people,  we  vaa.\ 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND   THE    AUSTRIAN    EMPIRE.  261 

The  governmental  majority  in  the  House  of  Deputies  was 
thus  assured  ;  and  with  that  moral  influence  as  a  support, 
Banify  made  his  api)r()ac'hes  on  the  House  of  Magnates. 
However,  the  overwhelming  sentiment  of  the  country,  which 
the  efforts  of  the  Popular  Party  had  placed  in  evidence,  had 
strengthened  the  determination  of  the  majority  of  the  Mag- 
nates to  preserve  the  Catholic  character  of  the  Kingdom  of 
St.  Stephen  ;  and  two  days  before  the  momentous  question 
was  again  debated  in  the  Upper  House,  the  Hungarians  road 
an  Allocution  wh'u-h  Leo  XIII.  had  pronounced  on  March 
18  for  their  encouragement.  With  consummate  tact.  His 
Holiness  had  omitted  to  complain  of  the  many  tergiversations 
of  the  Hungarian  bishops,  and  had  apparently  remembered 
onlv  such  of  their  actions  as  were  praiseworthy  ;  and  he  had 
said  :  "  The  bisliops  of  Hungary  have  now  employed  every 
means  to  ward  off  the  evil  which  menaces  their  Church.  The 
priests  have  labored  with  them,  and  they  have  been  helped 
also  bv  the  members  of  parliament  who  wish  to  preserve 
the  faith  of  their  ancestors.  But  unfortunately  these 
efforts  have  been  vain,  and  the  enemies  of  the  Church  have 
triumphed.  Let  it  be  seen  by  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  see, 
how  contrary  to  justice  it  is  to  advocate  for  Catholic  matri- 
mony a  legislation  which  the  Church  has  so  often  condemned ! 
It  is  but  proper  for  the  State  to  regulate  the  effects  of  mar- 

cite  the  case  of  the  two  elections  In  the  district  of  Neutra.  held  in  March  and  April.  IHflf). 
Count  John  Zlchy.  the  candidate  of  the  Popular  Party,  had  received  assurances  from 
nearly  1.500  voters  that  their  ballots  would  be  cast  for  him.  When  these  electors,  resident 
of  the  rural  districts  around  Neutra,  arrived  at  the  walls  of  the  city,  the  Liberal  "  clique," 
as  the  Protestant  Kreuzztitruio termed  the  men  in  power,  refused  them  entrance,  although 
a  violent  storm  (it  was  March  -"O)  wjis  raging.  Surrounded  by  a  cordon  of  military,  the 
wielders  of  a  "  free  ballot"  were  kept  outside  the  walls  from  seven  In  the  morning  of  the 
twentieth  until  the  same  hour  of  the  ne.\t  day.  During  this  interval  these  "  five  citizens 
of  a  free  SUte  "  were  n(;t  allowed  to  betake  themselves  to  any  shelter,  nor  were  they 
allowed  to  search  for  any  food.  VVhen  Zichy  beard  of  this  outrage,  he  brought  to  the 
unfortunates  1,500  large  loaves  of  bread  ;  but  the  Inspector  of  elections,  Tarnoczy,  deter- 
mined to  use  starvation  as  a  weapon  to  force  the  Catholic  voters  to  reiurn  to  their  homes, 
confiscated  the  food.  When  an  affectation  of  detency  finally  compelled  Tarno<'zy  to  admit 
the  drenched  and  shivering  starvellngs-not  one  had  abandoned  hislnteiitinn  of  voting— he 
managed  to  prolong  the  balloting  for  twenty-one  hours,  during  which  many  fainted,  and 
probably  would  have  di.-d,  had  their  Hungarian  peasnnt  frames  not  lx>en  phenomenally 
strong  When  it  was  found  that  the  entire  1.5a)  had  voted  the  ticket  of  the  Popular  Party, 
the  inspector  threw  out  l,-'--'G  ballots.  But  the  fraud  had  been  so  bareface<i,  that  the 
adudnistratlon  candidate  did  not  dare  to  accept  his  election;  and  another  balloting  was 
ordered.  The  same  result,  however,  was  proclaimed,  and  the  government  candidate  now 
ventured  to  take  his  seat. 


262  STUDIES   IN    CHUKCH    HISTOKY. 

riage  in  the  civil  order  ;  but  it  belongs  to  the  Church  alone  to 
legislate  concerning  the  marriage  bond,  since  Christ  gave  to 
His  Church  the  power  of  raising  marriage  to  the  dignity  of 
a  Sacrament."  On  March  23,  the  irreligious  laws  were  again 
rejected  by  the  Magnates  ;  the  accepting  votes  being  112,  and 
the  repelling,  127.  The  "  clerical  "  majority  was  small  in- 
deed ;  and  during  the  next  few  weeks  it  was  weakened  by  the 
death  of  Mgr.  Schopper,  by  the  loss  of  his  seat  by  the  Jesuit, 
Esterhazy,  and  by  the  imperial  nomination  of  a  Liberal 
named  Toths.  The  coup  de  grace  was  given  to  the  Catholic 
confidence,  when  His  Apostolic  Majesty  yielded  to  the  per- 
sistence of  Banffy,  and  imitating  the  trick  of  British  monarchs 
in  similar  contingencies,  created  ten  new  peers,  all  of  them 
sworn  creatures  of  the  Judteo-Calvinist  cabal.  By  this  act, 
Francis  Joseph  allowed  the  crown  of  St.  Stephen  to  fall  into 
the  mud,  over  which  it  had  been  suspended  from  the  very 
beginning  of  his  reign  (1) ;  but  calm  and  judicious  observers 
have  discerned  a  blessing  for  the  Hungarian  Church  in  this 
apparently  triumphant  issue  of  the  anti-Catholic  conspiracy. 
Cardinal  Maury  told  the  politicians  of  his  day  that  it  was 
"  a  dangerous  thing  to  make  martyrs  "  ;  and  already  the  bish- 
ops of  Hungary  are  giving  evidence  of  a  possession  of  that 
sacred  fire  which  recently  they  needed  so  lamentably.  And 
the  Hungarian  laity  have  begun  to  realize  the  melancholy 
truth  of  those  words  which  Jules  Simon,  the  most  honest  of 

(1)  When  we  reflect  on  the  innumerable  instances  of  weakness  on  the  part  of  Francis 
Joseph  iu  regard  to  the  Masonic  and  other  irreligious  enterprises  which  have  signalized 
his  reign,  we  fail  to  understand  how  he  could  have  found  sufficient  stamina  to  enable  him 
to  refuse  to  return  in  Rome  the  visit  which  King  Humbert  made  him  in  Vienna.  This 
persistent  refusal  was  certainly  an  eloquent  testimony  as  to  his  personal  sentiments  con- 
cerning the  rights  of  the  Pope-King.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  influence  of  the  empress 
was  responsible  for  this  admirable  delicacy  on  the  part  of  her  husband.  In  spite  of  the 
vagaries— natural  to  a  member  of  the  Bavarian  Wittelsbach  family— which  sometimes 
prompted  her  to  actions  like  that  of  placing  a  wreath  on  the  tomb  of  Heine,  the  Jewish 
prophet  of  moral  fllth.  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  like  her  sisters,  the  "  Angel  of  Gaeta  '■  and 
the  Duchess  d'AIencon,  was  a  devout  Catholic.  To  have  visited  a  "  King  of  Italy  "  in  the 
Pope's  palace  of  the  Quirinal  would  have  broken  her  heart.  In  the  Life  of  Francix 
Joseph  which  Canon  Waechtler  published  in  1891,  we  read  a  letter  written  by  Her  Majesty 
to  Queen  Margaret,  in  which,  after  alluding  to  the  punishments  which  have  overtaken  the 
persecutors  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs,  she  said  :  "  The  very  thought  of  crossing  the  threshold 
of  the  Quirinal,  when  things  are  as  they  are.  Alls  me  with  fright.  I  deeply  regret  that  I 
cannot  return  the  visit  of  my  royal  sister.  The  fault  is  not  mine  ;  but  of  those  who  govern 
in  favor  of  material  interests  which  are  transient  and  deceitful."  The  authenticity  of  this 
letter  was  denied  by  many  of  the  zealous  partisans  of  the  Triple  Alliance  ;  but  who  will 
believe  that  a  respectable  ecclesiastic  would  dare  to  publish  a  forged  letter,  under  the  very 
eyes  of  the  aggrieved  party  ? 


rorE   LEO    XIII.    AND   THE    AISTUIAN    EMPIRE,  263 

all  modern  Liberals,  was  atldressiuj;  to  his  t-ountrymen  at 
the  very  moiueut  wheu  the  Mariauic  Kingdom  was  being 
besmirched :  "  Repeat  as  often  as  you  please  that  in  1880 
you  did  not  wish  to  enact  an  atheistic  law  ;  tliat  you  desired 
only  to  free  the  political  world  from  clerical  intiuence.  1 
would  like  to  believe  you,  for  I  war  on  no  man.  But  look 
on  that  brutal  fact — a  boy  of  twenty  hurling  his  dynamite 
into  a  crowd.  You  kill  him ;  but  death  is  not  so  powerful 
as  you  think.  Poor  sick  society,  that  recurs  to  the  chopp- 
ing-kuife  for  a  cure  !    It  is  to  God  that  it  must  turn  ! " 

In  his  admirable  papers  on  The  Jeics  in  Hunrjary,  pub- 
lished in  the  Con-esjjomlmit  of  1883,  Father  Ollivier  emits  these 
reflections  concerning  the  influence  of  the  Jews  in  the  King- 
dom of  St.  Stephen :  "  Unfortunately  for  the  people  of  the 
Arpads,  there  is  such  a  person  as  the  Hungarian  Jew.  He 
is  of  a  race  but  poorly  defined — a  graft  on  the  German  and 
the  Slav  ;  but  he  is  intrenching  himself  firndy,  and  the  fault 
lies  at  the  door  of  the  Hungarians  themselves,  especially  of 
the  nobility.  It  is  now  a  long  time  since  the  saying,  '  In 
every  magnate's  household  there  is  a  Jewess  '  became  cur- 
rent in  Hungary.  The  traditional  beauty  of  the  daughters 
of  Juda  has  worked  more  ravages  among  the  Magj^ar  nobles, 
during  the  last  few  centuries,  than  were  ever  effected  by  the 
sabres  of  the  Turks.  Israel  was  careful  to  use  this  resource 
against  the  Christians  ;  it  used  the  weapon  without  shame 
and  without  measure,  and  the  Christians  opened  their  doors 
to  the  Jewesses  with  an  imprudence  which  has  been  cruelly 
punished  in  our  days.  The  famous  saying  lias  recently  been 
changed  so  as  to  read :  '  Every  magnate's  household  has  its 
Jew.'  In  Pesth,  when  one  lounges  before  the  shops  of  the 
Varsi-Utesa,  he  gazes  with  stupor  on  the  riches  displayed  in 
the  windows — necklaces,  brooches,  cinctures,  weapons,  har- 
ness, all  glittering  with  gold  and  precious  stones,  and  all 
having  their  legends  and  historic  importance.  All  the.se  ob- 
jects are  for  sale  ;  for  now  they  belong,  by  right  of  conquest, 
to  Jews.  In  the  olden  time  when  the  Magyar  lost  the  aig- 
rette from  his  helmet,  or  when  his  sword  was  not  discerned 
at  his  side,  men  knew  that  his  head-dress  had  fallen  off  or 
his  sword  been  broken    in    some  battle  against  the  Turks, 


"atJl  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

the  Germans,  or  the  Tartars.  But  now  the  combats  are 
fought  at  the  gambling-tables,  and  the  Jew  is  always  behind 
the  combatants.  The  body-stripper  is  on  this  battle-field, 
just  as  he  was  on  the  ancient  ones  ;  but  what  a  pity  that  he 
should  be  so  encouraged !  In  tlie  days  of  old  this  body- 
stripper  was  compared  to  a  vulture  whom  night  brought  to 
the  field  of  carnage,  and  whom  the  army-followers  beat  off 
with  sticks  ;  but  to-day,  the  light  of  day  seryes  the  human 
vulture,  and  the  follower  kisses  the  hand  which  locks  up  the 
knight.  Undoubtedly  this  is  a  matter  of  taste  ;  but  it  does  not 
please  me  to  see  the  Hungarian  nobles  tributary  to  the  Jews, 
and  preparing  the  subjection  of  the  Hungarian  people  to  the 
same  domination."  Apropos  of  this  reflection  concerning 
the  estates  of  the  Magyar  nobles,  we  notice  that  the  Deut- 
sche Volksblatt  of  Vienna,  in  its  issue  of  June  16, 1871,  states 
that  during  the  previous  seven  years  the  Rothschilds  had 
become  owners  of  the  estates  of  more  than  sixty  of  the 
greater  nobles  of  Bohemia ;  that  then  the  real  estate  of  the 
Rothschilds  in  Bohemia  was  eight  times  more  valuable  than 
that  possessed  in  that  kingdom  by  the  imperial  Hapsburgs. 
The  reader  will  note  that  the  ownership  of  these  estates  gives 
right,  not  only  to  seats  in  the  Bohemian  Landtag  and  the 
Austrian  Reichsrath,  but  also  to  many  ecclesiastical  "  rights 
of  patronage."  Continuing  his  observations,  Father  Ollivier 
says  :  "  The  clergy  resist  this  invasion,  and  it  is  fortunate 
that  ecclesiastical  property  is  inalienable,  and  cannot 
pass  into  the  hands  of  the  Jews.  There  remains  therefore 
for  the  weak  some  guarantee  of  that  protection  which  the 
magnates  cannot  afford.  But  let  the  Hungarian  nobles 
beware  !  When  their  last  acre  of  land  is  exchanged  for  the 
last  loan  from  the  usurer— and  that  day  does  not  seem 
distant — they  will  cease  to  be  of  any  use  to  the  State,  and 
their  history  will  terminate  with  a  disgraceful  page.  Already 
they  are  not  necessary  ;  to  many  they  appear  superfluous. 
Nobility  has  its  reason  of  existence  much  more  in  the  ser- 
vices that  it  renders,  than  in  the  benefits  it  has  conferred  ; 
and  in  the  popular  estimation  one  ceases  to  be  noble  when 
his  name,  no  longer  representing  any  grandeur,  is  bandied 
in  the  antechamber  of  a  courtesan,  or  in  the  cloakroom  of   a 


rorE   LFA)    XIII.    AND    THE    (IKUMAN    EMl'IItF..  265 

•tramiug-liouse.  God  help  the  descendants  of  the  founders 
of  Hungary,  for  they  know  not  now  how  to  help  them- 
selves !  "  (1). 

CHAPTER  XL 

POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE. 

In  the  dissertation  wherein  we  demonstrated  that  Bismarck 
adopted  all  the  force  of  his  slavish  bureaucracy,  and  all  the 
woiild-be  subtleties  of  "  German  science,"  in  the  interests  of 
religious  persecution,  we  described,  at  least  incidentally,  the 
relations  that  subsisted— such  as  they  were— between  Leo 

(1)  concerning  ttie  vital  question  of  Anti-Semitism  which  is  now  ensrajrinR  tbe  attention 
.of  the  Austrian  populations,  even  in  a  greater  degree  than  it  occupies  the  .nin.ls  of 
Russian,  German,  and  French  public^ists,  much  light  has  recently  been  shed  by  the  very 
nn-Catholic  Arnold  White,  in  his  M.,a.rn  J,,c  (New  York.  1«W.    -The  cause  of  the 
people's  fury  against  the  Jews  m  the  Middle  Age,"  notes  this  author,     as  it  has  been  at 
Ttimes  si,.ce.  was  the  unlawful  usury  and  the  profits  made  fnm,  all  classes  of  people  bv 
Jewir  ntrigue  and  cunninsr.    Nuu.erous  grievances  were  at  that  time  brought  by  the 
citizens  of  various  towns  before  their  govern.uent.    Only  in  those  days  people  were  not 
dear  about  this,  namely,  that,  in  the  Jews  they  had  to  deal  with  a  foreign  nation  an.l  an 
alet'ace  and  therefore  religion  had  to  be  used  as  a  cl,an.cteristic  •    «  hat  the  Austnaa 
Inti-Sem  les  really  desire  is  thus  expressed  :  -They  want  to  see  the  influx  of  Je«s  in  o 
vaHoutd  Lies  limited  by  lawful  means,  because  they  feel  it  to  be  hurtful.     They  seek, 
herefore  to  obtain  a  revision  of  the  laws,  by  which  the  Jews  may  be  made  to  experience 
certain  restrictions.-      And  again^lhe  author  quotes  from  the  Anti-Semite  Catechism  : 
"The  Jews  under  the  mantle  of  religion,  form  in  reality  a  politl.-al,  social,  and  ••ommer- 
<.lal  company    which,   guided  by  uniform   principles,  and  with  a  secret   uuder>ilanding 
ttween  tSem'selves,  iims  at  the  subjugation  and  exploitation  of  non- Jewish  peoples     T  e 
jTws  in  all  countries  and  In  all  languages  are  in  this  aim  at  one,  and  work  for  its 
accompmi>n.ent  unanimously.     It  is  therefore  impossible  for  the  Jews  in  the  coun    > 
wher?they  happen  to  dwell,  ever  to  take  an  honest  interest  in  the  lot  of  their  non- Jewish 
Tontnatriots       .   short,  a  Jew  can  never  cherish  an  honest  patriotism  :  he  is  always,  and 
Tove  al    tnscious  of  "being  a  member  of  the  'chosen  '  Jewish  nation  ;  and  if  he  poses  as 
German   French,  or  English,  it  is.  at  most,  a  calculated  hypocrisy.     From  within  the  pale 
of  MS  peculiar  community,  the  Jew  looks  out  upon  all  Gentiles  as  his  enetr^ies,  whotn  he 
has  reombat  with  cunning  and  treachery.    While  conforming  to  his  peculiar  moral  law, 
th^  Jew'nslders  himself  above  all  other  codes,  and  hol.is  himself  prepared  to  tn.nsgress 
all  laws  of  the  land,  but  always  in  such  a  manner  that  the  abuse  cannot  be  brought    mme 
to  him       The  Jews  consider  themselves  the  natural  arist.K^racy  of  mankind,  and  believe, 
on  this  ground,  that  they  should  be  masters  of  the  world."     Touching  the  latter  as^,ertlon. 
Ma  or  (Kiuan  Bev  reports  In  his  book  The  Concur..!  of  tf.c  W.nUI  l,„  t1,e  J."'-'.  Mow  an 
1  nentTew  at  a  gathering  of  Jewish  eldei.  at  C.cow.  in  the  year  1840.  said  :      So  long 
a™we  do  not  have^he  newspapers  of  the  whole  world  in  our  hands  to  deceive  and  blind 
the  people,  our  mastery  remains  a  chlmenu"    When,  in  the  year  IH.'i.'.  the  French  Masonic 
undnT  ,  the  Jew  Cremleux,   Issued  a  summons  to  the  founding  of   Tl,c  I.rarUU.H 
Tuiance:  he  wrote :  "  Our  nationality  is  the  religion  of  our  f«the«-we  know  no  ,aher 
The  Jewish  doctrine  must,  one  day.  cover  the  whole  earth.    Success  is  certain.    Every 
day  will  the  net  which  Israel  casts  over  the  globe  extend  iUself.    Let  us  make  use  of  all 
op^tunlties  :  our  power  Is  great,  let  us  learn  to  employ  It.    What  have  we  to  fear  .>    The 


266  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

XIIL  aud  the  arrogant  chancellor.  Let  us  now  observe  that 
when  onr  Poutiif  mounted  the  Chair  of  Peter,  the  Bis- 
marckian  enterprise  had  been  in  full  career  for  more  than 
six  years  ;  and  as  we  have  seen,  the  event  had  shown  that  it 
had  become  necessary  for  the  chancellor  to  ignore  his 
confident  declaration  that  he  "  would  never  go  to  Canossa." 
The  sole  question  then  agitating  the  minds  of  both  William 
I.  and  his  Minister  turned  on  the  possibility  of  a  discovery 
of  the  particular  road  to  Canossa  which  would  be  the  least 
humiliating  to  their  respective  susceptibilities  ;  and  in  a  letter 
to  the  emperor,  dated  April  17,  1878,  a  letter  which  was  first 
published  by  Mgr.  T'Serclaes  in  1894,  Leo  XIIL  clearly  anj 
calmly  indicated  the  ground,  and  the  sole  ground,  on  which, 
the  Holy  See  and  the  German  Empire  could  arrive  at  an 

day  is  not  far  off  when  the  wealth  of  the  world  will  belong  exclusively  to  the  Jews."  Cer- 
tainly the  spectacle  afforded  by  the  monarchy  of  the  Hapsburgs  of  to-day  justiUes  the  glee 
of  Cremieux.  Now  the  dual  monarchy  contains  more  Israelites  than  any  other  country  in 
Europe,  with  the  exception  of  Russia.  In  the  territories  at  present  included  in  the  Aus- 
trian or  Cisleithan  Kingdom  there  were  in  the  reign  of  Maria  Teresa  200,000  Jews ;  in 
1890  there  were  1,H3,305.  In  Hungary,  under  Joseph  II.,  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  last 
century,  there  were  but  25,000  Jews  ;  the  number  has  now  reached  1,000,000.  In  the  year 
1890,  out  of  1,214,3KJ  inhabitants  in  Vienna,  118,495,  or  about  ten  per  cent.,  were  Jews. 
Buda-Pesth  contains  some  150,000 ;  Prague  possesses  more  than  thirty  synagogues.  In 
Galicia  the  Jews  have  not  diminished  in  number,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  many  annually 
leave  the  country ;  on  the  contrary,  in  the  last  twenty  years  they  have  Increased  34  per  cent 
In  Austrian  Silesia  they  have  increased  64  per  cent,  in  the  same  time  ;  in  the  Bukowina, 
74  per  cent.  The  Jews  now  form  11.7  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  Galicia,  12.8  per  cent, 
of  that  of  the  Bukowina,  and  16  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  Silesia.  A  fifth  part  of  the 
land  in  Galicia  belongs  to  Jews.  In  the  Bukowina,  23  per  cent,  of  the  great  landed  pro- 
prietors are  Israelites,  and  the  remaining  real  estate  is,  for  the  most  part,  encumbered  with 
debts  to  them.  Although  the  Jews  form  hardly  5  per  cent,  of  the  total  population  of  the 
Austrian  or  Cisleittian  Kingdom,  one-third  of  the  professors  are  of  Jewish  origin.  Of  280 
teachers  in  the  Vienna  University,  in  the  same  year,  about  30  per  cent,  were  Jews.  The 
Buda-Pesth  Polytechnic,  in  the  same  year,  had  578  scholars,  of  whom  201  were  Jews  ;  the 
Comas  Academy,  599  scholars,  of  whom  480  were  Jews.  In  the  G}]mnai<ien  (classical 
schools)  and  Reahchulen  (high  schools)  of  Hungary,  20  per  cent,  of  the  pupils  were  Jews, 
although  they  constitute  but  4.5  per  cent,  of  the  population.  In  the  Austrian  (rynuiasien 
and  Realsrhiilfv  the  Jews  furnished  18.5  per  cent,  of  the  attendance.  In  the  intermediate 
schools  (Mittel'fchulcu)  only  22  per  cent,  of  the  scholars  were  Christians,  and  77  per  cent. 
Jews.  On  the  other  hand,  of  the  6,274  pupils  at  the  technical  schools  in  Vienna,  only  110 
were  Jews,  an  indication  of  their  aversion  to  handicrafts  as  a  means  of  livelihood.  At  the 
end  of  1887,  out  of  660  attorneys  in  Vienna,  a">0  were  Jews.  At  the  end  of  1889,  out  of  999 
members  of  the  Vienna  Stock  Exchange,  883  were  Jews.  Of  the  Vienna  houses  in  the  old 
parish  districts,  70  per  cent,  are  the  property  of  Isnelites.  Of  military  doctors  in  1877, 
7  per  cent,  were  Jews  ;  in  )889,  23  per  cent.  ;  whilst,  of  the  doctors  admitted  to  riractice  in 
1889,  39  per  cent,  were  of  Jewish  origin.  Finance  and  commerce  are,  practically,  in 
Israelite  hands;  were  it  not  for  the  assistance  of  Jewish  bankers,  mostof  the  manufacturers 
could  not  carry  on  their  business.  Throughout  Austria-Hungary  the  press  is  almost 
exclusively  in  the  hands'of  Jews.  "  Have  you  any  Christians  on  your  staff  ?  "  the  editor  of 
the  great  Buda-Pesth  newspaper,  the  Pcfiter  Lloyd,  was  asked.  "  I  think  we  have  one," 
was  the  reply. 


POPE   LEO    Xlir.    AND   THK    GERxMAN    EMI'IIIE.  267 

agreement.  If  the  reader  has  been  one  of  those  indiscreet 
zealots  who  tried,  at  that  time,  to  convince  themsBlves  that 
Leo  XIII.  was  guilty  of  inordinate  condescension  to  the 
cabinet  of  Berlin,  we  wonld  snbmit  to  his  consideration  the 
following  passages  of  the  pontifical  connnnnication  :  "We 
find  (Ourselves  under  the  necessity  of  calling  the  attenti(jn  of 
Your  Majesty  to  a  matter  which  is  of  pre-eminent  interest  to 
the  Catholics  who  are  subject  to  yoiir  sceptre.  Your  Majesty 
asks  us  to  remember  the  happy  past,  when  the  good  sense  of 
the  German  people  led  to  an  obedience  to  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  State  ;  and  then,  deploring  the  attitude  now 
presented  by  the  Catholic  priesthood,  Your  Majesty  asks  for 
the  intervention  of  our  authority,  in  order  that  the  above-- 
mentioned  blessings  may  again  be  enjoyed.  Now,  on  our 
part,  we  ask  Your  Majesty  to  note  that  if  there  is  any 
difference  between  the  past  and  the  present  conduct  of  your 
Catholic  subjects,  the  sole  reason  for  that  difference  will  be 
found  in  that  civil  legislation  which  has  pretended  to  change 
the  divine  constitution  of  the  Church,  and  which  has  forced 
Catholics,  in  spite  of  themselves,  to  consider  the  sad  alter- 
native of  refusing  obedience  to  the  new  laws  of  Your  Majesty, 
or  of  obeying  the  laws  ol  God  and  of  His  Church.  Let  it  be 
ordered,  without  any  prejudice  to  the  sovereign  authority  of 
Your  Majesty,  that  the  Catholic  priesthood  and  people  be 
free  to  observe  the  laws  of  their  Church.  And  since  the  nevv 
civil  legislation  in  Germany  has  suppressed  those  fundamental 
articles  which  guaranteed  the  perfect  independence  of  the 
Catholics,  let  Your  Majesty,  in  his  magnanimity,  restore  a 
state  of  things  which  was  as  conducive  to  the  tranquillity  of 
consciences,  as  it  was  to  the  true  interests  ot  the  State.  If 
this  be  effected.  Your  Majesty  may  rest  assured  that  on  our 
part  nothing  will  be  wanting  for  the  restoration  of  harmony 
between  the  two  supreme  autliorities,"  But  this  road  to 
Canossa  was  no  less  uninviting  to  the  cabinet  of  Berlin,  than 
had  been  the  others  which  the  chancellor  had  pretended  to 
discern  as  awaiting  the  German  Minister  wlio  would  extend 
the  olive-branch  to  Rome  ;  and  even  when  Falk  had  been 
retired  from  office,  and  the  more  moderate  Puttkamer 
had  takpi^  his  place,  the  Catholics   of  Germany  were  told 


268  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

that  "it  was  their  obstinacy,  their  pigheadedness  in  not 
respecting  the  laws  ot  the  State,  that  caused  tlieir  suflfer- 
ings."  However,  as  we  have  seen,  the  German  chancellor 
finally  entered  on  the  road  to  Canossa  ;  and  in  1882,  the 
road  had  been  so  far  traversed,  that  a  Prussian  Minister- 
Plenipotentiary  was  accredited  to  the  Vatican.  It  is  well 
to  note  that  when  Bismarck  was  interpellated  in  the  Reich- 
stag, as  to  the  reason  for  accrediting  to  the  Vatican  a 
diplomatic  representative  from  Prussia,  and  not  from  Ger- 
many, the  chancellor  replied  that  he  regarded  the  Catholic 
Church  as  an  institution  of  the  country,  that  is,  of  Prussia ; 
but  that  there  might  soon  be  a  representation  of  Germany  at 
the  Papal  court.  By  this  avowal  Bismarck  admitted  that 
he  had  abandoned  his  theory  that  the  Church  was  a  foreign 
institution  ;  in  other  words,  the  "  man  of  blood  and  iron  " 
now  condemned  the  principle  which  had  actuated  the  "  May 
Laws,"  and  he  was  ready  to  go  to  Canossa  by  proxy.  In 
1885,  Bismarck  manifested  a  further  inclination  for  recon- 
ciliation with  the  Holy  See,  when  he  agreed  to  the  selection 
of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  as  arbitrator  in  the  matter  of  the  differ- 
ence between  Germany  and  Spain  concerning  the  Caroline 
Islands ;  but  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  chancellor  had 
thought  that  this  deference  would  so  mollify  the  pontifical 
heart,  that  His  Holiness  would  endeavor  to  implant  some 
ultra-imperialistic  sentiments  in  the  German  clergy.  How- 
ever, in  the  letter  which  the  Pontiff  wrote  to  the  chancellor 
on  this  occasion,  it  was  clearly  shown  that  diplomatic  sweets 
do  not  induce  the  Holy  See  to  temporize  in  matters  involv- 
ing the  liberty  of  the  Church  ;  it  became  more  evident  than 
ever  that  if  Bismarck  desired  peace  with  Rome,  it  would  be 
necessary  for  him  to  break  the  chains  which  he  had  fastened 
on  the  German  Church.  This  truth  was  accentuated  when, 
on  January  6,  1886,  tiie  Pope  wrote  to  the  Prussian  bishops 
a  letter  in  which  he  declared  :  "  We  have  ever  assured  the 
government  that  we  wish  to  meet  all  its  desires,  whenever 
those  desires  are  compatible  with  the  divine  law  and  the 
dictates  of  our  conscience."  On  all  points  which  are  es- 
sential, however,  adds  His  Holiness,  he  will  remain  invincibly 
steadfast :    "  For  although  we  desire  peace  most  sincerely, 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   THE   GERMAN    EMPIRE.  260 

we  cannot  controvert  the  ordinances  of  God  ;  if  the  defence 
of  these  ordinances  demands  the  sacrifice,  we  are  ready,  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  so  many  of  our  i)rcdecHss<.rs,  to  suffer 
the  last  extremities."  This  Apostolic  firmness  conipiered  ; 
and  William  I.  immediately  took  the  first  decisive  step  iu  the 
way  of  conciliation.  Mgr.  Kopp,  the  hishop  of  Fulda  (after- 
ward archbishop  of  Breslau,  and  a  cardinal),  was  called  to 
the  Prussian  House  of  Lords  ;  and  at  the  same  time,  the 
government  abandoned  its  "  discretionary  powers."  Otner 
concessions  followed  successively  ;  and  iu  the  debates  which 
ensued  in  the  parliament,  one  is  surprised  on  hearing  the 
aiithor  of  the  "  War  for  Civilization  "  perorating  in  favor  of 
the  first  victims  of  that  war,  as  he  combats  the  opposition 
of  Gneist,  Virchow,  Richter,  and  other  priest-eaters  wlio  had 
so  powerfully  seconded  his  ignoble  efforts.  When  a  "  scien- 
tific "  demonstration  of  the  dangers  of  peace  with  Rome 
was  attempted  by  Gneist,  the  chancellor  replied  :  "  I  regard 
the  picture  drawn  by  the  deputy  as  somewhat  exaggerated. 
He  will  admit  with  me  that  before  1871,  the  Catholics  enjoyed 
those  same  rights  which  now  we  are  trA'ing  to  restore  to  them  ; 
and  nevertheless,  at  that  time  we,  the  Evangelicals,  raised 
no  complaints  because  of  any  derogation  from  our  rights." 
When  Virchow  insisted  that  the  government  was  imprudent 
in  its  onward  march  in  the  way  of  concession,  Bismarck  an- 
swered :  "  We  recognize  the  validity  of  the  law  ;  but  if  we 
wish  to  force  its  application,  we  will  be  compelled  to  a  con- 
tinual course  of  rigorous  proceedings.  We  will  raise  the 
conflict  to  the  rank  of  an  institution.  As  for  me,  I  shall  no 
longer  help  in  doing  violence  to  our  Catholic  compatriots." 
On  May  10,  1886,  the  Reichstag  passed  the  "  Fourth  Law 
for  Peace,"  and  on  the  following  day  William  I.  signed  the 
document  which  practically  terminated  the  "  War  for  Civil- 
ization." Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  this  Bismarck,  who, 
according  to  a  despatch  of  the  Prince  of  Reuss,  then  (1880) 
ambassador  of  Germany  in  Vienna,  had  declared  that  a  re_ 
vision  of  the  May  Laws  was  "  an  egregious  foolishness  which 
he  had  never  encouraged  by  a  single  word,"  finally  besought 
the  Reichstag  to  deliver  him  from  the  last  remnants  of  those 
laws.     "To  this  pass  had  come  the  Man  of    Iron,"  remarks 


270  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

Geffcken ;  "the  mau  who  had  declared  that  he  would  never 
go  to  Canossa.  This  rhodomontade,  which  is  cut  into  the 
marble  of  a  monument  which  was  erected  in  his  honor  at  that 
time,  is  now  a  piece  of  bitter  irony.  Bismarck,  who  knew  so 
admirably  how  to  practice  the  advice,  'fecisti,  nega '  (in 
other  words, '  lie,  lie  always! ')  afterward  pretended,  in  order 
to  cover  his  defeat,  that  he  had  never  wished  for  more  than 
an  equitable  arrangement  of  the  relations  between  Church 
and  State,  and  that  '  other  hands '  meddled  with  his  plan. 
It  is  a  pity  that  those  '  other  hands  '  cannot  be  discovered  ; 
for  the  chancellor  was  never  known  to  be  dominated  by  any 
other  person  whomsoever  "  (1). 

Some  of  the  first  official  acts  of  William  II.,  who,  after  the 
short  reign  of  Frederick  III.,  had  succeeded  to  the  sceptre  of 
his  grandfather  in  1888,  gave  promise  of  a  due  deference  to 
a  proper  respect  for  the  rights  of  the  Holy  See,  as  well  as  an 
indication  that  the  new  reign  would  not  be  signalized  by  any 
attempts  to  renew  the  "  War  for  Civilization."  The  official 
announcement  of  the  accession  of  William  II.  was  received 
simultaneously  by  the  courts  of  the  Vatican  and  of  the  Quir- 
inal :  the  young  emperor,  desirous  of  avoiding  a  question  of 
precedence  between  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  the  sovereign 
who  posed  as  King  of  Italy,  and  wishing  not  to  appear  to 
definitively  (so  far  as  he  could)  solve  that  Roman  Question 
which  has  not  yet  been  solved,  had  ordered  that  Leo  XIIL 
and  Humbert  should  each  receive  the  notification  of  the  new 
reign  at  the  same  moment,  by  different  and  special  envoys. 
And  when  he  opened  the  Prussian  Landtag,  the  new  emperor- 
king  announced  :  "  It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  perceive 
that  our  recent  politico-religious  legislation  has  modified  the 
relations  between  the  States  and  the  spiritual  head  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  in  a  manner  that  is  acceptable  to  both 
parties  ;  and  I  shall  exert  myself  to  preserve  religious  peace 
in  my  dominions."  Shortly  after  this  declaration,  it  was 
announced  that  William  II.  was  about  to  visit  his  ally,  King 
Humbert,  in  the  Eternal  City;  and  naturally  the  party  ofl 
the  Quirinal  desired  to  interpret  the  event  in  a  sense  hostile 
to    the  never-dormant  claims  of  the  Pope-King — a  desire 

(1>  Leo  XIIl.  in  the  Eyes  of  Germany,  Edited  by  Boyer  d'Agen. 


POPE   LEO   Xm.    AND  THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE.  271 

which  was  thwurted  by  a  declaration,  ou  the  part  of  the 
coveted  guest,  tliat  lie  would  also  visit  Pope  Leo  XIII.  in  his 
palace  of  the  Vatican.  Naturally  the  Pontiff  expressed  his 
willingness,  even  his  desire,  to  welcome  a  Christian  sovereign 
to  the  foot  of  the  Apostolic  throne  ;  but  by  means  of  his 
secretary  of  state  (then  Cardinal  RampoUa  del  Tindaro),  he 
informed  His  German  Majesty  that  the  desired  audience  could 
be  granted  only  ou  condition  that  there  should  be  an  exact 
observance  of  the  etiquette  instituted  by  Pius  IX.,  and  ap- 
proved by  himself,  for  the  guidance  of  all  sovereigns  who 
would  desire  to  visit  both  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  the  Savoy- 
ard who  was  then  resident  in  the  stolen  Papal  palace  of  the 
Quirinal.  Such  was  the  real  meaning  of  the  warning  which, 
though  couched  in  the  mellifluous  terminology  of  modern 
diplomacy,  was  conveyed  to  William  II.,  German  Emperor. 
"When  His  Majesty  would  wish  to  pay  his  respects  to  Pope 
Leo  XIII.,  he  should  start,  not  from  the  stolen  Quirinal,  at 
the  portals  of  which  Papal  palace  he  would  have  alighted, 
on  his  arrival  in  the  capital  of  the  Popes  ;  he  should  proceed 
to  the  residence  of  the  Prussian  ambassador  to  the  Holy 
See,  a  locality  which,  like  that  occupied  by  all  embassies, 
enjoyed  the  prerogatives  of  extra-territoriality,  and  from 
that  neutral  spot  he  should  proceed  to  the  palace-prison 
of  the  Head  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Of  course  the  ar- 
rangement was,  in  a  sense,  a  diplomatic  fiction  ;  but  the  deep- 
ness of  its  meaning  was  well  understood  by  the  IfaUanissimi 
and  by  the  German  emperor,  and  that  potentate  was  so 
anxious  for  the  friendship  of  Leo  XIII.,  that  he  could  not 
avoid  a  course  which  necessarily  entailed  mortification  ou  the 
heir  of  Victor  Emmanuel.  Accordingly,  on  October  12, 1888, 
William  11.  proceeded  to  the  Palazzo  Capranica,  the  resi- 
dence of  Schloetzer,  the  Prussian  Minister  to  the  Vatican  ;  and 
there  the  emperor  and  his  suite  entered,  not  carriages  belong- 
ing to  the  Savoyard  of  the  Quirinal,  but  state-carriages  which 
had  been  brought  from  Berlin  for  the  purpose,  and  then  he 
went  to  his  interview  with  the  Roman  Pontiff.  Ou  his 
arrival  in  the  court-yard  of  San  Damaso,  the  emperor  was 
received  with  the  ceremonies  usually  adopted  when  sover- 
eigns visit  His  Holiness.     Having  entered  the  palace,  having 


272  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

ascended  the  scala  regia,  and  having  traversed  the  antecham- 
bers connecting  with  the  private  apartments  of  the  Pontiff, 
the  emperor  found  Mgr.  Marini  ready  to  welcome  him  at  the 
door  of  the  room  in  which  he  was  to  meet  the  spiritual  sov- 
ereign of  Christendom.  Marini  informed  the  Pope  that  the 
German  emperor  desired  an  audience  ;  and  instantly  His 
Holiness  appeared  on  the  threshold,  and  extending  his  hand 
to  his  guest,  he  drew  him  into  his  private  chamber,  where  he 
invited  him  to  be  seated.  Leo  was  far  more  at  ease  than 
the  emperor  ;  for  the  witnesses  of  the  first  instant  of  the 
meeting  narrated  that  as  William  took  the  hand  of  the  Pon- 
tiff with  his  own  right  hand,  he  dropped  his  helmet  from 
the  left.  Particulars  of  this  momentous  interview  are  want- 
ing, unless  in  the  minds  of  those  who  credit  the  journalistic 
utterances  of  the  day  concerning  matters  which  must  be 
necessarily  unknown ;  probably  the  following  narrative, 
given  by  the  Civiltd  Cattolica,  of  all  European  periodicals 
the  least  addicted  to  exaggeration  and  journalistic  hysterics, 
is  the  most  authentic  :  "  The  Holy  Father,  after  an  exchange 
of  the  usual  courtesies,  opened  the  interview  by  expressing 
a  regret  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  receive  William  II. 
under  more  favorable  circumstances  ;  that  is,  in  the  same 
manner  in  which  Gregory  XVI.  had  received  William  IV.  of 
Prussia,  and  in  that  in  which  Pius  IX.  had  welcomed  the 
Prussian  prince-royal  in  1853.  His  Holiness  deplored  the 
situation  to  which  he  was  reduced  ;  and  he  observed  that 
even  the  visit  of  His  Imperial  Majesty  had  caused  the 
so-called  Liberal  press  to  make  remarks  which  were  most 
injurious  to  the  Holy  See.  Replying  to  these  obser- 
vations, the  emperor  alluded  to  the  great  prestige  enjoyed 
now  by  the  Papacy  in  Europe  ;  and  he  declared  that  the 
name  of  the  present  Pontiflf  is  everywhere  venerated.  As  for 
the  criticisms  of  newspapers.  His  Majesty  insisted  that  they 
were  not  worthy  of  consideration.  '  Nevertheless,'  replied  the 
Pope,  '  the  position  of  the  Pontiff  is  now  such,  that  I  cannot 
return  Your  Majesty's  visit,  unless  I  am  willing  to  compromise 
the  Papal  dignity.'  Then  the  Holy  Father  began  to  dilate  on 
the  increasing  audacity  of  the  anarchists,  and  on  the  absolute 
necessity  of  restraining  such  enemies  of  society  ;  but  scarcely 


rOl'E    LKO    Xlll.    AND    THE    (iKKMAN    KMl'lIiE.  273 

Jbad  he  introduceJ  this  subject,  when  tlie  interview  was  al>- 
ruptly  interrupted  by  the  uuauuouuced  entrance  of  Priuce 
Henry,  the  brother  of  the  emperor.  This  painful  incident 
quite  naturally  })revented  His  Holiness  froni  continuing  the 
subject  which  he  had  introduced  (1) ;  but  before  the  audience 
terminated,  he  said  a  few  words  concerning  the  religious  affairs 
of  Germany."  Such  is  probably  the  most  authentic  account 
of  this  memorable  interview  which  is  now  obtainable.  The 
extent  of  the  emperor's  responsibility  for  his  brother's  ex- 
liibition  of  a  gross  defiance  of  an  etiquette  which  obtains  even 
in  the  palaces  of  merely  secular  sovereigns — an  eticpiette 
which  is  prescribed  by  the  most  elementary  principles  of 
politeness  for  observance  in  the  house  of  another — may  never 
be  known.  For  the  credit  of  his  race,  it  may  be  charitably 
supposed  that  the  German  emperor  had  not  deliberately  de- 
signed one  of  those  would-be  impressive  coups  de  theatre  which 
time  has  shown  to  be  so  dear  to  his  heart.  We  may  be 
allowed  to  believe  that  the  "  incident "  was  simply  a  conse- 
quence of  that  megalo-cephalous  condition  in  which  so  many 
Germans  found  themselves  after  their  unprecedented  triumph 
over  France.  Nor  is  it  improbable  that  the  disgraceful 
episode  was  merely  an  illustration  of  that  German  and 
"  Anglo-Saxon  "  Protestant  spirit — essentially  boorish — con- 
cerning which  the  members  of  the  pontifical  household,  as  well 
as  every  guardian  of  the  treasures  of  intellectual  and  artistic 
Rome,  recite  so  many  indignation -exciting  stories.  Pope  Leo 
XIII.  could  not  have  been  utterly  surprised  by  the  Hohen- 

(1)  It  is  uncertain  whether  the  palm  for  boorishness  in  the  matter  of  the  interruption  of 
this  audience  should  be  awarded  to  Prince  Henry,  the  scion  of  the  Hohenzollern.  or  to 
Count  Herbert  von  Bismarck,  the  heir  of  the  Man  of  Iron.  Wliat  appears  to  he  certain, 
after  an  analysis  of  all  the  rumors  of  the  day,  is  that  before  leavintr  the  Quiriniil,  the 
Germans  had  reflected  that  probably  the  Pope  would  introduce  srnne  subjects  which  they 
might  prefer  to  ignore ;  that  in  order  to  save  the  emperor  from  any  consequent  inconvenience. 
It  had  then  been  arranged  that  Prince  Henry  should  so  time  his  arrival  at  the  Vatican  as  to 
be  able  to  enter  the  audience-chamber  thirty  minutes  after  the  imperial  entrance.  So 
things  were  carried  out  ;  but  when  Henry  presented  himself  at  ihe  entrance  of  the  Pope's 
private  apartment,  the  chamberlain  on  duty  barred  his  way,  quietly  Informlni;  him  that 
His  Holiness  was  engaged.  The  noble  HohenzoUern  loudly  pnKMaiined  his  identity;  bus 
the  chamberlain  kept  the  wand  of  offlc^e  stret<-hed  across  the  doorway.  Then  Herbert,  the 
son  of  his  father,  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  imperial  intruder  :  and  when  the  offlcial  insisted 
on  performinii  his  duty,  the  boor  exclaimed  :  "  Do  you  know  who  I  am  V  I  am  Herbert  von 
Bismarck:  "  The  Roman  replied  :  "Ah  I  that  explains  your  c-onduct.  hut  It  does  not 
excuse  it."  However,  the  chamberlain  was  thrust  aside,  and  the  worthy  descendant  of 
Frederick  n.  stalked  into  the  pontldcal  presence. 


274  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

zollern  exhibition.  Oue  day,  as  lie  was  proceeding  to  tte 
palace  gardens  for  his  usual  promenade,  he  passed  through 
the  Vatican  Library.  As  he  entered  each  hall,  the  whisper 
that  His  Holiness  was  present  was  passed  around,  and  every 
student  arose  and  genuflected.  In  one  of  the  halls,  a  number 
of  manuscripts,  for  the  study  of  which  he  had  obtained  a 
special  pontifical  permission,  was  engaging  the  attention  of 
the  famous  epigraphist,  Mommsen.  The  Schleswicker  heard 
the  notice  of  the  Pope's  entrance,  but  he  simply  shrugged  his 
shoulders  with  implied  contempt ;  a  more  civilized  investi- 
gator told  him  to  arise,  but  the  barbarian  shrugged  again, 
and  settled  more  firmly  in  his  seat  (1).  The  remembrance  of 
innumerable  facts  like  this  of  Mommsen  prepared  our  Pontiff 
for  the  otherwise  astounding  news  that  Herbert  von  Bismarck 
was  retained  in  the  society  of  men  who  claimed  to  be  gentle- 
men. In  the  meantime,  the  German  emperor  had  demonstrat- 
ed his  own  idea  of  the  meaning  of  the  term  "  gentleman,"  by 
an  exhibition  of  the  value  at  which  he  estimated  his  promises. 
He  had  agreed  to  return  from  the  Vatican  to  the  Prussian 
embassy,  thus  observing  the  same  diplomatic  fiction  which 
he  had  respected  on  his  way  to  the  Papal  audience ;  but  as 
soon  as  he  arrived  in  the  courtyard  of  San  Damaso,  he 
ordered  his  coachman  to  drive  him  direct  to  the  Quirinal. 
However,  when  William  II.  returned  to  Berlin,  he  did  not 
show  that  his  interviews  with  the  men  of  the  Quirinal  had 
rendered  him  more  favorable  to  a  renewal  of  the  *'  War  tor 
CJivilization."  When  the  members  of  the  EvangeUsclie  Bund 
urged  him  to  a  persecution  of  their  Catholic  compatriots, 
protesting  that  they  knew  well  "  how  to  distinguish  between 
the  sincere  piety  of  many  Germans  and  the  spirit  of  Jesuit- 
ism which  daily  grows  more  rampant  in  the  Koman  Church  "  ; 
finishing  with  the  assertion  that  "  the  right  of  legitimate 
defence  commands  us  to  fight  against  Jesuitism "  ;  he  re- 
plied that  while  he  appreciated  the  efforts  of  the  League  for 
the  spread  of  Protestantism,  "  he  trusted  that  the  members, 
both  in  their  writings  and  in  their  words,  would  never 
be  wanting  in   respect  for   the  faith  of  their  adversaries, 

(I)  Masson  ;  Rome  During  the  Holy  Week.    Paris,  1891.— Boyer  D'Agen  ;  Leo  XIII. 
In  I'he  Eyes  of  His  Contemporaries,  p.  186.    Paris,  1893. 


POPE   LEO    XIII     ANB    THE  GERMAN    EMPIRE.  275 

and  that  they  would  accord  that  tolerance  whicli  proceeds 
from  respect."  In  IHWA,  Williuni  11.  visited  the  Pontiff  in 
his  palace  lor  the  second  time ;  and  (Mi  this  occasion  there 
occurred  no  contretemps  like  that  in  which  Prince  Henry  and 
the  young  Bismarck  had  distinguished  themselves  in  1888. 
The  ostensible  reason  for  this  second  trip  to  Kome  was  a 
desire  to  congratulate  their  "  Italian  Majesties,"  Humbert 
and  Margaret  of  Savoy,  on  the  anniversary  of  their  silver 
wedding.  Again  we  quote  from  the  Civiltd  CattoUca : 
"  William  II.  departs  from  the  Quirinal ;  he  separates  from 
those  who  term  themselves  masters  of  Rome,  effacing,  so  to 
speak,  every  trace  of  his  connection  with  them,  and  enter- 
ing into  his  own  territory — for  as  such  does  international 
law  regard  the  locality  where  his  envoy-extraordinary  to  the 
Holy  See  resides.  Having  arrived  at  the  Palazzo  Capranica, 
he  sits  at  table  with  princes  of  the  Church,  some  officers 
of  the  pontifical  court,  and  the  gentlemen  of  his  own  suite. 
The  members  of  the  de  facto  government  and  all  their  ad- 
herents are  rigorously  excluded,  just  like  so  many  strangers. 
When  the  repast  is  finished,  the  German  empress  arrives 
accompanied  by  a  lady  of  her  court ;  she  is  dressed  in  black, 
with  a  black  veil  on  her  head  (1),  as  etiquette  prescribes. 
She  also,  in  order  to  be  received  in  the  Apostolic  palace  of 
the  Vatican,  has  left  her  hosts  of  the  Quirinal,  and  has  come 
to  the  Prussian  legation.  The  carriages,  the  horses,  the 
liveries,  all  the  paraphernalia  of  the  cortege,  are  not  Italian ; 
still  less  have  they  come  from  the  court  of  the  Savoyard 
sovereigns.  It  is  necessary  that  the  visit  to  the  Holy 
Father  be  made  in  such  fashion  that  it  may  appear  clearly 
that  the  German  monarch  proceeds  directly  to  the  Vatican  ; 

therefore  the  entire  equipage  has  come  from  Berlin 

'  A  more  picturesque  cortege  could  not  be  desired,'  said  the 
Corriere  delJa  Sera.  But  whither  are  their  Imperial 
Majesties  proceeding  with  all  this  pomp  and  solemnity  ? 
What  is  the  object  of  this  public  demonstration  ?  All 
Rome  can  tell  you.     Their  Imperial  Majesties  are  going  to 

(l)Many  Enplish  and  American  jruirnals.  Ignorant  as  usual  in  reffard  to  everything 
papal,  asserted  that  the  Gennan  empress  had  reused  to  subject  herself  to  this  etiquette. 
Had  she  been  so  ff>ollsh,  she  would  not  have  been  received  In  audience  by  the  Pontiff. 


276  ■  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

the  Vatican ;  they   are   about   to   render   homage   to  that 
personage  whom  the  dominant  faction,  the  official  press,  the 
Ministers  and  the  deputies,  every  day  term   '  the  enemy  of 
his  country,'   the  '  conspirator,'   the  '  cancer  of  Italy,'  the 
*  knife  which  transfixes  tlie  Italian  heart' . . .  The  emperor 
and  empress  are  introduced  into  the  presence  of  him  who 
has  sat  in  Rome  during  nearly  nineteen  centuries  ;  of  him 
whose  kingdom,  older  and  more  glorious  than  any  in  Europe, 
has  seen  and  will  see  the  births  and   deaths   of   so   many 
republics,   kingdoms,    and  empires.     The   sovereigns   bow 
respectfully  before  the  grand  and  venerable  Leo,  the  vigi- 
lant guardian  of  order  and  of  social  peace,  the  legitimate 
representative   and   energetic  defender  of  the  principle  of 
authority,  the  Vicar  of  Him  who  is  the  King  of   Kings." 
After  about  twenty  minutes   of  conventional  conversation, 
the  empress  introduced  and  presented  to  His  Holiness  the 
ladies  who  had  accompanied  her;  and   then  she  withdrew 
in  order  to  visit  the  palace  and  the  Basilica   of  St.  Peter, 
leaving  her  imperial  husband  to  private  conversation  with 
the  Pontiff.     The  private  audience  of  the  emperor  lasted  for 
more   than  an  hour ;  and  the  papal  attendants   remarked 
that  whereas  the  face  of  William  II.  had  exhibited  great 
anxiety  when  he  entered  the  pontifical  cabinet,  it  appeared 
radiant  when   he   issued   forth.     After   this   audience,   the 
German  emperor  went  directly  to  the  Prussian  legation ;  and 
at  the  lunch  which  was  served  for  him  and  several  cardinals, 
he  presented  a  magnificent  snuff-box  to  Cardinal  Ledochow- 
ski,  the  intrepid  Pole  who  had  been  the  chief  victim  of  the 
Bismarckian  "  War  for  Civilization,"  saying,  as  he  made  the 
peace-offering :  "  Your  Eminence,  may  the   past  be  forgot- 
ten !  "     Cardinal  Rampolla  del  Tindaro,  the  papal  secretary 
of  state,  received  the  decoration  of  the  Black  Eagle  ;  and  as 
the  BerUnet   Tageblatt  afterward  observed,  since  that  honor 
was  usually    iionferred  only   on   monarchs,   and  was  never 
given  to  others,  unless  they  were  Ministers  whom  the  Prus- 
sian sovereign  wished  especially  to  distinguish,  the  fact  was 
to  be  regarded  as  one  of  great  political  importance.     These 
circumstances,  reflected  the  Italian  Liberal  Corrispondenza 
Verde,    "  together  with  the  conditions  which  the  emperor 


POPE   LEO    Xlir.    AND   THE   GERMAN    EMPIRE.  '277 

was  made  to  arcept,  ere  he  could  euter  tlie  rosidouce  of  Loo 
XIIL,  lead  us  to  suppose  that  the  silver  wedding  was,  in  the 
ej-es  of  the  guest  of  the  princes  of  Savoy,  merely  a  pretext 
for  his  visit  to  the  Leonine  City."     Naturally  the  Italian 
"  officious "   journals   protested   against    this   view   of    the 
matter ;  but  they  all  admitted,  with  the  Amzwhc,  that    the 
emperor's  visit  to  the  Vatican  "  was  a  political  event   of  the 
first  importance."     Some  agreed  with  the    Tribinia,  that   it 
was  "  a  cloud  interposed  between  the  young  emperor  and 
the  Italian  people  "  ;  others  again  echoed  the  complaint  of 
the    ministerial  Folcheffo,  that   "it   was  strange   to   see   a 
sovereign,  a  guest  of  the  king  of  United  Italy    in   Italian 
Rome,  going  to  salute  an  old   man   whom   the  (Masonic), 
Italian  sentiment  of  (the  new  and  fictitious)  Rome  loves  not 
but  rather  regards  as  the  incarnation  of  all  that  threatens 
its  rights."     There  were  certain  journals,  principally  Ger- 
man, which  ascribed  the  imperial  deference  to  a  cherished 
hope  that  His  Holiness  would  induce  the  German  Centre  to 
vote  for  the  military  bill  which  Bismarck  had  introduced  into 
the  Reichstag.     One  of  the  chancellor's  organs  complacently 
remarked  that  if  the  ministerial  measure   were  carried,  it 
might  be  recorded,  like  all  Pontifical  Bulls,  as  "  given  at  St. 
Peter's  in  Rome."     Probably  the  reader  remembers  that  in  the 
first  days  of  1893,  Bismarck  proposed  to  augment  the  peace- 
effective  of  the  German  army  by  83,000  men  ;  and  that  the 
government  rejected  the  amendment  of  the  National-Liberals 
which  allowed  an  increase  of  only  49,000.     In  this  emer- 
gency, a  prominent  Centrist,  Baron  von  Huene,  of  his  own 
accord  (Windthorst  was  now  dead),  entered  into  negotiations 
with  the  ministry,  on  the  basis  of  an  army  increase  of  70,000 
men,  to  be  effected  in  three  or  five  years.     It  was  generally 
believed  that  the  Centre  would  support  Huene's  overture,  if 
it  were  rewarded  by  an  abolition   of   the   law   against   the 
Jesuits  ;  but  Avhen  the  decisive  moment  arrived,  the  immense 
majority  of  the  Centre   voted  against   the    bill.     However, 
twelve  of  the    most   prominent   of  the   Catholic   Centrists, 
probably  "  seduced  by  the  new  turn  of  the  imperial  policy, 
and  by  their  relations  with  the  court "  (1),  voted  with  the 

(!>  T'Serclaks  ;  /')c.  cit..  Vol.  li.,  p.  231. 


278  STUDIES   IN   CHUECH    HISTORY. 

government.  This  secession  caused  but  little  embarassment 
to  the  Centre  ;  it  is  worthy  of  mention  principally  because  its 
spirit  accounts  for  the  course  pursued  during  the  ensuing 
few  years  by  certain  German  Catholics  in  reference  to  the 
policy  of  Leo  XIII.  Nor  was  this  spirit  entirely  wanting 
in  Dr.  Lieber,  the  re-organizer  of  the  Centre,  who  would 
otherwise  have  been  w^orthy  of  the  succession  to  "  His  Little 
Excellency,"  the  noble  Windthorst.  During  the  debates  in 
the  Reichstag  on  the  Centrist  motion  to  recall  the  Jesuits, 
Lieber  repelled  the  charge  that  the  Curia  Bomana  pursued 
a  course  which  was  hostile  to  German  interests  ;  but,  declared 
this  lay  theologian,  "  if  the  Curia  were  to  embrace  the  Rus- 
sian and  Francophile  policy,  the  infallibility  of  the  Curia 
would  not  prevent  German  Catholics  from  fulfilling  their 
duties  toward  the  German  people  and  empire"  (1).  We 
are  accustomed  to  the  tiresome  reiteration  of  murmurs  about 
the  Curia  Bomana  in  the  land  which  produced  Lutheranism, 
Febronianism,  and  Josephism  ;  but  there  are  few  German 
truly  Catholic  publicists  who  would  not  recognize  non- 
sense in  any  talk  about  "  the  infallibility  of  the  Curia.'' 
Even  Paolo  Sarpi,  the  most  venemous  foe  of  the  Curia,  never 
insinuated  that  it  claimed  infallibility.  If  the  Centrist 
leader  intended  to  use  intelligible  language,  he  intended  to 
convey  the  idea  that  the  infallibility,  or  rather  the  authority 
of  the  Pojje,  would  never  prevent  German  Catholics  from  do- 
ing their  duty  toward  their  government.  Lieber  may  have 
been  addressing  the  gallery — the  gallery  of  ignorance,  and 
of  Protestant  prejudice  ;  but  he  must  have  known  that  even 
the  political  duties  of  men  are  often  embraced  by  that 
morality,  of  which  the  Church  is  the  guardian.  As  for  the 
matter  of  the  Triple  Alliance  against  that  of  France  and  Rus- 
sia, which  was  the  cause  of  aberration  on  the  part  of  Lieber 
and  many  other  Centrists,  the  fear  of  an  active  papal  attach- 
ment to  either  was  necessarily  unfounded.  In  the  words  of 
the  Civiltd  Catfolica,  "  The  Holy  Father  is  superior  to  all 
the  agreements  and  alliances  of  the  day,  just  as  the  interests 
of  the  Church  are  above  all  the  designs  and  desires  of  tem- 
poral governments.     He  who  lowers  the  Papacy  to  the  rank 

(1)  Cited  by  T'Serclaes,  ubi  sxtora. 


POPE    LEO    XIII.    AND   THE   GERMAN    EMPIRE.  279 

of  politiciaus,  does  not  uiulcrstjiiul  tlio  Pjipacy.  Leo  XIII. 
is  above  both  the  Fniuco-Kussiau  and  the  Triple  Alliauee. 
However  great  may  be  the  love  which,  iu  spite  of  her  rulers 
and  politicians,  he  feels  for  Catholic  France,  he  will  never 
sacrifice  the  interest  of  other  Catholic  peoples  "  (1).  It  was 
because  of  mistaken  or  feigned  apprehensions  like  those  of 
Lieber  that  certain  organs  of  the  German  Centre,  at  this 
time,  attacked  the  Catholic  press  of  Italy,  because  the  latter 
did  not  advocate  an  abandonment,  on  the  part  of  the  Italian 
Catholics,  of  their  policy  of  abstention  in  political  aftairs. 
These  gentry  hoped,  iu  tine,  to  effect  a  "  reconciliation " 
between  the  Vatican  and  the  Quiriual,  and  thus  to  strength- 
en the  Triple  Alliance  to  the  detriment  of  France.  But 
these  same  German  Catholic  journals  knew  that  the  Italian 
Catholic  press  was  merely  obeying  the  injunctions  of  the 
Pontiff;  and  furthermore,  they  should  have  known  that,  as 
Mgr.  T'Serclaes  observes,  "  the  Pope  could  not  modify  his 
policy  in  order  to  please  the  Triple  Alliance  ;  and  that  this 
Alliance,  which  might  have  been  otherwise  a  matter  of  in- 
difference to  him,  as  are  other  political  alliances,  was 
necessarily  to  be  regarded  by  him  as  hostile  to  the  Holy 
See,  since  it  contributed  to  the  perpetuation  of  the  exist- 
ing condition  of  affairs  in  Rome,  to  the  detriment  of  the 
pontifical  independence." 

The  present  and  future  condition  of  the  Church  in  Ba- 
varia furnished  material  for  continual  anxiety  in  the  mind  of 
Leo  XIII.  during  the  early  years  of  his  pontificate.  While 
the  people  were  still  thoroughly  Catholic,  the  oflBcial  circles 
were  almost  entirely  either  Josephist  or  Rationalist,  and  the 
once  well-promising  LTniversity  of  Munich  had  for  four  years 
been  a  mere  vehicle  for  the  dissemination  of  "German  sci- 
ence "  (2).     On  Dec.  22, 1887,  our  Pontiff  addressed  to  the  Ba- 

(1)  Issue  of  .ran.  6,  1894. 

(2)  In  1825,  King  Louis  I.,  who  had  just  mounted  the  Bavarian  throne,  determined  to 
reorganize  tlie  University  of  Landshut.  which  had  become  intellectually  (led<'ient,  and  a 
hotbed  of  infldelity.  Following  the  advice  of  Christian  scholars  like  Ringsels,  the  mon- 
arch adopted  a  programme  of  studies  which  excited  hope  for  the  future  of  their  country 
in  the  minds  of  the  Bavarian  clergy,  and  he  transferred  the  University  from  Landshut  to 
Munich.  This  University  then  became  a  "  mixed  "  establishment,  having  both  Catholic 
and  Protestant  Faculties  of  Theology  ;  but  the  king  expressly  ordained  that  no  unchris- 
tian teaching  should  ever  be  tolernte<l.  Besides  that  of  Munich,  there  were  also  established 
the  exclusively  Catholic  University  of  Wurzburg.  and  the  exclusively  Protestant  one  at 


280  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

varian  bishops  a  most  toucliing  expression  of  his  solicitude  in 
regard  to  their  flocks,  in  his  Encyclical  Officio  sanctissimo. 
Alluding,  in  general  terms,  to  the  attacks  of  the  Bavarian 
government  on  the  rights  of  God  and  His  Church,  His  Holi- 
ness reminds  the  clergy  of  their  duty  to  bear  in  silence  all  that 
can  be  suffered  without  prejudice  to  truth  and  virtue,  taking 
care,  however,  to  be  prudent  in  their  toleration  of  evil,  and  not 
seeming  to  countenance  it  in  any  way  whatever.  When  he 
approaches  the  subject  of  education,  the  Pontiff  exhorts  the 
faithful  to  establish  Catholic  schools  "  wherever  the  public 
schools  are  neutral."  He  repeats  his  often-given  warnings 
against  Freemasonry,  that  sect  which,  of  all  others,  is  "  so 
hostile  to  the  Church  of  God,  but  which  knows  how  to  dis- 
simulate, even  under  the  appearances  of  piety  and  of  charity 
wlien  such  a  course  can  aid  its  seduction  of  men,  and  es- 
pecially of  youth."  The  Pope  tells  the  Bavarian  Catholics 
that  he  realizes  full  well  the  difficulties  under  which  they 
labor  ;  but  he  foresees  that  they  will  triumph  over  their  ene- 
mies, if  they  will  only  be  united,  "  and  use  those  legal  means 
which  their  adversaries  adopt,  when  they  wish  to  enact  laws 
tvhich  are  opposed  to  the  freedom  of  the  Church."  Having 
forwarded  this  Encyclical  to  the  Bavarian  bishops,  Leo 
XIII.  requested  the  Baron  Eranckenstein,  President  of  the 
Upper  Chamber  of  Bavaria,  and  then  leader  of  the  Centre 
in  the  German  Reichstag,  to  repair  to  Rome,  in  order  that 
His  Holiness  might  confer  with  him  concerning  the  relig- 

Erlangen.  In  choosing  the  professors  of  the  University  of  Munich,  care  was  taken  to 
ignore  most  of  the  olden  professors  of  Landshut,  some  of  whom  were  pronounced  infidels, 
while  most  of  the  others  were  of  very  inferior  calibre.  The  selection  of  the  new  Faculties 
was  entrusted  principally  to  Uingseis ;  and  among  the  first  whom  that  diplomat  induced 
to  try  their  professorial  fortunes  in  the  Bavarian  capital  were  the  famous  representatives 
of  Catholic  and  Protestant  philosophy,  Baader  and  Schilling.  Steps  were  then  taken  to 
procure  the  services  of  the  great  Gorres,  who  was  then  residing  in  France,  having  been 
expelled  from  that  Prussia  which  his  eloquence  had  saved  from  ruin.  The  government  of 
Prussia,  however,  feared  the  oratorical  powers  of  its  victim,  and  endeavored  to  induce 
Louis  I.  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  Ringseis,  Clemens  Brentano,  and  other  able  judges  who 
begged  for  the  appointment  of  GOrres.  Fortunately  the  cabinet  of  Berlin  assumed  a  dicta- 
torial attitude  ;  whereupon  the  Bavarian  sovereign  defied  the  Prussians  by  inviting  the 
patriot  to  his  capital.  With  the  acquisition  of  Gorres  the  Catholic  influence  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Munich  predominated.  The  Protestants  boasted  indeed  of  men  like  Schelling, 
Raumer,  Thiersch,  and  Oken ;  but  Gorres  was  a  host  in  himself,  and  he  was  supported  by 
Baader,  Ringseis,  Klee,  Moehler,  Moy,  Phllipps  and  the  two  Dcellingers.  father  and  son- 
From  that  time  until  the  early  sixties,  when  the  unfortunate  younger  Doellinger  began 
to  exhibit  the  tendencies  which  were  to  eventuate  in  the  catastrophe  of  his  life,  the  Cath- 
olic world  could  find  small  cause  of  complaint  in  the  University  of  Munlcb. 


rOPE   LEO    XIII.    .VND   THE   GEUMAN   EMPIRE.  281 

ious  affiiirs  of  tlie  Bavariiin  kiiifi;(loni,  and  of  the  whole 
empire.  Frauokeusteiu  availed  himself  of  this  honor  ;  and 
when  he  reported  the  particulars  of  the  conference  to  the 
Bavarian  Catholic  "group"  in  the  lieiciista«^,  that  body 
replied,  throu<;h  its  president,  Ruppert :  "  This  intervention 
of  the  Holy  Father  is  an  act  of  the  greatest  importance  ; 
the  mere  fact  that  the  August  Pontiff  should  place  himself 
in  relation  with  our  group  shows  his  esteem  for  it.  The 
words  of  the  Supreme  Pontiflf  are  concise  but  eloquent.  By 
his  wish  for  the  Centre  to  continue  its  combat,  His  Holi- 
ness approves  its  course  in  the  past,  and  indicates  its  course 
in  the  future.  Union  being  the  greatest  of  forces,  the  Pon- 
tiff exhorts  the  Bavarian  Centre  to  maintain  that  union. 
By  dint  of  perseverance,  and  by  means  of  a  firm  support  of 
the  Holy  See,  our  group  will  not  fail  to  attain  its  object — 
the  liberty  of  the  Church,  and  the  consolidation  of  Christian 
principles."  Animated  by  these  sentiments,  the  Bavarian 
bishops  addressed  to  the  prince-regent  a  respectful  but 
firm  remonstrance  against  the  continuance  of  the  last  ves- 
tiges of  the  Bismarckian  "  War  for  Civilization  "  in  Bavaria. 
The  prince,  still  under  the  influence  of  his  little  Bismarck, 
Lutz,  refused  to  receive  this  remonstrance  officially  ;  but 
the  prelates  gained  their  point  by  means  of  the  post,  where- 
upon His  Highness  requested  them  not  to  communicate 
the  document  to  the  public — a  favor  which  they  deemed  it 
prudent  to  grant.  Several  months  afterward,  Lutz  replied  to 
the  episcopal  representations  with  a  letter  which  merited 
the  encomium  of  the  prince-regent  as  being  a  firm  defence 
of  "the  rights  of  the  crown."  These  royal  rights  were  sup- 
posed to  have  been  vindicated  by  a  refusal  to  give  a  Catholic 
character  to  the  secondary  schools  of  the  kingdom,  and  to 
the  Universities  of  Munich  and  Wurzburg ;  by  a  persistence 
in  the  banishment  of  the  religious  orders ;  and  by  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  absurd  abuse  of  the  royal  placet,  even  in 
matters  of  Catholic  faith.  The  "rights  of  the  crown"  were 
supposed  by  Lutz  and  his  royal  master  to  be  reinforced  by 
a  new  declaration  that  the  "  Old  Catholic  "  sect  formed  a  part 
of  the  Catholic  Church  ;  and  by  an  insistence  on  the  validity 
of  the  Edict  of  Religion  of  1827,  which  had  annulled  most  of 


282  STUDIES   IN    CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

the  provisions  of  tlie  Concordat  of  1818.  Leo  XIII.  could 
not  allow  this  ministerial  pronouncement  to  pass  unnoticed  ; 
and  on  April  29,  1889,  in  a  letter  which  complimented  the 
Bavarian  prelates  on  their  energy,  he  declared  that  the 
Bavarian  premier  had  advanced  doctrines  which  were  con- 
trary to  the  Catholic  faith.  It  was  quite  natural,  therefore, 
that  in  a  grand  Catholic  Congress  held  in  Munich  on  the 
following  Sept.  23,  there  should  have  been  adopted  an  address, 
signed  by  16,000  members  of  the  assembly,  praying  the 
prince-regent  to  satisfy  the  ever  legitimate  demands  of  the 
Church.  It  is  strange  that  the  scion  of  the  House  of 
Wittelsbach  did  not  deign  to  reply  to  this  appeal  from  the 
most  devoted  friends  of  his  family  ;  although  shortly  after- 
ward he  gave  assurances  of  his  royal  protection  to  a 
Protestant  "  missionary  "  association  which  was  named  after 
the  most  bitter  enemy  of  his  dynasty,  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
However,  the  action  of  the  Congress  of  Munich  was  seconded 
by  the  Catholic  party  in  the  parliament ;  and  after  much 
tergiversation,  Lutz  so  far  yielded  as  to  promise  that  he 
would  ask  the  Federal  Council  to  recall  the  Redemptorists, 
who  had  been  banished  because  of  their  pretended  affiliation 
to  the  terrible  Jesuits,  As  for  the  royal  jjlacet,  a  presumed 
necessity  ere  any  doctrinal  decision  of  the  Church  could  be 
obligatory  on  a  good  Bavarian,  the  premier  would  continue 
to  uphold  the  heretical  claim  ;  as  for  the  status  of  the  "  Old 
Catholics,"  he  would  regard  them  as  members  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  until  the  Holy  See  had  "  formally  pronounced  them 
separated  from  its  communion  " — as  though  the  anathema 
of  the  Vatican  Council  had  not  been  sufficiently  formal.  But 
the  Catholic  parliamentary  opposition  remained  indomitable  ; 
and  finally  the  minister  declared  his  willingness  to  regard 
the  "  Old  Catholics  "  as  excommunicated,  not  because  they 
did  not  receive  the  dogma  of  Papal  Infallibility— a  doctrine 
which  had  not  received  the  placet  of  His  Bavarian  Majesty — 
but  "  because  they  did  not  believe  in  the  Immaculate  Concep- 
tion of  the  Blessed  Virgin."  The  Catholic  party  accepted 
the  ministerial  decision,  although  of  course  it  carefully  noted 
that  it  rejected  the  ministerial  reasoning  ;  the  sectarians 
now  lost  the  governmental  pecuniary  aid  which  alone  gave 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND   THE    GEllMAN    EMl'IKE.  283 

to  tliem  some  soinbluioo  of  vitality,  l)ut  tlio  priiu-ijilo  of  the 
royal  placet  reuiiiined  iutaet.  The  prim-o-regcnt  oviiicod  his 
chagrin  because  of  this  partial  victory  of  the  "  Ultramon- 
tanes  "  by  informing  tlio  archbishop  of  Munich  that  another 
Congress  of  Munich  would  be  regarded  as  a  danger  t(^  public 
tranquillity.  A  few  days  after  this  petty  ebullition,  His 
Highness  lost  the  services  of  Lutz.  Seized  by  a  mortal  ill- 
ness, this  nominally  Catholic  minister,  who  had  educated 
his  children  in  heresy,  and  who  had  used  all  his  power  to 
un-Catholicize  Bavaria,  requested  and  received  the  Sacra- 
ments of  the  Church. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE. 

If  the  reader  has  accompanied  us  carefully  during  our  in- 
dagations  into  the  vicissitudes  of  the  Church  in  Russian  Pol- 
and (1),  he  has  undoubtedly  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the 
spirit  of  Russian  "  Orthodoxy,"  like  that  of  Freemasonry,  is 
essentially  brutal,  and  even  sanguinary,  whenever  there  arises 
a  question  in  which  the  interests  of  Catholicism  are  involved. 
And  nevertheless,  from  the  beginning  of  his  pontificate, 
Leo  XIII.  cherished  not  only  the  hope  of  inducing  the  Col- 
ossus of  the  North  to  grant  religious  freedom  to  its  Catholic 
subjects,  especially  to  that  portion  of  Poland  which  it  dom- 
inates, but  also  an  idea  that  he  might  eradicate  from  the  "  Or- 
thodox" Sch\smatic  mind  those  prejudices  against  the  Holy 
See  which  are  perhaps  more  political  than  religious,  and 
which  are  due— be  it  said  with  all  consideration  for  Russian 
susceptibility— to  a  not  unpardonable  ignorance.  Probably 
the  confidence  of  the  Pontiff  was  similar  to  that  entertained 
bv  the  perspicacious  Cardinal  Consalvi,  when  he  said  to 
Pope  Leo  XII.  :  "  Our  gaze  must  be  ever  fixed  on  the 
vaf^aries  of  the  Russians,  but  reason  commands  us  to  be 
persistently  patient  in  their  regard.  If  they  are  ever  to  re- 
turn to  our  communion,  they  will  return  of  their  own  accord ; 

(1)  In  our  Vol.  v..  ch.  3. 


284  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

and  we  may  be  sure  that  if  this  immense  mass  continues  to 
grow,  it  will  encounter  the  dangers  which  all  political 
obesities  eventually  meet.  Catholicism  alone,  Most  Holy 
Father — and  I  say  it  with  happy  tears  of  gratitude  to  God 
— Catholicism  alone  can  never  be  too  extensive  "  (1).  No 
statesman  in  the  world  appreciated  true  patriotism — even 
a  sacred  thing  when  the  civil  rights  of  a  citizen  are  involved 
— more  exactly  than  did  Leo  XIII.  ;  and  it  was  because  he 
believed  that  in  Christendom  there  can  be  no  true  patriotism 
which  is  not  Christian,  that  he  held  with  Tchadaieif — one  of 
the  best  minds  produced  by  modern  Russia,  although 
Nicholas  I.  officially  pronounced  him  a  fool — that  "  Chris- 
tian reason  cannot  endure  any  kind  of  blindness,  especially 
that  of  national  prejudice,  since  this  prejudice  is  the  most 
inimical  to  unity  among  men  "  (2).  Conscious  of  his  own 
respect,  as  Pontiff  and  as  man,  for  the  principle  of  nation- 
alities, when  properly  understood,  Leo  XIII.  made  in  all 
sincerity  implicit  overtures  for  an  amicable  understanding 
with  tlie  Russian  court,  as  soon  as  he  mounted  the  pontifical 
throne,  when  he  notified  that  accession  to  Alexander  II. 
In  the  following  year,  the  Encyclical  Quod  ajjofifolici,  issued 
against  Socialism,  was  received  probably  with  greater 
pleasure  by  the  friends  of  the  Russian  government,  than  by 
any  other  class  in  Christendom  ;  for  the  Slavic  spirit,  ever 
prone  to  extremes,  had  become  permeated  by  the  Socialistic 
doctrines,  and  had  begun  to  actuate  them  with  a  ferocity 
and  a  resolution  hitherto  unknown  in  European  revolutionary 
manifestations.  Russian  society  was  then  trembling,  down 
to  its  very  foundations  ;  the  decrees  of  the  Nihilists  were 
executed  with  an  infernal  ability  which  seemed  destined 
to  triumph  over  both  autocracy  and  bureaucracy.     Alexander 

(!)  Artacd  ;  Life  of  Len  XII.,  Bk.  1,  p.  170. 

(3)  Count  Diiiiitrl  Tolstoy,  whose  bitterness  against  Catholicism  we  have  already  de- 
scribed (Vol.  v.,  ch.  3),  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  Russian  "  orthodox  "  idea  of  the 
mutual  repugnance  of  Catholicism  and  the  spirit  of  nationality.  Spealiing  of  the  noblest 
female  character  produced  by  modern  Russia,  he  said:  "My  reason  is  pitiless;  it  can 
neyer  pardon  Madame  de  Swetchine  for  having  changed  herself  from  a  Russian  into  a 
French  woman,  as  she  her.self  declared.  Of  course  we  understand  that  the  change  was 
subject  to  the  distrust  of  Catholicism  for  every  nationality  whatsoever."  See  the  article 
by  Gagarin  in  the  Correspondant  of  June  35,  18G0.  If  Catholicism  is  so  hostile  to  the 
principle  of  nationalities,  why  did  Dimitri  Tolstoy  show  himself  so  venemous  toward 
Polish  Catholicism  ? 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND   THE    RUSSIAN    KMPIItE.  '285 

IT.  perceived  too  well  that  lio  could  liopo  for  no  aid  from 
the  corruptiou  and  veuality  of  liis  civil  adiniuistrations. 
Nor  could  be  rely  ou  any  active  reli«;ious  propaganda  ou  the 
part  of  his  vicious  and  ignorant  "  Orthodox  "  clergy,  as  a 
defence  against  the  subversive  enterprises  of  the  sectarians. 
Still  less  could  he  appeal  to  the  intelligence  of  the  educated 
young  men  of  Russia,  from  whose  ranks  the  Nihilists  were 
chiefly  recruited  ;  for  each  college  or  university  was  either 
a  hot-bed  of  infidelity  or  a  swamp  of  iudifferentism.  Thrice 
within  ten  months  the  imperial  life  was  attacked  ;  and  after 
the  last  attempt,  Feb.  17,  1880,  the  czar  and  his  advisers 
thought  it  would  be  well  to  admit  once  more,  at  least  into 
Poland,  the  counsels  of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  As  a  beginning, 
permission  was  given  to  Canon  Satkievitch,  then  adminis- 
trator of  the  diocese  of  Warsaw,  to  receive  the  Encyclical 
Quod  apostoh'ci ;  and  he  was  requested  to  send  a  copy  to 
each  of  the  Catholic  pastors,  with  instructions  to  explain 
the  document  to  their  flocks.  Not  one  Catholic  had  been 
convicted  of  Nihilism,  terrible  as  had  been  the  persecution 
in  Poland,  and  grievous  as  the  burdens  of  the  Catholics  still 
were.  Why  did  Alexander  II.,  of  whose  "  Orthodox  "  zeal 
we  have  had  abundant  and  sickening  proof,  grant  this 
concession  ?  He  could  scarcely  have  supposed  that  the 
Catholics,  after  a  patient  endurance  of  confiscation,  knout, 
freezings,  and  Siberia,  would  now,  when  persecution  had 
become  less  violent,  suddenly  develop  into  incendiaries 
and  assassins.  It  is  more  natural  to  suppose  that  the  czar 
admitted  the  Papal  Encyclical  into  his  dominions  trusting 
that  its  arguments  might  have  some  effect  on  his  "  Orthodox  " 
subjects. 

In  his  Encyclical  Grande  Mnnits,  issued  on  Sept.  30,  1880, 
our  Pontifl"  recalled  all  that  his  predecessors  had  effected  for 
the  spiritual  and  temporal  welfare  of  the  Slavic  race.  He 
reminded  men  that  it  was  through  Sts.  Cyril  and  Methodius, 
sent  by  Rome,  that  the  Slavs  had  received  the  faith  and 
civilization ;  and  he  asked  the  "  Orthodox,"  so  attached  to 
their  special  liturgy,  to  remember  that  the  Holy  See  had  ex- 
pressly approved  the  action  of  those  apostles,  when  they 
introduced  the  use  of  the  ancient  Slavic  language  into  their 


286  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

religious  services.  And  in  order  to  show  that  he  cherished 
no  idea  of  "  Latinizing  "  the  Catholics  of  the  Greco-Slavonic 
Kite,  a  calumny  ever  studiously  propagated  by  the  Schismatic 
leaders  (1),  the  Pope  declared  that  thereafter  the  founders 
of  the  Greco -Slavonic  Eite,  the  glorious  Sts.  Cyril  and 
Methodius,  would  be  honored  by  the  celebration  of  their 
Office  throughout  the  Catholic  world.  This  pontifical  declar- 
ation produced  an  excellent  effect  among  the  Slavs  ;  and  on 
July  5,  1881,  His  Holiness  received  a  deputation  of  more  than 
1,200  persons,  representing  every  Slavic  nationality ,'_excepting 
that  of  Muscovy,  which  would  never,  of  course,  be  allowed  to 
share  in  such  a  demonstration,  unless,  perchance,  it  were  in- 
tended as  a  Pan-Slavic  aspiration  toward  the  yearning  bosom 
of  Holy  Russia.  In  his  remarks  to  this  deputation,  Leo  XIII. 
used  very  guarded  terms,  carefully  avoiding  anything  like 
an  indication  of  rancor  toward  the  Russian  government ;  and 
although  the  interests  of  "  Orthodoxy  "  had  been  seriously 
menaced  by  his  recent  restoration  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy 
in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  (2),  and  by  his  creation  of  three 
United-Greek  vicariates-apostolic  in  Bulgaria,  the  Pontiff 
soon  experienced  the  satisfaction  of  learning  that  among  the 
more  enlightened  of  the  Russians  a  warm  feeling  in  favor  of 
Catholicism  was  being  developed.  Undoubtedly  this  senti- 
ment was  not  shared  by  the  official  Russians,  the  creatures 
and  instruments  of  the  Holy  Synod  ;  as  a  Protestant  journal 
of  the  day  remarked,  "  loud  lamentations  were  heard  in  St. 
Petersburg  and  Moscow,  just  as  in  Constantinople  and 
Athens,"  because  of  the  newly-enkindled  energy  of  the 
United-Greek  propaganda  in  the  Slavic  provinces  of  Austria, 
in  Bulgaria,  and  in  Turkey — a  propaganda  which  Leo  XIII. 
was  about  to  aid  by  his  foundation  of  free  scholarships  in  the 
seminary  of  Adrianople,  and  by  his  establishment  of  a  new 
seminary  in  Salonica.     But  that  in  unofficial  Russia  many 

(1)  For  the  deep  significance  of  the  terms  "  Latinization,"  "  Polouization,"  etc.,  when 
used  by  "Orthodox"  writers,  see  our  Vol.  il.,  p.  135. 

(2)  The  cabinet  of  St.  Petersburg  regards  all  the  missionary  efforts  of  the  Church  In 
Bosnia.  Herzegovina,  Bulgaria,  Roumania,  and  Routnelia,  as  so  many  manifestations  of  an 
able  policy  which  would  make  the  Papacy  the  guide  of  the  Slavic  current  which  Holy 
Russia  claims  as  her  own  appanage.  The  Holy  Synod  affects  to  discern  iu  the  pouiillcal 
"diplomacy"  a  desire  to  create  a  union  of  all  Slavic  Catholicism,  under  the  protection  of 
Austria,  a  power  whose  governmental  policy  ia  now  no  more  Catholic  than  that  which  Is 
devised  in  Berlin. 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   THE   RUSSIAN   EMPIRE.  287 

sincere  hearts  were  then  beginninj:;  to  yearn  for  ecclesiastical 
union  with  Rome,  was  afterward  admitted  bv  one  of  tlio  ])riii('i- 
pal  organs  of  the  "  Ortln)dox"  Church,  the  Thcrd,  which  had 
the  hardihood  and  the  honesty  necessary  for  the  utterance 
of  the  following  language  :  "  The  higher  ranks  of  society  in 
St.  Petersburg,  being  like  an  immense  lever  in  this  matter, 
tend  toward  giving  an  impulse  to  an  ecclesiastical  union  of 
the  East  with  the  West.  In  proof  of  this  assertion,  we  can 
adduce,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  the  authentic  testimony 
of  very  many  Russians,  even  of  one  august  member  of  the 
czar's  own  family.  In  fact,  these  same  persons  have  begun 
the  work  of  uniting  the  Eastern  to  the  Roman  Church.  The 
intellectual  and  the  social  elite  of  Russia  regard  this  event 
as  the  salvation  of  Russian  society,  the  remedy  for  all  our 
social  evils  "  (1).  It  cannot  be  supposed  that  such  journalis- 
tic gossip  would  have  produced  any  effect  in  the  pontifical 
mind  ;  but  the  visit  of  the  Russian  chancellor,  Giers,  to  the 
Vatican  on  Dec.  5,  1882,  followed  by  the  restoration  of  the 
venerable  Mgr.  Felinski  to  his  archiepiscopal  see,  had  en- 
couraged Leo  XIII.  to  hope  for  better  days,  at  least  in  Pol- 
and. We  may  imagine  the  dismay  of  the  Pontiff  who  had 
believed  in  the  supposedly  lenient  tendencies  of  Alexander 
III.,  when  he  learned  that  the  bishop  of  Wilna,  guilty  of  hav- 
ing censured  two  of  his  clergy,  because  of  their  apostasy, 
had  been  suddenly  summoned  to  the  capital,  and  then,  with- 
out any  opportunity  for  an  appeal  to  the  czar,  had  been 
exiled  to  Siberia.  During  the  next  few  years,  the  Russian 
government  frequently  manifested  a  velleity  to  discover  some 
modus  Vivendi  with  its  Catholic  subjects  ;  but  not  until  1888 
were  the  advances  serious,  and  then  they  were  made  through 
the  Russian  ambassador  in  Vienna.  But  no  sooner  did  it 
transpire  that  probably  the  Pontiff  and  the  czar  were  arriv- 
ing at  a  solution  of  their  difficulties,  than  the  entire  Masonic 
press  of  Europe  emitted  a  howl  of  virtuous  horror  and  out- 
raged patriotism.  Rome  was  about  to  sacrifice  the  religious 
and  national  interests  of  Poland,  cried  the  sectarians  ;  Rome 
was  about  to  sanction  the  introduction  of  the  Russian  language 
in  the  Polish  churches,  and  therefore  Rome  was  to  be  the 

(1)   Cited  by  the  Mmixtcur  tie  Rome,   Jan.  1."),  189-j. 


288  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

prime  Russifier  of  Poland.  The  truth  of  the  matter  was  that 
in  1883,  Giers  had  endeavored  to  procure  the  consent  of 
CardinalJacobini  for  the  use  of  Russian  in  the  non-liturgical 
services  of  the  Polish  Churches,  and  in  the  teaching  of  the 
catechism  ;  but  the  Pontiff  had  categorically  refused  to  allow  a 
Russification  which  would  have  endangered  the  faith  of  the 
growing  generation  of  Poles.  And  the  same  categorical  re- 
fusal was  given  in  1888.  Defeated  on  this  point,  the  cabinet 
of  St.  Petersburg  endeavored  to  obtain  from  the  Pope  an  ap- 
probation of  the  Russian  law  which  prescribes  that  all  the 
children  of  a  mixed  marriage  shall  be  educated  in  the  schism. 
The  refusal  of  this  demand  did  not  cause  a  break  in  the 
negotiations;  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  Russian  states- 
men ever  dreamed  that  the  Head  of  the  Catholic  Church 
would  hand  over  the  little  ones  of  his  flock  to  perdition.  A 
Russian  ambassador,  Iswolski,  was  accredited  to  the  Vati- 
can— a  terrible  blow  to  such  of  the  Centrists  of  Germany  as. 
Catholic  though  they  were,  would  have  delighted  in  an 
estrangement  of  Russia  from  the  Pope,  simply  because 
Russia  was  the  secret  ally  of  France,  and  because  they  were 
upholders  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  The  negotiations  of  1888 
and  1889  were,  in  two  respects,  triumphant  for  Leo  XIII. 
He  gained  the  re-opening  of  diplomatic  relations  with  the 
czar;  and  he  was  allowed  to  fill  the  long- vacant  sees  of 
Wilna  (1),  Tiraspol,  Plock,  Lublin,  Mohilow.  In  these  nego- 
tiations, is  there  anything  which  might  justify  the  accusation, 
brought  by  German  publicists  like  Prof  essor  Geflfcken  and  the 
"  Austrian  diplomat "  of  the  Contemporary  Review,  to  the 
effect  that  by  such  "  unworthy  compromises  "  Leo  XIII.  sac- 
rificed the  true  interests  of  Catholicism  to  his  "  dream  "  of  a 
restoration  of  the  papal  temporal  power  ?  Since  Geffcken 
unblushingly  adopts  as  his  own  the  brazen  lie  of  the  "  Aus- 
trian diplomat "  representing  Leo  XIII.  as  addressing  the 
czar  as  "  Patriarch  of  the  North,"  we  are  not  surprised, 
even  though  we  are  sickened,  when  he  thus  explodes : 
"Leo  XIII.  did  not  hesitate  to  sacrifice  Catholic  interests  in 
Russia,  that  he  might  gratify  the  secret  ally  of  the  French 

(1)  The  exiled  bishop  of  Wilna  was  permitted  to  return  from  Siberia,  to  resipn  his 
diocese,  and  to  leave  the  empire  with  a  pension. 


rorE  LEO  xni.  and  the  Russian  empirk  tib'* 

Republic.  The  jittituJo  of  all  previous  Popos,  wliou  brou^'ht 
face  to  face  with  the  czars,  had  been  tirm  aud  worthy.  Tims, 
Gregory  XVI.  feared  not  to  talk  to  Nicholas,  the  persecu- 
tor of  the  Church  in  Poland,  just  as  Anil)rose  spoke  to 
Theodosiua  ;  and  the  autocrat  of  the  North  listened  to  him 
in  silence  (1).  To-dav,  the  Church  in  Poland  is  fallen  ho 
low,  that  in  comparison  with  her,  the  Polish  Church  of  the 
days  of  Nicholas  I.  was  free  ;  now  she  is  reduced  to  the 
level  of  a  Department  of  State.  Entire  dioceses  are  sup- 
pressed ;  Catholics  are  excluded  from  every  pul)lic  employ- 
ment ;  their  churches  are  closed,  and  when  they  try  to  enter 
for  worship,  they  are  knouted,  and  then  sent  into  exile.  In 
a  w^ord,  these  Catholics  are  reduced  to  the  alternative  of 
apostas}'  or  Siberia."  "We  have  described  the  condition  of 
the  Church  in  Poland  under  the  sway  of  Nicholas  I.;  and  the 
reader  shall  judge  whether  the  lot  of  the  Polish  Catholics 
was,  as  the  Gf^vman  m'ofessor  audaciously  asserts,  less  pain- 
ful than  that  of  their  descendants,  so  cruelly  "  sacrificed  "  l)y 
Leo  XIII.  "  German  science  "  has  seldom  exhibited  effron- 
tery like  this  of  the  much-lauded  ex-professor  of  Inter- 
national Law  aud  Statecraft  in  the  University  of  Strasburg, 
as  he  depicts  Leo  XIIL  as  willingly  perpetuating  the  miser- 
ies of  unfortunate  Poland — as  playing  the  game  of  a  petty 
politican, and  for  the  sake  of  a  mere  "dream."  The  Cu-i/fd 
Cattolica  did  not  think  that  a  notice  of  this  ebullition  would 
compromise  its  dignity  ;  and  since  that  Roman  periodica] 
is  as  excellent  a  guide  in  matters  of  projiriety,  as  it  is  in 
those  of  fact,  we  shall  imitate  its  course,  so  far  as  to  con- 
dense its  argumentation  (2).  If  the  curious  student  would 
peruse  the  five  large  volumes  which  contain  the  authentic 
records  of  the  relations  between  the  cabinets  of  the  Vatican 
and  St.  Petersburg,  during  the  first  fifteen  years  of  the 
Leonine  pontificate,  he  would  fiud  that  each  page  of  those 
records  gives  the  lie  to  Professor  Geffcken,  and  to  the  few 
German  Catholics  whose  foolish  zeal  for  the  Triple  Alliance 
led  them  to  endorse  his  ravings.  In  these  volumes  we  have 
all  the  instructions  given  by  the  Pontiff  to  the  Polish  aud 

(H  See  our  Vol  v.,  p.  101. 

(2)  In  the  numbers  for  Deo.  17,  1H92,  and  Jan.  7,  1803 


290  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Russian  bishops,  and  all  the  correspondence  with  the  Rus- 
sian government,  etc.  Among  the  results  of  the  Leonine 
policy  toward  Russia,  we  find  provisions  made  for  many- 
vacant  dioceses ;  advantages  gained  for  the  Catholics  of  the 
Caucasus  ;  an  agreement  in  1882  which  was  of  great  benefit 
to  the  Catholic  seminaries  lu  the  empire,  as  well  as  to  the 
Ecclesiastical  Academy  in  St.  Petersbiirg ;  and  a  formal 
promise,  made  on  the  part  of  the  Russian  government  on 
Dec.  24,  1882,  by  Boutenieff,  its  charge  cV  affaires,  that  the 
persecuting  decrees  of  1865  would  be  suppressed.  In  1890, 
Leo  XIII.  addressed  to  the  newly-appointed  bishops  of 
Poland,  to  those  prelates  who  are  represented  by  Geffcken 
as  creatures  of  a  cowardly  and  self-seeking  policy  on  the 
part  of  the  Pontiff,  an  exhortation  to  defend  to  their  utmost 
the  rights  of  the  Church,  to  work  for  the  prosperity  of  their 
flocks,  and  to  promote  harmony  with  the  civil  authorities 
when  the  imperial  laivs  ivere  not  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the 
Church.  Certainly  this  record  is  not  that  of  a  Pontiff  who, 
as  the  infamous  Crispi  asserted,  "  would  have  sacrificed 
not  one,  but  ten  Polands,  in  order  to  win  the  friendship  of 
the  czar"  (1). 

(1)  Thus  in  an  interview  for  the  New  York  Herald  cited  by  T'Serclaes,  Joe.  cit..  Vol.  i^ 
p.  503. 


One  of  the  most  salient  events  of  Russian  history  during  the  pontificate  of  Leo  XIII. 
was  the  oppression  of  the  Jewish  subjects  of  the  autocrat— a  persecution  which  was  far 
more  bitter  than  any  which  the  children  of  Israel  have  suffered  elsewhere  in  our  day,  but 
which  American  Protestants  generally  feign  to  ignore,  since  it  was  principally  the  work  of 
that  bitter  foe  of  the  Holy  See,  Pobiendonostzev,  the  procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod  and 
practical  Pope  of  Holy  Russia.  Arnold  White,  in  his  recent  work  on  the  Moderii  Jew 
which  we  have  already  quoted,  is  but  too  willing  to  discover  palliatives  for  the  Russian 
tyranny.  He  insists  that  not  only  is  the  confinement  of  the  Jews  in  the  fifteen  provinces  of 
Western  Russia  known  as  the  Pale,  and  in  the  Polish  provinces,  an  act  of  consummate 
statesmanship ;  but  that  no  other  policy  is  compatible  with  the  development  of  Holy  Rus- 
sia on  national  lines.  The  Polish  Jews  are  phenomenally  prolific.  For  a  hundred  years 
they  have  multiplied  as  no  people  on  earth  have  multiplied  ;  Russian  statesmen  of  to-day, 
when  reflecting  on  this  fact,  are  compelled  to  regard  themselves  as  trustees  forapeasantry 
numbering  100,000,000  souls  who  are  intellectually  undeveloped  and  as  backward  in  civil- 
ization as  were  the  English  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  Russian  peasant,  especially 
when  drunk,  falls  an  easy  prey  to  the  astute  and  temperate  Oriental  race,  which  exploits 
his  vices  and  plays  with  ease  upon  his  superstitions  and  his  prejudices  for  the  purpose  of 
gain.  It  must  be  remembered,  moreover,  that  the  peasants,  although  ignorant  and  credu- 
lous, are  industrious,  faithful,  and  devoted  to  the  Czar.  The  Jews,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
cosmopolitan ;  Russian  neither  in  blood,  religion,  nor  instinct.  It  is,  according  to  Mr. 
White,  a  sober  statement  of  fact  that,  if  all  careers  In  the  Russian  Empire  were  thrown 
open  to  the  Jews,  not  a  decade  would  pass  before  the  whole  Russian  administration  would 
be  in  their  hands.    "  What  Czar  in  his  senses,"  asks  Mr.   White,  "  what  sane  Russian 


POrE  LEO   Xlll.    AND  THE   AFlilCAN    SLAVE  TRADE.         291 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

rOPE  LEO   XIII.    .ys^D   THE   AFRICAN    SLAVE  TRADE.        THE   APOSTO- 
L.\.TE  OF  CARDINAL  LAVIGERIE. 

Among  the  innumerable  efforts  of  the  Koman  Pontiffs  to 
procure  the  utter  abolition  of  human  slavery,  a  prominent 
place  will  be  assigned  in  history  to  the  Encyclical  In  phirimis, 
addressed  by  Leo  XIII.  to  the  bishops  of  Brazil  on  May  8, 
1888.  Having  expressed  his  joy  because  of  the  many  eman- 
cipations with  which  the  Brazilians  had  honored  his 
sacerdotal  jubilee,  five  mouths  previously,  the  Pontiff  appeals 
to  the  bishops  to  use  every  proper  means  to  procure  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  their  country.  He  goes  over  the 
ground  already  traversed  by  Gregory  XVI.  in  the  bull  In 
Supremo  Apostolatiis  Fastigio  as  he  shows  how  the  Church 
ever  opposed  the  nefarious  traffic  in  human  beings ;  and 
then  he  draws  attention  to  the  lamentable  fact  that  while 
there  is  no  longer  any  importation  of  African  slaves  to  any 
of  the  American  countries,  the  abominable  trade,  with  all  its 

Minister  would  permit  his  country  to  commit  suicide  by  ceding  the  civil  administration  to 
a  Jewish  minority  ?  England  does  not  invest  the  Bengali  with  power  in  India  be«iuse  be 
passes  difficult  examinations  with  the  greatest  ease.  Yet  this  is  precisely  what  is  involved 
in  the  antidotes  of  education  so  glibly  described  by  Anglo-Saxon  do<-trlnaires,  who  con- 
demn Russia,  without  understanding  the  difficulties  with  which  she  has  to  deal,  but  who 
do  not  treat  their  own  racial  problems  on  abstract  principles."  Mr.  White  insists  that  the 
rich  Jewish  bankers  who  took  the  Russian  loan  are  largely  responsible  for  the  fact  that  th« 
Russians  now  deny  on  the  one  hand  the  existence  of  any  serious  grievances  on  the  part  of 
the  Israelites  In  Russia,  and  assert  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  administrative  regulations 
which  are  put  in  force  are  no  more  than  are  needed  to  effect  the  separation  of  the  Orlhodox 
Russian  from  the  descendants  of  the  enemies  of  Christ.  "  If  a  tithe  of  the  unanswered 
charges  made  against  the  Russian  Government  in  respect  of  their  anti-Semitic  policy  were 
true,  the  attitude  of  the  great  Jewish  banking  houses  in  their  flnancial  dealings  with  Rus- 
sia would  be  incomprehensible.  No  one  could  have  conceived  it  possible  that.  In  1894, 
not  long  after  the  time  of  the  fJuild-hall  meeting  ami  of  the  appearance  of  Durhrxt  liuyKia, 
the  richer  Hebrew  banks  of  the  West  would  consent  to  supply  the  persecutor  of  their  race 
with  funds,  partly  to  be  employed  In  paying  the  administration  that  humiliates,  debases, 
andoppressesthelrco-relieionists."  As  was  well  remarked  hv  M.  W.  Hazeltine  In  a  review 
of  White's  work  published  in  the  AVie  York  Sim,  the  Jewish  bankers,  before  lending 
money  to  Russia,  might  have  imposed  upon  the  Czar's  Ministers  such  conditions  as  would 
secure  for  the  Jews  of  the  Pale  some  immunity  from  needlessly  hostile  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  the  officials  and  adequate  protection  from  the  equally  hostile  peasantry.  But  the 
Russian  loan  wa.s  taken  by  Jewish  capitalists,  and  Mr.  White  was  told  at  St.  Petersburg  by 
reliable  persons  in  the  administrative  sphere  that  no  privat**  mnditions  were  made  such 
as  might  ameliorate  the  lot  of  the  wretched  Jews  of  Russia. 


292  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

horrors,  still  flourishes  in  the  Dark  Continent :  "  According 
to  the  testimony  of  reliable  travellers  in  Africa,  at  least  400,000 
persons  are  dragged  into  slavery  every  year,  and  one  half  of 
that  number  perish  on  their  way  to  the  markets."  During 
his  entire  pontificate,  Leo  XIII.  continually  thought  of 
Africa,  the  horrors  of  its  slave  trade,  and  the  dangers  for 
European  civilization  which  are  even  now,  perhaps,  prepar- 
ing in  those  regions.  He  realized  well  the  truth  of  the  warn- 
ing pronounced  by  Cardinal  Lavigerie  in  the  Gesn  at  Eome, 
shortly  before  the  publication  of  the  letter  to  the  Brazilians  : 
"  During  the  last  hundred  years  there  has  been  working  in 
those  regions  (the  Soudan)  a  social  and  religious  transform- 
ati  on,  towhich  Europe  ha  s  obstinately  closed  her  eyes,  but 
which  will  very  soon  threaten  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean. That  wave  of  invasion  which  ingulfed  this  Rome 
herself  and  all  her  empire,  fifteen  centuries  ago,  will  not  be 
the  last  in  history.  If  the  work  now  begun  in  Africa  is 
allowed  to  progress,  there  will  be  an  invasion  from  that  land 
no  less  terrible  than  that  of  the  Huns,  Vandals,  and  other  bar- 
barians. Strange  phenomenon!  Mohammedanism  seems 
to  be  preparing  in  Europe  and  in  Asia  for  its  last  sleep, 
while  in  Africa  it  is  renewing  its  strength  in  blood.  The 
danger  is  nearer  than  you  think.  Believe  an  old  j^ilot,  who 
knows  the  shoals  and  tempests  of  barbarism."  Like  the 
many  Popes  of  the  olden  time  who  spent  the  greater  part 
of  their  Pontificates  in  preparing  those  victories  over  Islam 
which  were  to  enable  Christian  Europe  to  enjoy  some  more 
centuries  of  political  existence,  Leo  XIII.  would  have  warred 
on  Mohammedan  Africa — but  with  the  weapons  of  the  Gos- 
pel. Through  the  indomitable  energy  of  Cardinal  Lavi- 
gerie, one  feature  of  the  desired  crusade  was  soon  to  be  seen 
in  full  career ;  the  grand  archbishop  of  Carthage  was  to 
obey,  to  the  letter,  the  instructions  which  His  Holiness  gave 
to  him  on  Oct.  17,  1888  :  "  We  have  given  you  a  grand 
and  arduous  task  ;  you  must  oppose  all  your  courage  and  all 
your  energy  to  the  reign  of  slavery  on  African  soil.  You 
have  undertaken,  with  an  ardor  that  manifests  your  great- 
ness of  soul,  a  work  in  which  the  salvation  of  men  is  at 
gtake."     The  names  of  Leo  XIII.  and   Cardinal   Lavigerie 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   THE   AFIUCAN   SLAVE  TU.VDE.         293 

are  not  to  be  sep.irated,  wheu  tlie  historiuu  f^lorifies  the 
anti-slavery  crusade  wliit'h  the  hitter  organized ;  as  His 
Eminence  wrote  to  the  anti-slavery  committees  on  July  22, 
1890:  "I  have  simply  obeyed  ;  it  is  to  the  Supreme  Pontifl 
that  belongs  all  the  honor  of  this  cani])aigu." 

Charles  Lavigerie  was  born  at  JBayonne,  on  October  31, 
1825.  As  he  himself  expressed  the  idea,  he  was  a  Basque, 
"  and  therefore  could  be  obstinate  when  necessary."  He  soon 
manifested  an  inclination  for  the  priesthood ;  and  wheu,  in  his 
fifteenth  year,  his  father  presented  him  as  a  candidate  to  the 
bishop  of  Bayonne,  he  replied  to  the  question  as  to  why  he 
wished  to  enter  the  sacerdotal  state,  that  he  wanted  to  be  a 
country  pastor.  Admitted  to  the  Preparatory  Seminary  of 
Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet,in  Paris,  he  had  as  companions 
Langenieux,  Foulon,  La  Tour  d'Auvergne ;  and  his  master  was 
Dupanloup.  In  1843  he  entered  the  Seminar}'  of  Saint-Sul- 
pice,  and  was  ordained  in  18-49  by  JNIgr.  Sibour.  In  1853  hi^ 
received  the  doctorate  in  theology  at  the  Sorboune,  and  waa 
made  professor  of  Latin  Literature  at  the  Ecole  des  Carmes. 
In  1854  he  was  appointed  adjunct  professor  of  Ecclesiasti- 
cal History  in  the  Sorbonne,  and  in  1857  he  became  titular 
of  the  same  chair  ;  among  his  colleagues  were  Maret,  Gratry, 
and  Freppel.  But  the  Abbe  Lavigerie  taught  history  c»nly 
for  a  brief  period ;  he  was  soon  summoned  to  tasks  which 
were  to  constitute  him  a  maker  of  history.  In  1856  he  was 
chosen  director  of  the  Work  of  the  Eastern  Schools,  founded 
it  1»55  under  the  auspices  of  such  men  as  Lenormant,  Oza- 
nam,  Montalembert,  Gagarin,  De  Falloux,  and  De  Broglie, 
for  the  promotion  of  Catholic  interests  in  the  Levant  ; 
and  his  professorial  duties  did  not  prevent  his  devoting 
much  time  to  collecting  funds  for  this  noble  enterprise. 
Wheu  the  Syrian  massacres  of  1859  and  '60  occurred,  he  col- 
lected over  three  million  francs  for  the  suft'erers,  and  him- 
self departed  for  Syria  to  superintend  the  distribution  of  the 
offerings.  At  Beyrout  he  established  an  orphan  asylum  for 
four  hundred  girls,  under  the  care  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  ; 
and  at  Zahleh  an  asylum  for  boys,  which  he  confided  to  tJie 
Jesuits.  Eighteen  Catholic  bishops  of  the  East  afterward 
sent  an  address  to  the  Supreme  Pontifi*,  attributing  to  the 


294  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

director  of  the  Work  of  tlie  Eastern  Schools  the  greater 
part  of  the  benefits  which  French  charity  had  conferred 
upon  their  flocks.  In  1861  the  position  of  Auditor  of  the 
Kota  for  France  beiug  vacant,  Pius  IX.  tendered  it  to  tlie 
Abbe  Lavigerie  ;  and  for  a  year  and  a  half  he  was  enabled  to 
familiarize  himself  with  the  details  of  the  pontifical  admin- 
istration, and  to  perfect  his  knowledge  of  Italian,  which  was 
to  be,  at  Algiers  and  at  Tunis,  the  language  of  many  of  his 
future  diocesans.  However,  the  director  of  the  Work  of  the 
Eastern  Schools  did  not  forget  the  child  of  his  predilection  ; 
indeed,  he  had  accepted  the  auditorship  only  on  condition 
that  it  should  not  interfere  with  his  interest  in  Oriental 
Christianity,  and  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  form  a  brancli 
of  the  Work  in  the  Eternal  City.  He  was  constant  in  his 
endeavors  to  induce  the  Catholics  of  the  West  to  imitate  the 
solicitude  of  Pius  IX.,  who  had  just  then  established  a 
Special  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda  for  Oriental  Afiairs  ; 
appointed  a  consultor  of  this  new  Congregation,  he  organ- 
ized at  Civita  Yecchia  a  committee  to  further  the  interests 
of  the  Bulgarians.  In  1863  Mgr.  Lavigerie  was  named  bish- 
op of  Nancy.  Pius  IX.  would  have  consecrated  him,  but, 
being  prevented  by  sickness,  he  delegated  the  function  to 
Cardinal  Villecourt. 

Mgr.  Lavigerie  was  bishop  of  Nancy,  when,  in  November, 
1866,  he  received  a  letter  from  Marshal  MacMahon,  then 
governor-general  of  Algeria,  begging  permission  to  present 
his  name  to  the  emperor.  Napoleon  III.,  for  the  then  vacant 
see  of  Algiers.  The  prelate  replied :  "  Having  reflected 
maturely,  and  having  prayed  for  light  from  God  as  to  my 
answer  to  the  unexpected  offer  of  Your  Excellency,  I  now 
express  myself  in  all  frankness.  I  would  never  have  volun- 
tarily entertained  the  thought  of  quitting  a  diocese  which  I 
dearly  love,  and  in  wliicli  I  have  begun  numerous  works  ;  and 
if  Your  Excellency  had  requested  me  to  accept  any  diocese 
more  important  than  that  of  Nancy,  my  reply  would  be  a 
negative  one.  But  I  entered  upon  the  episcopate  as  upon  a 
work  of  sacrifice.  You  offer  me  a  painful  and  laborious 
mission,  an  episcopal  see  in  every  way  inferior  to  my  present 
position,  and  which  entails  upon  me  an  abandonment  of  all 


POPE  LEO  XIII.    AND  THE   AFRICAN    SIAVE   TUADE.         295 

I  hold  most  dejir ;  uud  you  think  that  I,  bettor  thiin  another, 
can  fultil  its  duties.     A  Catholic  bishop,  my  dear  Marshal, 
can  make  but  one  reply  to  such  a  proposition.     I  accept  the 
dolorous  sacrifice ;  and  if  the  emperor  appeals  to  my  devo- 
tion, I  shall  not  hesitate,  cost  me  what  it  may."     By  a  Bull 
of  July  25,  186G,  Pius  IX.  erected  the  diocese  of  Algiers  into 
an  archbishopric,  giving  to  it  as  suffragans  the  newly  created 
sees  of  Oran  and  Constantino.     Mgr.  Lavigerie  entered  upon 
bis  archiepiscopal  duties  on  May  IG,  1867.     His  experience 
as  director  of  the  Work  of  the  Eastern  Schools  had  con- 
vinced the  archbishop  that  the  absence  of  a  Christian  spirit 
in  the  administration  of   Algeria   accounted   for   the   slow 
progress  of  French  influence  in  the  colony.     And  in  his  eyes 
Algeria  was  merely  the  gate  though  which  Divine  Providence 
was  to  send  the  means  whereby  to  convert  and  civilize  two 
hundred  millions  of  barbarians.     In  his  first  pastoral  letter 
he  wrote  : "  To  render  Algerian  soil  the  cradle  of  a  grand, 
generous,  and  Christian  nation— in  a  word,  of  another  France, 
daughter  and  sister  of  our  own,  happy  in  marching  in  the 
paths  of  justice  and  honor  by  the  side  of  the  mother-country  ; 
to  spread  around  us,  with  that  ardent  initiative  which  is  the 
gift  of  our  race  and  of  our  faith,  the  true  light  of  the  civili- 
zation of  which  the  Gospel  is  the  source  and  the  law ;  to 
gather  Northern  and  Central  Africa  into  the  life  of  Christen- 
dom ;  such,  in  the  designs  of  God  and  in  the  hopes  of  our 
country  and  of  the  Church,  is  your  providential  destiny." 
Twenty  years  had   not  elapsed   when   the   author   of   this 
language  resuscitated  the  ancient  see  of  Carthago,  excited 
all  Europe  in  favor  of  the  slaves  of  the  Dark  Continent, 
established  his   apostolic   missionaries   around   the   Great 
Lakes,  and  received  from  the  Supreme  Pontiff  the  title  of 
Primate  of  Africa. 

Probably  the  happiest,  certainly  the  most  consoling,  day 
of  the  apostolic  life  of  Mgr.  Lavigerie  was  that  on  which  the 
Eoman  Pontiff  revived  the  primatial  see  of  St.  Cyprian,  and, 
after  twelve  centuries  of  intorrui)tiou,  restored  the  glorious 
tradition  of  the  Councils  of  Carthage  (1).     Bat  very  different 

(1)  It  18  notstranfe^e  that  Mpr.  Lavlperie  should  have  entcrtaiiud  the  th-uRht  of  wiitinu 
the  history  oflhis  ancient  Church.    His  Idea  was  to  adapt  the  work  of  MoroeDl.  Africa 


296  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

are  the  circumstances  surrounding  the  present  Church  of 
Carthage  from  those  which  influenced  its  ancient  prelates. 
In  our  day  the  irreconcilable  enemy  of  that  Church  and  of 
civilization  is  Islamism  ;  and  to  combat  this  enemy  the  new 
archbishop  bent  all  his  energies.  He  was  the  first  Algerian 
prelate  to  make  any  serious  efi:brts  in  this  direction.  The 
French  Government  had  hitherto  opposed  all  attempts  to 
convert  the  Mohammedans  ;even  to-day  it  assumes  the  entire 
expense  of  their  worship  ;  and  under  the  empire  and  the 
royalty  it  went  so  far  as  to  compel  the  Kabyles  to  the  strictest 
observance  of  their  religious  precepts,  even  organizing  and 
subsidizing  the  pilgrimages  to  Mecca,  although  it  prohibited 
the  bishops  of  Algiers  from  acceding  to  the  entreaties  of  the 
Kabyles  to  establish  Sisters  of  Charity  among  them.  The 
arrival  of  Mgr.  Lavigerie  in  Africa  found  in  full  force  this 
ultra-protection  of  the  Mohammedan  cult  on  the  part  of  the 
colonial  authorities  ;  they  ever  cherishing  the  illusory  hope 
of  creating  an  "  Arab  kingdom  "  devoted  to  France,  and 
separating  as  much  as  possible  the  Europeans  from  the  ab- 
origines. To  this  system  the  archbishop  opposed  that  of 
assimilation,  a  progressive  fusion  of  colonists  and  natives  in 
a  French  nationality  ;  and  since  such  a  project  could  not  be 
realized  so  long  as  the  i^rabs  were  Mussulmans,  he  openly 
declared  his  design  to  prepare  their  conversion  to  Christian- 
ity. And  this  preparation  was  accompanied  by  no  preach- 
ing or  discussion  ;  it  consisted  in  devoted  and  gratuitous  care 
of  the  sick,  and  in  giving  a  rudimentary  education  and  a 
taste  for  manual  labor  to  such  children  as  parents  would 
consign  to  the  care  of  the  White  Fathers.  Twenty-four  years 
after  Mgr.  Lavigerie  collected  his  first  Arab  orphans,  and  es- 
tablished them  in  villages  created  expressly  for  them,  his  biog- 
rapher (1)  found  them  and  their  children  "  perfectly  faithful 
to  our  faith  and  our  customs  ;  around  them  the  Mussulmans, 
who  sought  the  villages  because  of  the  charities  of  which 
these  were  the  centre,  had  become  less  fanatical,  more  like 

C7)ri"sf  iana,  and  to  brinsr  it  to  the  level  of  more  recent  archaeolopriral  discoveries.  And 
since  his  innumerable  occupations  prevented  his  undertaking  the  task,  he  entrusted  it  to 
F.  Toulotte,  a  learned  missionary  of  his  CongreKation  ;  and  it  is  now  very  nearly  completed. 
(I)  The  Abbe  Felix  Klein,  in  his  Cardival  Lavigerie  and  His  Labors  in  Africa. 
Paris,  lago. 


POPE  LEO   XIII.    AND   THE    AFRICAN    SLAVE    TRADE.        29V 

unto  ourselves,  and  full  of  coutideuce  in  our  priests."     Let 
us  see  how  these  first  fruits  of  the  faith  were  gathered.     In 
1867,  the  year  of  our  prelate's  arrival  iu  Africa,  a  frightful 
famine  ravaged  Algeria,  and  iu  a  few  mouths  a  fifth  of  the 
indigenous  population  had  perished.     The  government  tried 
to  hide  the  state  of  affairs,  although  it  secretly  distributed 
some  scanty  relief  ;  but  the  archbishop  broke  the  cruel  si- 
lence, and  sent  an  appeal  not  only  to  the  faithful  of  France, 
but  to  those  of  other  countries,  and  abundant  alms  were  soon 
available  for  the  victims.     But  there  were  many  orphans  to 
be  gathered  in,  and  to  be  endowed  with  some  substitute  for 
-the'' guardians  whom  they  had  lost,  or  by  whom  they  had 
been  abandoned.      Very  soon  Mgr.  Lavigerie  became  the 
father  of  nearly  two  thousand  of  these  derelict  children  ;  he 
refused  not  one  of  those  who  voluntarily  came  to  him,  or 
who  were  brought  to  him  by  his  White  Fathers.     Having 
saved   their   lives,   he  now  proposed  to  give  them  such  a 
training  as  would  enable  them  to  earn  their  living  in  a  civil- 
ized manner,    and  would  permit    them  to  judge  between 
Christianity  and  Islamism.     This  project  was  a  flinging  down 
of  the  gauntlet  to  the  party  of  the  "  Arab   kingdom,"  whose 
ideas  were  followed  by  the  military  administration.     Imme- 
diately, the  pretended  Arabophilists  prevailed  on  Marshal 
MacMahon  to  order  the   prelate   to   return  the  orphans  to 
their  tribes  ;  whereupon  the  apostolic  bishop  thus  protested: 
"  You  order  us.  Marshal,  to  hand  over  to  the  bestial  passions 
of  their   co-religionists   these   defenceless   children,  these 
orphans  who  were  abandoned  by  all  and  given  over  to  death, 
but  whom  the  charity  of   French   Christians   enabled   our 
priests   and   Sisters  to   save  at  the  cost   of  twenty  of  their 
own  lives  (owing  to  the  typhus  caught  from  their  charges.) 
A  thousand  times  better  would  it  have  been  had  they  been 
left  to  perish.     And   this  horror   is   represented   to  you  as 
necessary !     But  it  shall  not  be  effected  without  my  solemn 
protest  to  the  entire  world.      I  would   have   given   them  up 
to  their  parents,  their  natural  tutors ;  but  I  am  their  father 
and  protector,  since  their  fathers  and  mothers  do  not  exist. 
They  belong  to  me,  for  I  have  preserved  their  lives.     Force 
alone  can  take  them  from  their  refuge  ;  and  if  it  is  employed, 


298  STUDIES  IN  CHUKCH  HISTORY. 

my  episcopal  heart  will  emit  such  a  cry  that  the  authors  of 
the  crime  will  experience  the  indignation  of  all  those  who 
deserve  the  name  of  men  and  of  Christians."  These  words 
of  a  stricken  father  evoked  an  outburst  of  sympathy  through- 
out France,  and  the  Supreme  Pontiff  sent  him  a  brief  of 
praise  and  encouragement.  But  Mgr,  Lavigerie  was  not 
content  with  mere  protests :  he  appealed  personally  to 
Napoleon  III.  ;  and  on  May  28,  1868,  the  Moniteur  pub- 
lished a  letter  of  the  Minister  of  War,  which  announced 
that  the  Government  "  never  had  intended  to  restrict  his 
episcopal  rights,  and  that  every  latitude  would  be  allowed 
Mgr.  Lavigerie  to  extend  and  improve  the  refuges  in  which 
the  prelate's  love  exercised  itself  in  succoring  the  orphan, 
the  aged,  and  the  widow." 

It  often  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Algerian,  like  all  other 
missionaries  among  the  heathen,  to  baptize  infants  at  the 
hour  of  death,  and  thus  send  them  to  heaven,  without 
informing  the  parents,  and  without  the  permission  of 
the  civil  administration.  But,  says  the  biographer  of 
Mgr.  Lavigerie,  this  is  the  sole  "  abuse "  which  can  be 
laid  to  the  account  of  the  clericals  in  their  interference 
with  the  natives,  and  it  produces  no  consequences  on  this 
earth.  However,  very  precise  and  severe  rules  define  the 
duty  of  the  clergy  in  all  that  concerns  the  baptism  of 
heathens  and  Islamites.  The  diocesan  statutes  inculcate 
that  "  no  Jewish  or  Mussulman  infant  shall  be  baptized 
without  the  express  permission  of  the  parents."  The  only 
exception  is  for  such  infants  as  are  in  evident  danger  of 
death,  and  for  the  orphans  adopted  by  the  missionaries  or 
by  the  Christian  colonists.  And  in  the  last  case  every  pru- 
dential precaution  is  taken  to  prove  that  the  child  is  really 
abandoned  by  its  family,  that  it  enjoys  the  necessary  liberty, 
and  has  received  the  necessary  instruction.  Even  in  the  case 
of  a  subject  who  has  attained  the  legal  age  of  majority,  the 
authorization  of  the  bishop  is  requisite  for  the  baptism,  and 
is  given  only  when  the  probable  durability  of  the  conversion 
is  assured.  Mgr.  Lavigerie  always  insisted  that  it  would 
be  folly — aye,  a  crime — to  excite  the  fanaticism  of  the  Mus- 
sulman population  by  an  unwise  proselytism.     He  opined 


POPE  LEO   XIII.    AND  THE   AFRICAN   SLAVE   TRADE. 


299 


that  "  it  is  uot  uecessary  to  be  a  priest,  it  is  enougli  to  be  a 
mau,  to  cause  oue  to  desire  the  eufrauchisement  of  the 
fallen  deuizeus  of  Nortlieru  Africa ;  and  while  the  civil 
authorities  deprive  the  indigenous  peoples  of  their  arms,  of 
their  power,  and  of  their  traditions,  we  priests  try  to  calm 
them,  to  mollify  their  chagrin  by  the  exercise  of  charity. 
We  teach  their  children  ;  we  heal  their  wounded  and  nurse 
their  sick  ;  we  succor  their  poor ;  we  have  for  them  only 
words  of  kindness.  AVe  do  not  obtain  hasty  and  imprudent 
conversions,  which  are  mere  preludes  to  apostasy;  but 
rather  a  certain  preparation,  without  shocks  or  danger,  for 
a  transformation  of  the  African  world.  The  seed  is  sown ; 
we  who  may  not  gather  the  crop  will  have  our  reward  in 
having  served  the  cause  of  humanity  and  of  God." 

The  most  important  work  of  Mgr.  Lavigerie  in  Africa 
was  the  creation  of  the  band  of  Algerian  missionaries  popu- 
larly know  as  White  Fathers.     The  astonishing  progress  of 
their  apostolate  was  evident   on   the    occasion   of   the   first 
modern  Council  of  Carthage.     Children  from  their  schools 
rendered  the  liturgical  chants  which  accompanied  the  con- 
secration of  the  primatial  church  ;  it  was  in  their  seminary 
educating  a  hundred  students,  that  the  Council  was  held. 
Here  were  seen  some  of  the  missionaries  who  first  traversed 
the  Great  Lakes   and   evangelized   Ouganda.     One   White 
Father  had  for  years  directed  the  mission  of  Zanzibar,  and 
had  oraanized  and  accompanied  apostolic  caravans  into  East 
Africa.     One  had  been  military  chaplain  in  the  heart  of 
Tunis;  another  came  on  horseback  from  Gliardaja  in  the 
Mzab.     There  was   the   superior   of   the   establishment   at 
Malta,  where  negro  boys  are  taught  medicine  and  surgery, 
that  they  may  afterward  gratuitously  attend  on  their  com- 
patriots.    This  same  priest  had  previously  been  a  professor 
in  the  Seminary  of  St.  Anne  at  Jerusalem,  where  the  White 
Fathers  are  preparing  a  new  Greek  clergy  in  the  interests 
of  unity.     There  could  be  seen  several  Fathers  from  the 
summits  of  the   Grand   Kabylia ;   or   one   who   directed   a 
novitiate  in  Brussels  ;  or  one  who  attended  to  the  affairs  of 
his    congregation   in   the   capital   of   Christendom.      Tliis 
admirable  society  was  founded  in  1868,  when  the  archbishop. 


300  STUDIES  IN    CHURCH   HISTORY, 

having  saved  his  orphans  from  famine,  was  cogitating  how 
he  could  educate  them,  and  maintain  them  in  fidelity  to 
their  new  religion  and  their  new  country.  One  day  the 
Abbe  Girard,  the  superior  of  the  Seminary  of  Algiers,  pre- 
sented to  the  anxious  prelate  three  students  who  were 
desirous  of  devoting  themselves  to  the  special  service  of  the 
natives.  "  With  the  help  of  God,"  said  the  abbe,  "  this  will 
be  the  beginning  of  the  work  you  have  desired  to  effect." 
The  novitiate  to  which  the  candidates  were  assigned  soon 
received  many  aspirants.  One  of  these,  already  a  priest, 
presented  his  credentials  ;  and  when  the  archbishop  handed 
him  his  faculties,  he  found  that,  instead  of  the  ordinary 
formula,  the  prelate  had  written  :  "  Visum  pro  marfyrio " 
(endorsed  for  martyrdom).  "  Do  you  accept?  "  asked  Mou- 
seigneur.  *'  It  was  for  that  I  came  here,"  replied  the  priest. 
In  time  the  White  Fathers  were  exempted  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  ordinary,  and  subordinated  directly  to 
the  apostolic-delegate  for  the  Sahara  and  Soudan.  The 
missionaries  soon  had  their  own  revenues  independent  of 
the  diocese  of  Algiers  ;  and  their  own  charges  as  well,  which 
each  one  tries  to  lighten,  "  by  submitting  to  privation,  or  by 
undergoing  the  humiliations  necessary  to  procuring  the 
means  of  living."  In  a  General  Chapter  of  all  the  mission- 
aries of  the  new  society,  held  in  October,  1874,  for  the  elec- 
tion of  its  first  superiors,  Mgr.  Lavigerie  was  unanimously 
elected  superior-general ;  but  as  he  declined  the  position, 
Father  Deguerry  was  chosen,  with  the  title,  however,  of 
vicar-general  during  the  life  of  the  beloved  founder.  One 
special  object  the  White  Fathers  have  constantly  in  view, 
and  without  it  they  would  lose  their  very  reason  of  being. 
They  were  designed  for  the  exclusive  service  of  the  heathen 
and  Mussulmans  of  Africa.  For  this  reason  it  is  their 
characteristic  to  conform  to  the  habits  of  the  natives  in  all 
externals — in  language,  dress,  and  food.  "  Love  these  in- 
fidels," said  their  founder  ;  "  heal  their  wounds,  do  every 
good  to  them.  Then  they  will  give  you  their  affection,  after- 
ward their  confidence,  and  finally  their  souls."  To  see 
tliese  sons  of  civilization  made  Africans  for  love  of  i\  rica 
must  excite  our  admiration.     As   they   guide   their   steeds 


POPE  LEO   XIII.    AND  THE  AFRICAN   SLAMi:   TRADE.  301 

through  the  solitiidos  of  the  Siihura  or  the  rocky  passes  ot 
Kabylia,  no  oue  \vt)uia  take  them  for  Europeau  priests. 
Nor  would  the  ilhisiou  vanish,  if  we  were  to  observe  them 
as  they  lightly  dismount,  enter  a  tent,  squat  with  native 
impassibility  on  the  mat  of  palm  or  a  If  a  :  conversing  in 
Arabic  with  their  hosts,  showing  every  interest  in  their 
wants,  seriously  explaining  for  them  the  innumerable  mas^ 
ses  of  waste-paper  with  which  the  administrative  and  judi- 
cial  authorities  persist  in  endowing  them  ;  instructing  the 
children  in  the  three  Ks ;  exciting  the  admiration  of  the 
elders  by  their  knowledge  of  the  Koran  ;  distributing  little 
presents ;  sharing  the  repast  of  couscous  and  fresh  water ; 
and,  when  about  to  depart,  exchanging  the  graceful  Arabic 
salutation  with  their  friends.  Quite  picturesque,  a  super- 
ficial observer  would  remark ;  but  the  reality  is  not  very 
agreeable,  the  Abbe  Klein  will  remind  him,  "  if  one  has  a 
keen  sense  of  smell,  or  when  one  has  journeyed  for  half  a 
day  to  sup  on  couscous.  Kemember,  too,  that  the  White 
Fathers  adopt  the  external  habits  of  the  people  even  in 
their  private  lives  ;  for  example,  at  night  they  stretch  on  the 
ground,  wrapped  in  their  humous:  although  in  their  own 
houses  they  may  rest  on  a  plank,  and  if  ill,  on  a  mattress." 
Touched  by  their  virtue,  the  Mohammedans  often  say  to 
them  :  "  The  other  Roumis  [  Romans,  Christians  ]  will,  ot 
course,  be  damned  ;  but  you  will  enter  Paradise." 

And  now  a  few  words  on  the  anti-slavery  agitation  insti- 
tuted  by  Mgr.  Lavigerie,  and  its  results.  On  May  24,  1888, 
Cardinal  Lavigerie  ( he  had  been  elevated  to  the  purple  ii> 
1882)  presented  to  His  Holiness  twelve  secular  priests  from 
various  dioceses  of  French  Africa,  twelve  White  Fathers, 
twelve  Christian  Kabyls  of  Algeria,  and  twelve  negroes  of 
Central  Africa  whom  the  missionaries  had  purchased  from 
slavery  and  converted  to  Christianity.  In  an  eloquent  and 
touching  reply  to  the  cardinal's  address,  the  Pontiff  said  : 
"  It  is  upon  you.  Lord  Cardinal,  that  we  chiefly  rely  for 
success  in  the  arduous  missions  of  Africa.  We  know  your 
active  and  intelligent  zeal,  we  know  what  you  have  already 
accomplished,  and  we  believe  that  you  will  not  pause  until 
your  great  enterprises  have  triumphed."     Encouraged  and 


-S02  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

excited  bj  these  words  of  the  Father  of  the  Faithful,  His 
Eminence  wrote  to  Mgr.  Briucat,  procurator  in  Paris  for  the 
African  missions  :  "  I  am  about  to  go  to  Paris,  to  tell  what 
I  know  of  the  crimes  which  desolate  the  interior  of  our 
Africa,  and  then  to  put  forth  a  great  cry, — one  of  those  cries 
which  stir  the  depths  of  the  soul  in  all  who  are  still  worthy 
of  the  name  of  men  and  of  Christians.  ...  I  know  not  where 
I  shall  speak  ;  but  I  do  know  that  in  demanding  an  end  to 
such  infamous  excesses,  in  proclaiming  the  great  principles 
of  humanity,  liberty,  equality,  and  justice,  I  shall  find  in 
France  and  in  the  Christian  world  no  intelligence  or  heart 
to  refuse  me  its  aid."  Philanthropists  and  politicians  will 
follow  their  usual  course  in  claiming  the  glory  of  the  great 
movement  begun  at  the  Conference  of  Brussels  to  engage 
the  honor  of  Christian  nations  in  a  unanimous  effort  to  ter- 
minate the  slave-hunts  of  Africa  ;  but  the  fact  will  remain 
that  hitherto,  if  we  except  some  generous  tentatives  of 
the  king  of  Belgium,  neither  philosphers,  politicians,  nor 
journalists  had  advocated  the  cause  of  the  persecuted  natives 
of  Africa  in  anything  like  a  serious  manner.  Cardinal 
Lavigerie  held  his  first  anti-slavery  conference  at  Paris,  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Sulpice.  He  then  proceeded  to  London  ; 
and  so  effective  was  his  appeal,  and  so  powerful  the  agita- 
tion resulting,  that  the  English  Government  asked  the  Bel- 
gian monarch  to  take  the  initiative  by  requesting  a  confer- 
ence of  the  powers  at  Brussels.  Here  was  another  favorable 
opportunity  for  the  cardinal  to  preach  his  crusade  ;  and 
accordingly  in  the  Church  of  Ste.  Gudule  he  demanded  the  ac- 
tive co-operation  of  the  authorities  of  the  Congo  State.  After 
this  sermon  five  hundred  volunteers  placed  themselves  at  the 
cardinal's  disposal  for  the  defence  of  the  negroes  of  the 
Upper  Congo.  Illness  prevented  the  attendance  of  the  pre- 
late at  the  Catholic  Congress  of  Fribourg-en-Brisgau,  but 
he  sent  to  it  a  lengthy  and  impressive  appeal  describing 
the  slave-trade  in  Tabora  and  Oujiji,  the  two  great  centres 
of  the  German- African  regions  ;  he  suggested  the  formation 
of  a  German  anti-slavery  society  after  the  style  of  those 
founded  in  France  and  Belgium.  An  anti-slavery  committee 
was  soon  formed  at  Cologne,  and  all  that  was  Catholic  in 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   THE   AFRICAN   SLAVE   TliADE.  30B 

Germany  joined  iu  the  great  crusade.     After  an  imperative, 
but  brief  rest  fi'om  labor,  the  cardinal  perfected  the  French 
Anti-Slavery  Society,  exclusively  national,  but  designed  to 
keep  up  relations  with  the  similar  associations  in  other 
countries,  and  with  the  various  congregations  of  missionaries 
laboring  in  Africa  (1).     Other  countries   soon  fell  into   the 
line  of  march  indicated  by  the  cardinal.     Her  Catholic  Ma- 
jesty of  Spain  became  protectress  of  the   work  in  her  do- 
minions, and  Canovas  del  Castillo  accepted  the  presidency. 
In  Portugal,   the  great   explorer   Serpa   Pinto   organized  a 
branch,  the  king  becoming  protector,    and  his  second  son 
head  of  the  central   committee.     In  Italy,   a  national   com- 
mittee was  founded  at  Kome  under  the  direct  protection  of 
Pope  Leo  XIII.,  and  having  Prince   Rospigliosi  for  presi- 
dent, and  Prince  Altieri  for  vice-president.     Cardinal  Lavi- 
gerie  was  greatly  aided  in  his  endeavors  in  Italy  by  the  zeal 
of  his  eminent  brethren  of  the  Sacred  College,  the  ordinaries 
of  Naples  (2),  of  Capua,  and  of  Palermo.     After  a  final  con- 
ference at  Milan,  the  cardinal,  when  about  to  return  to  his 
diocese,  wrote   to  M.   Keller,  begging  the  members  of   all 
the  anti-slavery  committees  to  continue  his  work  of  nourish- 
ino-  the  zeal  of  Europe  in  the  cause  to  which  they  had  con- 
secrated themselves.     He  had  accomplished  the  first  part 
of  his  design  by  publishing  to  the  world  the  horrors  of  the 
slave  traffic  ;  now  it  remained  to  abolish  it.     His  mission  had 
not  been  comprehended  by  those  who  imagined  that  he  had 
aspired  to  an  immediate  abolition  of  domestic  slavery  among 
all  the  Mussulman  populations  :  what  he  demanded  of  all 
men  of  heart  was  to  aid  in  abolishing  the  hunt  for  slaves  in 
Africa,  and  the  sale  of  slaves  in  the  Turkish  markets.     There 

(1)  Its  Council  of  Administration  had  M.  Keller  for  president ;  and  among  the  members 
of  the  Council  were  Chesnelong,  General  de  Charette,  the  Count  de  Mun,  Wallon.  and 
Mgr.  Brincat.  A  conscil  de  haul  patronctge  was  instituted  for  the  defence  of  its  cause  in 
political  assemblies  and  In  the  press  ;  it  counted  among  its  members  Jules  Simon  and 
Lefevre-Pontalis. 

(2)  The  inhabitants  of  Naples  were  especially  moved  by  the  cardinal's  eloquence.  Car- 
dinal Sanfelice,  the  archbishop,  wishing  to  contribute  to  the  collection,  and  being  impov- 
erished by  his  charities,  handed  in  the  rich  pectoral  cross  which  had  been  given  him  by 
the  city  In  recognition  of  his  noble  conduct  during  the  cholera,  the  jewels  of  whicli  were 
worth  more  than  two  thousand  dollars.  But  Cardinal  Lavigerie  wrote  to  the  Corrine  di 
XapoJi  that  he  would  regaid  the  acceptance  of  the  gift  as  a  sacrilege,  and  that  therefore  he 
sent  it  to  the  office  of  the  Journal  to  be  r.ifHed  for,  so  that  the  fortimate  winner  might 
enjoy  the  sweet  satisfaction  of  restoring  the  souvenir  to  Its  hoi"  owner. 


304:  STUDIES   IN   CHUECH   HISTORY. 

is  not  now  on  earth,  he  concluded,  a  work  more  holy  or  more 
necessary.  At  a  conference  held  in  the  grand  amphitheatre 
of  the  Sorbonne  on  February  10,  1889,  Jules  Simon,  the  cele- 
brated republican  philosopher  and  orator,  while  expressing 
his  indignation  at  the  public  apathy  toward  African  misery, 
thus  vented  his  admiration  for  the  White  Fathers  and  their 
illustrious  chief  :  "  The  spectacle  afforded  by  these  mission- 
aries would  console  one  somewhat  for  these  miseries,  if 
consolation  were  possible.  . . .  The  more  we  realize  the  depth 
of  these  horrors,  the  more  must  we  express  our  profound 
gratitude  to  these  young  men  who  abandon  their  parents, 
friends,  and  almost  their  ideas  and  feelings,  leaving  all  that 
is  dear  behind  them,  to  confront  such  evils  and  assuage  such 
woes.  Here,  gentlemen,  we  are  merely  echoes  :  we  come 
simply  to  repeat,,  and  weakly,  the  words  of  a  man  of  large 
heart.  . . .  He  will  persevere,  and  will  amass  treasures  of  pity 
in  compassionate  souls ;  he  will  teach  humanity  to  know 
itself ;  and  perhaps  he  will  yet  perform  a  work  more  mag- 
nificent than  the  destruction  of  slavery — the  conversion  of 
the  European  powers  to  the  idea  that  they  can  do  better 
than  devour  one  another,  and  can  actuate  the  possibility, 
for  the  men  of  our  day,  of  serving  with  one  heart,  in  the 
presence  of  God,  the  sacred  cause  of  humanity  and  justice." 
In  1868  Mgr.  Lavigerie  had  urged  on  the  Holy  See  his 
appointment  as  apostolic-delegate  for  the  immense  region 
extending  from  Morocco,  Tunis,  and  Tripoli,  to  the  missions 
of  Senegal  and  the  Guineas  on  the  south,  to  the  Atlantic  on 
the  west,  and  to  the  Fezzan  on  the  east ;  for  he  realized  that 
the  French  possessions  of  Algeria  and  Tunis  could  be  con- 
nected by  means  of  the  Sahara  and  Soudan  with  those  of 
Senegal.  His  design  was  to  wrest  the  Sahara  from  barbar- 
ism, that  it  might  cease  to  be  a  refuge  for  slavery,  and  a 
nursery  of  rebellion  against  France.  The  security  of  the 
French  colonies,  as  well  as  the  interests  of  religion,  demand 
the  sacrifices  necessary  for  the  reclamation  of  the  Sahara  ; 
and  it  will  not  suffice  to  subjugate  the  Touaregs.  A  civ- 
ilized training  must  be  given  to  these  tribes  who  now  live 
only  by  assassination,  pillage,  and  the  sale  of  human  beings. 
Who    can    effect    this    wonderful    change  ?      Our   cardinal 


Pope  leg  xiii.  and  the  aekic.vn  sl.\ve  tiiade.  305 

replied  tliiit  it  will  be  worked  bj  bis  Wliite  Fathers,  six  of 
whom  hiid  then  already  been  martyred  in  the  Sahara ;  and 
by  the  Brothers  of  the  Sahara,  an  organization  then  being 
trained  at  Biskra — becoming  acclimated,  learning  the  lan- 
guages of  the  desert,  and  studying  its  medical  needs  as  well 
as  its  pharmaceutical  possibilities.  These  Brothers  were  to 
give  life  to  the  waste  by  a  revelation  of  the  lost  sources  of 
fresh  water,  and  by  such  agricultural  ventures  as  experience 
would  prove  to  be  profitable  in  such  a  climate.  They  would 
instruct  the  children  and  nurse  the  sick  ;  they  would  receive 
the  slaves  who  might  flee  to  them,  or  who  might  be  delivered 
by  the  soldiers  of  France. 

Cardinal  Lavigerie  was  not  only  a  man  of  action,  but  a 
savaiif.  The  importance  of  what  he  wrote,  and  the  manner 
in  which  he  wrote,  caused  him  to  be  mentioned  for  the  French 
Academy.  We  allude  to  this  fact  simply  because  it  furnislies 
an  opportunity  of  adducing  an  excellent  illustration  of  his 
character.  In  1884,  having  been  invited  by  the  perpetual 
secretary  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres 
to  introduce  his  candidature  in  that  section  of  the  Institute, 
he  replied  by  the  following  letter  :  "  Owing  to  a  serious  ill- 
ness, from  which  I  have  scarcely  recovered,  I  have  been  able 
to  reply  only  by  telegraph  to  the  flattering  communication 
sent  me  in  your  name.  I  wish  now  to  make  up  for  the  forced 
laconicism  of  that  first  answer,  and  to  express  at  least  my 
gratitude  to  those  members  of  your  Academy  who  have 
initiated  my  candidature.  I  desire  above  all  to  explain  a 
reserve  which  may  have  surprised  you.  I  appreciate  the 
rule  which  obliges  all  candidates  to  solicit  directly  the  votes 
of  the  Academy.  It  is  but  proper  that  they  should  show 
the  high  value  they  attach  to  these  suffrages.  But  two 
personal  reasons  cause  me  to  recoil  from  this  task.  The  first 
is  a  total  absence  of  justificatory^  reasons  ;  the  only  one  I 
could  allege  would  be  my  own  inclination,  which,  in  a  case 
where  science  and  results  are  concerned,  is  an  insufficient 
recommendation.  The  second  reason  is  of  a  still  more 
delicate  nature.  After  all,  I  am  a  poor  missionary  ;  my 
other  titles  derive  all  their  value  from  that  fact.  Now,  while 
a  missionary  must  receive  everything,  because  he  has  nothing, 


306  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

there  are  some  things  for  which  he  must  not  ask.  In  order 
to  make  an  inroad  into  barbarism,  I  have  had  to  surround 
myself  with  a  legion  of  apostles.  In  the  struggle  going  on 
in  the  interior  of  our  Africa,  already  eleven  of  these  have 
spilled  their  blood,  and  others  have  succumbed  to  fatigue 
and  sickness.  What  would  be  said  of  me,  if  while  my  sons 
seek  only  the  palms  of  martyrdom,  I  should  ware  those  of 
the  Institute  ?  Were  I  to  yield  to  the  seductive  temptation, 
I  should  blush  with  shame.  It  is  better  to  leave  me  in  my 
Barbary." 

However  glorious  it  may  be  for  France  that  the  immense 
majority  of  missionaries  in  Asia  and  Africa  is  formed  of 
Frenchmen,  the  zeal  of  Leo  XIII.  soon  perceived  that  it  was 
only  proper  for  other  Catholics  to  bear  something  like  a  just 
proportion  of  labor  in  the  cause  of  heaven.  Therefore  the 
bishops  of  Belgium  were  told  that  they  should  encourage 
priests  to  join  the  missions  in  Belgian  Congo ;  and  since 
Germany  had  established  a,  "  protectorate  "  over  a  large  por- 
tion of  African  territory,  the  Pontiff  wrote  to  the  archbishop 
of  Cologne,  asking  him  "  to  enquire  diligently  among  the 
German  clergy,  as  to  whether  there  were  not  any  of  them 
who  would  appear  to  be  called  by  God  to  evangelize  the 
unfortunate  peoples  of  Africa."  The  pontifical  appeal  was 
heeded  ;  many  Belgian  and  German  priests  entered  on  the 
new  apostolate ;  and  very  soon  both  Belgian  and  German 
military  officers  reported,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  Prot- 
estant element  in  their  jurisdictions,  that  the  new  mission- 
aries were  "  excellent  civilizing  agents."  One  of  our  Pontiff's 
suggestions  for  the  Christianization  of  the  Dark  Continent 
was  the  establishment,  as  soon  as  practicable,  of  monasteries 
of  yarious  orders  ;  he  remembered  the  paramount  influence 
of  the  sons  of  St.  Benedict  in  civilizing  the  barbarians  of 
Northern  Europe  in  the  early  Middle  Age  ;  and  as  a  beginning, 
a  colony  of  Trappists  fixed  themselves  in  Belgian  Congo,  the 
Pope  himself  giving  100,000  francs  toward  the  defrayal  of 
their  expenses.  In  1890,  Leo  XIII.  was  encouraged  by  the 
receipt  of  a  letter  which  had  been  received  by  Cardinal 
Lavigerie  from  Mwanga,  king  of  Ouganda  (1).     This  sover- 

'D  "  Tour  Eminence  and  ray  great  father.    I,  Mwanga,  king  of  Ouganda,  send  a  man 


POPE  LEO  Xin.  AND  THE  AFRICAN  SLAVE  TRADE.    307 

eign,  who  li:ul  boeu  expelled  from  his  dominions  by  the 
Arabs,  had  taken  the  offensive,  and  being  aided  by  such  of 
his  subjects  as  were  Catholics,  had  just  reconquered  his 
inheritance,  and  from  a  bitter  persecutor  had  become  a 
protector  of  the  faith.  Catholicism  was  progressing  in  every 
sense  in  Ougauda,  when,  in  1802,  the  Protestant  missionaries 
induced  the  English  East  African  Company  to  attack  and 
disperse  the  neophytes.  Their  villages  were  burnt,  hundreds 
were  massacred,  and  their  wives  and  children  were  sent 
adrift  to  wander  or  perish  among  strangers  ;  the  persecutors 
openly  avowing  that  they  preferred  Pagans  or  Mohammedans 
to  Catholics.  However,  in  this  case  as  in  so  many  others, 
the  blood  of  martyrs  was  the  seed  of  the  Church ;  for  the 
thousands  of  Ougandan  Catholics  were  scattered  only  to  be 
the  means  of  the  conversion  of  many  others.  And  in  the 
following  year,  the  East  African  Company  was  compelled  to 
evacuate  this  region,  authority  therein  devolving  on  Sir 
Gerald  Portal,  an  English  Imperial  Commissioner,  who  soon 
showed  that  the  Catholics  might  rely  on  his  justice. 

In  1890  there  departed  from  Belgium  the  first  of  the  anti- 
slavery  expeditions  which  were  destined  to  carry  succor  to 
Joubert  (1),  and  to  establish  a  long  line  of  armed  stations 

to  visit  you.  I  write  to  tell  you  that  I  have  returned  to  mv  kingdom.  You  knew  that 
when  the  Arabs  defeated  me,  I  fled  to  Bukumbi.  Mgr.  Livinhac  and  his  missionaries 
treated  me  kindly.  After  four  months  the  Christians  sent  for  me.  We  fought  for  Ave 
months.  God  blessed  us,  and  we  defeated  the  Arabs.  Now  I  beg  you  to  send  priests  to 
teach  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  whole  of  Ouganda.  I  also  ask  you  for  some 
physicians,  like  those  who  went  to  Ujiji.  When  they  arrive,  I  shall  give  them  a  good 
place.  I  have  heard  that  our  Father  the  Pope,  the  great  head  of  religion,  has  sent  you  to 
Europe  to  treat  with  the  great  ones  concerning  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Africa.  As  for 
me.  if  the  white  men  help  me,  I  can  aid  them,  and  I  can  prevent  the  slave-trade  in  all  the 
country  around  the  Nyanza.  Deign  to  beg  heaven  to  give  me  the  strength  to  do  good. 
On  my  part,  I  pray  God  to  bless  all  the  works  that  you  perform  for  His  glory.  Your  son 
MwANGA,  King  of  Ouf/anda." 

(1)  "  What  a  heroic  poem  would  be  formed  by  the  mere  recitation  of  the  gigantic  works 
performed  in  Africa  under  the  inspiration  of  Leo  XUI.,  and  by  the  activity  of  Cardinal 
Laviperie !  One  would  need  to  depict  the  legions  of  missionaries  attacking  the  Dark 
Continent  from  all  sides,  creating  centres  of  enlightenment,  and  attracting  the  ardent 
sympathies  of  the  natives.  One  would  need  to  give  a  detailed  narrative  of  the  efforts  of 
Ibe  Pope  and  the  cardinal  to  protect,  by  a  circle  of  steel,  the  still  pagan  regions  of  Africa 
from  the  raids  of  the  infamous  traders  in  human  flesh.  One  would  need  to  describe  the 
military  heroism  of  Joubert.  that  Frenchman  without  fear,  that  Christian  without  stain, 
who  alone  resisted  the  assaults  of  the  slave-traders  for  many  years,  that  other  St.  Louis, 
who  is,  as  Captain  Jacques  said.  ?e  hon  sergnit  tie  7>ich  among  the  blacks  to  whom  he 
(fives  also  material  prosperity,  the  love  of  labor  which  civl'izes  the  most  degraded  peoples, 
the  hope  which  consoles,  and  the  faith  which  ennobles.  All  this  should  be  shown  in  life. 
In  action,  in  combat,  in  sullering,  and  ever  sustained  by  the  spirit  of  God,  unceasingly 


308  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

which  would  serve  as  a  barrier  to  tlie  march  of  the  slave- 
traders.  This  expedition,  commanded  bj  a  Belgian  officer 
named  Hinck,  was  recalled  before  it  could  attain  its  object. 
More  fortunate  than  Hinck,  Captain  Jacques  had  the 
Pontiff  bless  his  sword,  and  in  1891  he  destroyed  the  power 
of  the  ferocious  Wagagos,  and  after  a  wonderful  march  of 
fifty-eight  days,  he  reached  the  German  station  at  Tabora 
with  a  caravan  of  2,000  men.  Then  occurred  his  rapid  march 
to  the  Tanganika,  where  his  presence  alone  entailed  the 
dissolution  of  the  army  of  Rumaliza,  the  most  powerful  Arab 
of  Oujiji,  who  was  preparing  to  assail  Joubert.  Then 
Jacques  joined  Joubert  at  St.  Louis  de  M'rumbi,  having 
arrived  just  in  time  to  save  him  from  the  annihilation 
threatened  by  the  slave-trade  hordes  who  had  surrounded 
him.  But  the  Arabs  were  not  discouraged  ;  they  constructed 
a  fort  in  front  of  Albertville,  ravaged  the  neighboring  dis- 
tricts, and  tried  to  reduce  the  Franco-Belgians  and  their 
black  allies  by  famine.  While  Jacques  and  Joubert  were 
awaiting  succor  from  Belgium,  another  expedition  was  being 
organized  in  that  country,  thanks  to  a  public  subscription, 
and  especially  to  a  subscription  from  the  veterans  of  the 
Franco-Beige  Pontifical  Zouaves,  to  which  noble  body  Jou- 
bert had  belonged.  Leo  XIII.  signified  his  intention  of 
associating  himself  with  this  expedition  by  means  of  a 
contribution  of  50,000  francs.  Commanded  by  Captain 
Descamps,  this  fourth  Belgian  private  enterprise  was  a 
success,  the  stations  of  the  Tanganika  becoming  a  formid- 
able barrier  to  the  Mohammedan  slavers.  In  the  Belgian 
territory  of  the  Upper  Congo,  many  deeds  of  heroism 
were  performed,  notably  that  by  Prince  Henri  de  Croy, 
when  he  destroyed  a  caravan  of  1,200  Arabs,  and  thereby 
delivered  307  slaves  ;  but  the  civil  administration  of  the 
Congo  State  seemed  to  have  hitherto  shared  with  all  other 
civil  Afro-European  authorities  the  idea  that  the  Arab  in 
Africa  is  invincible,  and  that  his  presence,  at  least  in  Central 
Africa,  is  a  necessary  evil.  To  the  intense  indignation  of 
Leo   XIII.  and   Cardinal   Lavigerie,  the   administrators   of 

manifesting  itself  in  the  ardent  words  of  Leo  XIII.,  and  in  the  funeyme  energy  of  the 
cardinal."  T'Serclaes  ;  Pope  Leo  XIII. :  His  Life,  and  His  lieliginus.  Political, 
and  Social  Action.    Paris,  1804. 


POPE    LEO    XIII.    AND    THE    AFRICAN   SLAVE    TRADE.  309 

Intlepeiideut  Congo  li.id  coucluded  a  treaty,  in  1887,  with 
Tippo-Tip,  recoguiziug  him  as  vali   of  Stanley  Falls,  and 
reconciling  themselves  to  the  idea  that  Nyangwe  and  Kass- 
ongo  were  inexpugnable  intreuchments  of  slavery.     How- 
ever, in  1892  the  Arabs  of  Tippo-Tip  massacred  the  Hodister 
expetlition,  and  attacked  M.  Tobback,  the  Belgian  agent  at 
Stanley  Falls  ;  whereupon  Tobback,  succored    by  Chaltin, 
undertook  a  vigorous  campaign  which  resulted  in  the  final 
annihilation  of  the  power  of  Tippo-Tip.     Thus  finally,  by 
means  of   the    initiative   of   Leo   XIII.,    the   eloquence   of 
Lavigerie,  the  good  will  of  King  Leopold  II.  of  Belgium, 
and    the   valor   of  Belgian   volunteers    and    soldiers,    the 
domination  of  the  Arab  slaver  in  Central  Africa  v/as  over- 
thrown.    As  though  he  realized  that  he  was  not  destined 
to  behold  the  completion  of  the  work  that  he  had  begun 
and    impelled    on   its   road   to   full    development,    Cardi- 
nal Lavigerie  addressed  the  following  words  to  the  char- 
itable in  France  and  Belgium  who  had  aided  his  projects  : 
"  I  thank  them  all  in  the  name  of  the   poor   slaves  whose 
restoration  to  life  and  liberty  they  have  efifected ;  I  thank 
them,  in  the   name   of   the   devoted   mothers,   and   of  the 
dear  little  ones,  who  will  not  any  more  be  separated,  perhaps 
to  be  barbarously  massacred,  perhaps  to  be  sold  in  distant 
regions  ;  I  thank  them  in  the  name  of  religion,  whose  pro- 
gress toward  peace  and  security   they   have   promoted  ;  I 
thank  them,  finally,  in  the  name  of  the  missionaries,  whose 
lives  they  have  protected,  and  whose  regeneration  and  fructi- 
fying labors  they  have  seconded."     On  Nov.  27,  1892,  a  few 
months  after  he  had  written  this  token  of  the  interest  which 
devoured  him  to  the  last,  the  great  soul  of  Lavigerie  went  to 
its  eternal  reward.     From  among  the  innumerable  eulogies 
which  this  death  evoked,  we  select  the  following  passages  from 
that  presented  by  the  3Ionifeur  de  Borne  :  "  A  hundred  years 
from  now,  when  the  European  tourist  visits  the  white  cities 
of  the  Dark  Continent,  he  will  admire  in  their  public  squares 
the  twin-statues  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  and  Cardinal  Lavigerie. 
To  follow  the  reciprocal  actions  of  the  grand  Pontiff  and 
of  the  great  organizer  of  missionary  work  would  be  to  under- 
take a  narrative  of  indefinite  length.     Without  Leo  XIII., 


310  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

the  primate  of  Africa  would  not  have  been  a  founder ;  his 
brow  would  not  have  been  stamped  with  the  seal  of  a  creator  ; 
the  works  of  his  own  initiation  would  have  been  developed 
less  fully  and  less  rapidly,  and  his  best  and  most  daring 
conceptions  would  not  have  been  born  ;  a  century  would  not 
have  sufficed  for  the  wonders  which  have  been  accomplished 
in  ten  years.  In  the  reciprocating  motion  between  Kome 
and  Carthage,  all  was  grand  ;  the  inspirations  and  the 
accomplishments,  the  direction  and  the  execution,  the  con- 
ceiving intellect  and  the  operating  arm,  the  enjoining  and 
blessing  Pontiff  and  the  apostle-patriarch  who  drew  from  the 
Vatican  the  force  which  filled  the  world  with  admiration. 
History  will  not  mention  the  cardinal  without  also  speak- 
ing of  the  Pope ;  they  will  live  together  in  the  memory  of 
men.  ...  A  great  man  is  never  so  creative,  his  creations  are 
never  so  solid  and  far-reaching,  as  when  his  works  are  sanc- 
tioned by  a  great  Pope.  From  the  beginning  of  their  ac- 
quaintance, Leo  XIII.  had  discerned  in  the  cardinal  '  a  man 
who  will  deserve  well  of  humanity.'  To  counsel,  to  encour- 
age, and  to  sustain  Lavigerie  was  the  constant  idea  of  His 
Holiness ;  to  use  the  cardinal  for  his  own  purposes  was  the 
Pope's  noblest  ambition.  With  what  enthusiasm  did  not  the 
Pontiff  speak  of  the  archbishop  of  Carthage  ?  How  confi- 
dently Leo  XIII.  watched  that  illustrious  career  !  Neither 
detractors,  nor  calumniators,  nor  reprovers  could  ever  pre- 
vent the  Pope  from  blessing  this  grand  man  of  action." 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 

POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  EDUCATIONAL  QUESTION  IN  BELGIUM. 

The  theory  of  an  "  independent  morality,"  that  is,  of  a 
morality  derived  from  an  absolute  independence  of  all 
"  religious  dogmatic  teaching,"  has  been,  as  we  have  had 
frequent  occasion  to  note,  the  pet  dogmatism  of  the  Free- 
masonry of  our  day,  which  thus  accentuated,  as  though  such 
emphasis  was  needed,  its  essential  difference  from  the  sys- 
tem which   proclaims   that   all   social   order   is   based  on 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   EDUCATION   IN   BELGIUM.  311 

revealed  truth — ou  God  and  His  Christ — Omnia  iustanrare 
in  Christo.  Ou  Jau.  26,  187i>,  at  the  ceremouy  of  the  conse- 
cration of  the  Masonic  Temple  of  the  Amis  rhilanthropes  in 
Brussels,  Brother  Goblet  d'Aviella,  knowing  full  well  that  his 
words  would  be  proclaimed  immediately  to  the  "  profane" 
world,  openly  avowed  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  "  independent  morality  "  on  Catholic  Belgium. 
"  When  we  laid  the  corner-stone  of  this  temple  (1877),  I 
observed,  my  brothers,  that  Masonry  is  the  philosophy  of 
Liberalism,  that  is,  the  source  from  which  the  foes  of  all 
prejudices  and  superstitions  must  procure  their  superior 
principles  of  moral  direction  and  political  reconstruction. 
.  .  .  What  question  chiefly  engages  the  attention  of  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  people  of  Belgium  to-day  ?  It  is  that  of  a 
reform  of  popular  education — that  lever,  with  which,  as 
a  certain  philosopher  declared,  mankind  could  be  renovated. 
To-day  we  are  about  to  deprive  revealed  religion  of  that 
right  to  teach  morality  which  it  has  hitherto  monopo- 
lized in  the  public  schools.  ...  If  the  Liberals  wish  to  find 
the  true  principles  of  education,  let  them  come  to  our  tem- 
ples. On  our  walls  they  will  see  those  principles  written  ; 
in  our  works  they  will  see  those  principles  formulated. 
Masonry  teaches  that  in  the  moral  just  as  in  the  physical 
world,  there  are  laws  which  are  absolute,  primordial,  per- 
manent, universal,  and  independent  of  all  time  and  place 
— independent  of  every  sect  and  school,  and  destined  to  be 
the  foundation  of  every  society  which  is  rationally  organ- 
ized  When  Masonry   proclaims   these   laws,   it   merely 

conforms  to  the  object  for  which  it  was  instituted  ;  for  this 
object — as  is  known  by  all  of  you  who  have  arrived  at  the 
third  degree — although  it  is  hidden  under  the  Biblical 
superstitions  of  our  Kituals,  is  simply  the  study  of  Nat- 
ure "  (1).  The  confidence  of  Brother  Goblet  d'Aviella  was 
well-founded  ;  for  in  the  elections  of  the  previous  May,  the 
Liberals  had  attained  to  power,  and  an  entirely  Masonic 
cabinet,  composed  of  such  men  as  Frere-Orban  (for  Foreign 
Affairs),  Bara  (for  Justice),  and  Van  Hurabeeck  (for  the 
Interior),  swayed  the  destinies  of  Belgium.      The  Brethren 

(1)  Reported  in  the  Courrier  de  BiuxeUes,  March  7,  1879. 


312  STUDIES    IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

of  the  Dark  Lantern  in  France,  as  we  have  seen,  were  firmly 
entrenched  ;  the  adepts  in  Holland,  thanks  to  their  ally,  the 
"  Society  for  the  Public  Welfare  "  (1),  had  just  procured  the 
passage  of  a  law  which  laicized  all  teaching  of  youth  ;  why 
should  not  halcyon  days  now  arrive  for  Belgian  Masonry  ?  ('2). 
On  Jan  21,  1879,  the  Venerable  Brother,  Van  Humbeeck,  in 
his  capacity  as  Minister  of  the  Interior,  introduced  into  the 
Chambers  the  great  desideratum  of  his  order.  The  follow- 
ing were  the  principal  articles  :  Art.  IV.  "  Religious 
teaching  is  left  to  the  care  of  families  and  of  the  clergy  of 
tlie  different  religions.  A  place  in  the  schools  shall  be  as- 
signed to  the  ministers  of  the  various  denominations  for  the 
purpose  of  giving,  after  school  hours,  religious  instruction 
to  such  children  as  belong  to  their  respective  communions." 
Art.  VI.  "  The  books  used  in  the  primary  schools  shall  be 
selected  by  the  Conseil  de  Perfedionnement,  and  shall  be 
approved  (or  rejected)  by  the  government."  It  was  evident 
that  these  provisions  would  be  obnoxious  to  the  immense 

(1)  This  society  was  founded  in  1784  by  Nieuwenhysen,  a  Dutch  Mennonite  pastor,  "  with 
the  intention,"  as  his  programme  announced,  "of  combatting,  in  children  as  well  as  in 
adults,  all  the  prejudices  of  superstition."  Its  apparent  inolTensiveness  rendered  it  an 
admirable  propaganda  of  Freemasonry,  especially  among  the  lower  orders.  See  the 
excellent  work  of  M.  de  Moussac  on  T^ie  Educational  League,  p.  9  and  :i34. 

(2)  Under  the  domination  of  the  first  Napoleon,  Freemasonry,  which  had  hitherto 
flourished  but  poorly  in  Belgium,  developed  greatly  ;  but  it  attained  to  much  larger  pro- 
portions when  the  Machiavellian  Congress  of  Vienna  incorporated  the  Catholic  Belgians 
with  the  Hollanders.  One  of  the  chief  re-organizers  of  Belgian  Masonry  was  an  apostate 
priest  named  Saint-Martin,  a  counsellor  of  the  Paris  Court  of  Cassation,  who  had  been 
employed  by  Napoleon  In  many  confidential  missions  in  the  Low  Countries.  None  of  the 
Belgian  Masons  of  those  days  had  any  sympathy  for  Belgian  aspirations  toward  liberty  ; 
the  union  with  Holland  under  the  sceptre  of  a  Protestant  prince  promised  to  favor  their 
game.  A  distinguished  member  of  the  Belgian  parliament,  Woeste,  thus  alluded  to  this 
unpatriotic  altitude  of  the  Belgian  Masons  :  "  When  King  William  (of  Holland)  assumed  a 
hostile  and  aggressive  attitude  toward  Catholicism,  Masonry  took  good  care  not  to  espouse 
the  cause  of  the  liberty  of  the  Church  again.st  him.  It  proclaimed  him  '  the  most  enlight- 
ened monarch  in  Europe.'  It  approved  his  expulsion  of  the  Biothers  of  the  Christian 
Schools ;  his  suppression  of  the  freedom  of  teaching  ;  his  foundation  of  the  '  Philosophical 
College '  ;  and  one  of  the  Masonic  representatives  in  the  States-General,  Reyphins,  ex- 
claimed :  '  It  was  necessary  to  take  measures  which  would  insure  for  Belgium  in  the 
future  an  educated  and  enlightened  clergy  ;  and  the  government  therefore  created  the 
Philosophical  College.  The  government  should  not  only  watch  over  public  instruction  ; 
it  should  direct  it.  seeing  that  the  young  are  taught  good  principles,  those  which  conform 
to  our  habits  ai  d  institutions.'"  See  the  Anti-Catholic  and  Radical  Evolution  of  tin 
Liberal  Partji.  in  the  Revue  Generale,  Nov.,  1876.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  while  the 
educational  master-stroke  of  the  Masons  of  Belgium  was  being  prepared,  these  praters  ol 
patriotism  were  drawing  closer  their  relations  with  the  German  Lodges,  through  the  me 
dium  of  one  of  Bismarck's  chief  confidents,  Bluntschli ;  and  this  was  precisely  the  time 
when  it  was  an  open  secret  that  the  German  chancellor  was  engineering  the  annexations 
Holland  and  at  least  a  part  of  Belgium  to  the  domain  of  the  Hohenzollern.  See  the  Bul- 
letin of  the  Orand  Orient  of  BeUrium  for  1874  and  1875. 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   EDUCATION   IN   BELGIUM.  31i5 

majority  of  the  people,  aud  that  therefore  in  very  many 
places  the  Muuieipal  CouuciLs  would  rind  some  means  of  re- 
taining the  olden  order  of  things.  To  obviate  this  inconveni- 
ence, a  body  of  inspectors,  to  be  appointed  by  the  Minister 
of  Public  Instruction,  was  created  ,and  to  render  the  hold  of 
the  government  on  the  schools  still  more  firm,  there  was  to  be 
in  each  commune  a  School  Committee,  also  of  governmental 
appointment.  To  Catholics  of  the  great  American  Eepublic 
who  have  come  to  regard  the  crying  injustices  of  their  Pub- 
lic School  System  as  a  matter  of  course,  this  Masonico- 
Liberal  Belgian  law  of  1879  must  naturally  appear  as  com- 
paratively a  "  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished "  in 
their  own  "  freest  land  on  earth  "  ;  but  the  bishops  and 
clergy  of  Belgium,  whose  ancestors  in  the  faith,  ever  since 
the  days  of  Clovis,  had  been  accustomed  to  the  hand-in-hand 
march  of  religious  and  secular  education,  regarded  the  Frere- 
Orban  law  as  the  entering-wedge  which  would  entail  an  ulti- 
mate triumph  of  inditferentism.  It  would  be  the  height  of 
rashness,  therefore,  to  designate  as  excessively  severe  the 
decision  emitted  concerning  this  law  by  the  Belgian  pre- 
lates, after  mature  and  conscientious  reflection.  This  decis- 
ion, as  communicated  to  all  the  deans  and  pastors,  declared : 
Firstly,  absolution  was  to  be  refused  to  all  the  teachers 
and  pupils  of  the  secondary  or  Normal  Schools,  Secondly, 
since  the  religious  instruction  given  in  the  lay  schools  was 
imparted  by  persons  who  had  not  received  the  canonical 
commission  from  their  bishops,  said  instruction  was  to  be 
regarded  as  schismatical ;  and  therefore  said  instructors  had 
incurred  excommunication.  Thirdl3%  absolution  was  to  be 
refused  to  all  the  instructors  under  the  new  regime,  even  to 
those  who  gave  no  religious  instruction  in  their  schools  ; 
but  as  to  the  children  frequenting  the  primary  schools,  their 
tender  age  excused  them  from  culpability,  and  they  could 
be  admitted  to  the  Sacraments,  for  the  present  (1).  How- 
ever, the  prelates  of  Belgium  had  no  intention  of  depriving 
their  youthful  subjects  of  the  benefits  of  secular  education. 
They  called  on  their  people  to  establish  Catholic  schools 
immediately,  leaving  those  of  the  government  to  its  subsi- 

(l)  Thus  the  decision  was  summarized  In  the  Gazette  de  Bi-uxelleti,  Sept.  1,  1879. 


314  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

dized  and  excommunicated  servants.  The  organs  of  Belgian 
Masonry  did  not  affect  to  conceal  their  exultation  when  the 
educational  law  of  1879  had  been  voted.  On  June  29,  a 
"  convent "  of  the  Belgian  and  Dutch  adepts  was  held  in 
the  Lodge  Geldersche  Brcederschap  of  Aruelim  ;  and  among 
other  ebullitions,  the  brother.  Van  Capelle,  congratulated 
the  order  on  "  having  accomplished  a  work  for  which  human- 
ity thanked  it ;  it  had  put  into  the  hands  of  a  neutral  State 
a  primary  instruction  which  it  had  taken  from  the  hands  of 
an  intolerant  clergy  "  (1). 

From  the  day  when  the  educational  law  was  proposed  in 
the  Belgian  Chambers,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Frere-Orban,  endeavored  to  procure  from  Pope  Leo  XIII. 
an  assurance  that  the  Holy  See  did  not  share  the  indignation 
manifested  by  the  Belgian  bishops  in  regard  to  that  law. 
When  six  months  had  elapsed,  and  the  law  had  been  voted, 
the  desired  assurance  had  not  been  given  ;  therefore  the 
disappointed  Minister  sought  to  make  it  appear  that  the 
Vatican  had  contradicted  itself,  blaming  the  Belgian  pre- 
lates in  the  beginning,  and  afterward  upholding  them.  But, 
as  Cardinal  Nina,  then  the  papal  Secretary  of  State,  told 
the  Belgian  Minister  to  the  Vatican,  during  the  time  when 
the  law  was  being  discussed  in  the  Chambers,  "  the  Holy 
See  had  hoped,  and  to  the  last  moment,  that  some  amend- 
ment would  render  the  law  less  hateful  to  the  Catholics  "  ; 
now  that  the  law  was  being  executed,  however.  His  Eminence 
declared  that  "  he  could  not  hold  the  opinion  of  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs  concerning  the  attitude  of  the  Belgian 
clergy — he  could  not  pronounce  that  attitude  illegal  or 
seditious."  Speaking  of  the  Pastoral  in  which  the  Belgian 
bishops,  on  June  12,  1879,  had  pronounced  the  censures  of 
the  Church  on  all  co-operators  with  the  wicked  law,  the 
cardinal  declared  that  the  doctrine  contained  in  the  docu- 
ment was  thoroughly  orthodox  ;  and  that  the  disciplinary  por- 
tion, in  which  provision  was  made  for  dispensations  in  cases 
where  the  children  would  run  no  risk  of  spiritual  injury, 
was  couched  indeed  in  strong  language,  but  in  terms  which 
were   perfectly   justifiable.     On   three   different   occasions, 

(1)  The  entire  speech  is  published  in  the  Masonic  Chaine  d'Uniou,  Jan.,  18fcO. 


POPE  LEO  XIII.   AND   EDUCATION   IN   BELGIUM.  315 

LeoXin.  wrote  personally  to  King  Leopold  II.  in  reference 
to  the  iniquitous  enactment.     In  Aug.,  1879,  lie  begged  His 
Majesty  "  to  consider  the  disastrous  effects  of  a  law  which 
has  justly  and  deeply   shocked  the   Belgian  Catholics,   as 
well  as  those  who  have  charge  of  their  religious  interests." 
On  Nov.  4,  the  Pontiff  insisted  that  "  any  bishop  who   tried 
to  fulfil  his  pastoral  duties,  let  him   be   the   most   consum- 
mately prudent  of  prelates,  would  inevitably  find  himself  at 
variance  with  a  law  which  contradicts   the   principles  of 
Catholic  doctrine";  and  His  Holiness  adds  that   it   is   be- 
cause of  the  evident  iniquity  of  the  law  that  all  the  bishops 
of   Belgium,   "  differing   as   they   do  in  disposition,  are  so 
unanim'ous  in  arranging  measures  to  counteract   the  conse- 
quences of  the  new  legislation."     The  Pope  also   reminds 
the  king  that  "  no  real  need  called  for  such  an  enactment— 
for  a  measure  which  was  so  utterly  offensive  to  the  immense 
majority  of  His  Majesty's  subjects  "     On  May  10,  1880,  the 
Pontiff ^tells  the  monarch   that  the   Belgian  bishops   have 
been  forced  to  adopt  extreme   measures,   because  of  "^  the 
grave  danger  threatening  the   souls  of   their  peoples,"  on 
account  of  a  law  which  was   designed  "  to   undermine   the 
Catholic  faith  in  Belgium,  rather  than  to  vindicate  rights  of 
the  State  which  no  one  had  usurped."     And  the  king  must 
not  forget,  adds  the  Pope,  that  the  bishops   have   accorded 
numerous    dispensations,   and  taken    other    measures   cal- 
culated   to    moderate   the   conflict— and   all   these    things 
were  done  in  accordance  with  the  counsel  of  the  Holy  See." 
In  the  face   of  these   letters  of  the   Pontiff,   the   Masonic 
conscience  of   Frere-Orbau  allowed   him  to   assert  in  the 
parliament  that  Leo  XIII.  had  disapproved  of  the  conduct  of 
the  Belgian  prelates.     This  lie  caused  Cardinal  Nina  to 
send  to  Archbishop  (now  Cardinal)  Serafino  Vannutelli,  the 
nuncio  at  Brussels,  a  despatch  dated  Nov.  11,  1879,  in  which 
the  supposed  discord  between  His  Holiness  and  the  Belgian 
episcopate  was  clearly  denied.     Frere-Orban  refused  to  re- 
ceive this  despatch  offtcialhj—an  insult  which  was  probably 
meant  to  induce  the  nuncio  to  ask  for  his  passports.     How- 
ever, as  Vannutelli  knew  the  mind  of  the  Pontiff  to  W  averse 
to  an  open  rupture  of  diplomatic  relations  with  a  Catholic 


316  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

sovereign,  when  such  a  catastrophe  coukl  possibly  be  avoided, 
he  consented  to  withhold  the  document,  without,  however, 
modif  jing  its  contents  in  any  way.  In  spite  of  this  letter, 
Frere-Orban  made  to  the  parliament  a  most  impressive 
denunciation  of  the  bishops,  as  of  men  who  were  disobedient 
to  the  Holy  See.  Then,  in  the  name  of  the  entire  Belgian 
hierarchy,  Cardinal  Dechamps,  archbishop  of  Malines, 
published  a  formal  denial  of  the  assertion,  concluding  with 
the  words,  "  not  only  has  the  Holy  Father  uttered  no  word 
of  blame  for  the  bishops  of  Belgium,  but  we  know  positively 
— nous  le  Savons  de  science  certain e — that  our  adversaries  will 
wait  in  vain  for  such  a  word."  Nor  did  the  Pontiff  delay 
in  notifying  the  world  that  Frere-Orban  had  lied,  although 
of  course,  the  papal  language  was  polite,  and  restricted  to 
the  mere  necessary.  In  a  Brief  to  His  Eminence  of  Malines^ 
dated  April  2,  ]880,  His  Holiness  said  :  "We  wish  to  as- 
sure you,  with  all  our  heart,  that  your  manifestations  of 
devotion,  of  attachment  to  this  Holy  See,  and  of  zeal  for  the 
preservation  of  faith  and  piety  in  your  country,  have  filled 
us  with  consolation  ;  and  that  they  even  strengthen  the 
ties  of  paternal  affection  which  have  so  long  bound  us  to  the 
bishops,  clergy,  and  laity  of  Belgium."  And  the  diplomatic 
correspondence  of  Baron  d'Anethan,  the  Belgian  Minister 
to  the  Vatican,  shows  that  the  Pope  said  to  this  envoy  : 
"That  alleged  discord  never  existed.  I  am  united  com- 
pletely with  all  the  Belgian  bishops ;  there  is  but  one  Fold 
and  one  Shepherd."  But  the  Masonic  audacity  of  the  Bel- 
gian Foreign  Minister  was  unaffected  by  shame.  On  April 
7,  1880,  he  asked  Cardinal  Nina  for  "explanations  "  of  what 
had  been  already  explained  ad  ahundantiam.  In  a  despatch 
dated  May  3,  the  cardinal-secretary  again  insisted  that  the 
Belgian  prelates  had  acted  properly  and  necessarily,  when 
they  condemned  a  law  which  violated  the  principles  of 
Christian  morality,  and  when  they  interdicted  all  formal 
co-operation  in  the  observance  of  that  law.  The  Holy  See, 
again  "explained"  His  Eminence,  had  indeed  hoped  for  a 
moment  that  the  Belgian  bishops  might  find  it  possible  to 
distinguish  between  school  and  school,  showing  in  practice  a 
kind  of  indulgence  toward  such  institutions  as  did  not  really 


rorE   LEO   XIII.    AND   EDUCATION   IN   BELGIUM.  317 

inspire   distrust   in  the    Catholic   mind;  but   the   prelates 
replied  that  such  a  distinction  was  impossible.     Therefore 
"the  Holy   See,    considering    the  actual   condition  of   the 
new  schools  in  general,  did  not  deem  it  wise  to  oppose  the 
judgment  of   the   bishops ;   for  these   prelates  were  on   the 
spot,  and  were  fully  able  to  appreciate  the  circumstances  as 
well  as  the   needs  of   the  faithful   who  were   committed   to 
their  care."     Nevertheless,   again  remarks  the  papal  secre- 
tary, His  Holiness  did  not  cease  to  advise  great  moderation 
in  the  application  of   spiritual   penalties  ;   but  such  advice 
was  by  no  means  an  opposition  to  the  general  condemna- 
tion of  the  new  schools.     Frere-Orban  still  affected  to  per- 
ceive a  discord   between  the  minds  of  the   Belgian  bishops 
and  the  mind  of  the  Pontiff.     On  May  18,  he  repeated  this 
often  reiterated  assertion ;   and  then,    in  justification  of  his 
laicizing  policy,  he  pointed  to   certain  other  countries,  in 
which  the  Catholic  clergy  had  been  at  least  less  opposed  to 
"  neutral  "  schools.     To  this  would-be   argumentation  Car- 
dinal Nina  replied   on   June  8,   proving  that  the  Holy  See 
had  always  condemned  those  schools,  in  whatever  land  they 
had   been   introduced.      Before   Frere-Orban  received  this 
despatch,  he  had  ordered  Baron  d'Anethan   to  withdraw  his 
legation  from  the  Vatican.     In  the  name  of  His  Holiness, 
the    cardinal-secretary   protested   against   this    outrage   on 
June   13  ;  and   in  another    despatch,  dated   June   29,    His 
Eminence  said  :     "  Europe  will  render  justice  to  the  great 
condescension  of  the  Holy  See,  and  to  the  striking  proofs  of 
his  conciliatory  spirit  which  Leo  XIII.  has  given  in  the  course 
of  this  affair.     It  was  the  duty  of  His  Holiness,  and  history 
will  honor  him  for  it,  not  to  debase  his  divine  mission  by 
compromises   which   would  have  involved   the  faith  of  the 
rising  generation  in  Belgium,  and  perhaps  the  faith  of  the 
entire  Belgian  people."     In  the  consistory  held  on  Aug.  20, 
our  Pontiff  delivered  a  solemn  Allocution,  in  which  he  con- 
demned the  Belgian  educational  law  of  1879,  and  protested 
against  the  recall  of  the  Belgian  Minister  to  the  Vatican,  as 
well  as  against  the  dismissal  of  his  nuncio  at  Brussels.     He 
protested  especially  against  the   latter  act,   since  it  was  a 
violation  of  the  Apostolic  dignity,  and   of  the  inalienable 


318  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

riglit  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  to  send  his  envoys  to  any  coun- 
try on  earth.  He  praised  the  zeal  of  the  Belgian  prelates, 
and  the  magnificent  generosity  of  the  Belgian  laity,  "  who  so 
fully  recognized  the  danger  that  threatened  religion  when 
that  law  was  voted,  and  who  resolved  to  defend  the  faith  of 
their  ancestors  at  every  cost "  Then  he  referred  to  the 
grand  eulogy  of  Pope  Gregory  XVI.  on  the  Belgians,  which 
that  Pope  pronounced  when  he  was  about  to  send  the  future 
Leo  XIII.  as  nuncio  to  Brussels.  "  When  Gregory  XVI. 
deigned  to  name  us  for  the  pontifical  legation  in  that 
country,  he  spoke  to  us  in  most  flattering  terms  concerning 
the  Belgian  nation,  styling  it  a  strong  race,  whose  loving 
fidelity  toward  the  Apostolic  See  and  its  own  sovereigns  had 
been  long  maintained,  despite  many  vicissitudes.  And 
we  ourselves  were  able,  during  our  nunciature,  to  bear  wit- 
ness to  those  Belgic  virtues  which  the  monuments  of  long- 
vanished  days  have  recorded.  We  have  cherished  a  special 
affection  for  that  people,  because  of  the  sweet  recollections 
of  persons  and  events  which  we  still  preserve,  as  we  think  of 
our  residence  in  that  land.  We  are  certain  that  the  Belgians 
will  never  abandon  the  love  and  the  service  of  the  Church  ; 
that  on  the  contrary,  remaining  constant  in  the  Catholic 
faith,  and  continuing  in  their  solicitude  for  the  Christian 
education  of  their  children,  they  will  always  be  worthy  of 
their  ancestors." 

On  Aug.  3,  1881,  Leo  XIII.  addressed  a  Brief  to  Cardinal 
Dechamps,  urging  the  necessity  of  concord  among  the  Bel- 
gian Catholics,  both  clerical  and  lay;  begging  them  to 
abstain  from  all  irritating  discussions,  and  giving  them  some 
rules  for  their  guidance  when  talking  or  writing  on  politico- 
religious  matters.  Some  of  these  remarks  will  interest  the 
reader.  "  Filled  with  anxiety  for  the  maintenance  of  con- 
cord among  you,  we  notice  that  certain  controversies  on 
public  law,  which  are  agitated  among  you  with  great  fervor, 
are  not  very  favorable  to  peace.  The  theme  of  these  con- 
troversies is  the  propriety  of  reconciling  the  principles  of 
the  new  jurisprudence  with  those  inculcated  by  Catholic 
doctrine.  No  one  can  desire  more  ardently  than  we  desire, 
the  organization  of  human  society  on  a  Christian  basis,  all 


POPE   LEO   Xril.    AND   SOCIALISM.  319 

the  institutions  of  the  State  being  penetrated  and  impregnatea 
by  the  Christian  virtues.  But  if  Catliolics  wish  to  strive 
for  the  common  weal,  it  is  necessary  that  they  keep  before 
their  eyes,  and  foUow  faithfully,  the  prudent  methods 
adopted  by  the  Churcih  in  regard  to  these  matters.  Although 
the  Church  defends  with  indomitable  firmness  the  integrity 
of  revealed  truth  and  of  the  principles  of  justice,  and  although 
she  endeavors  to  secure  the  triumph  of  these  principles  in 
public  and  private  life  ;  nevertheless,  she  ever  considers  the 
circumstances  of  time,  persons,  and  places,  and  frequently 
she  resigns  herself  to  a  toleration  of  certain  evils  which  can- 
not  be  overcome  without  opening  a  door  to  greater  ones. 
In  all  discussions,  you  should  beware  of  passing  the  bounds 
of  equity  and  charity  ;  you  should  never  accuse  rashly,  or 
even  suspect  men  who  are  docile  to  the  teachings  of  the 
Church,  especially  when  they  are  constituted  in  places  of 
ecclesiastical  dignity."  On  June  5,  1883,  the  PontijBf  was 
able  to  congratulate  the  Belgians  on  their  attention  to  his 
warning  voice,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  members  of  the 
federation  of  the  Catholic  societies  of  the  kingdom,  then 
assembled  in  convention  at  Audenarde.  And  the  result  of 
the  prudent  zeal  of  the  Belgian  laity  was  soon  declared.  In 
the  general  elections  of  June  10,  1884,  the  Masonic  yoke 
was  cast  aside,  and  an  enormous  majority  of  Catholic 
deputies  were  chosen  as  representatives  of  a  Catholic  people. 
Under  the  successive  Ministries  of  Malou  and  Bern?ert,  the 
work  of  Frere-Orban  and  his  brethren  was  undone.  On 
July  19,  the  legation  to  the  Vatican  was  re-established ;  and 
on  Sept.  20,  the  Chambers  voted  a  new  School  Law  which 
restored  tbeir  legitimate  rights  to  the  Catholics,  while  it 
also  respected  freedom  of  conscience  in  their  adversaries. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

POPE  LEO  Xm.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMER- 
ICA.     THE  CONDEMNATION  OF  SO-CALLED  "  AMERICANISM." 

In  November,  1889,  one  hundred  years  after  the  institu- 
tion of  a  regular  hierarchy  in  these  United  States  by  Pope 


320  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

Pius  VI.,  there  was  opened  iu  "Washington,  in  the  presence 
of  a  papal  ablegate,  Mgr.  Satolli,  Archbishop  of  Lepanto, 
and  of  Mr.  Harrison,  then  President  of  the  Republic,  a 
theological  school  which  was  intended  to  be  the  beginning 
of  an  American  Catholic  University.  There  was  much  reason 
for  the  complacency  manifested  by  the  American  Catholic 
community  on  this  occasion  of  an  anticipated  completion  of 
its  Catholic  educational  system  ;  but  the  satisfaction  would 
have  been  more  thorough  and  more  justifiable,  had  there 
been  perceived  no  necessity  for  remembering  that  at  ■  that 
very  moment  many  hundreds  of  parishes  in  the  Republic 
were  destitute  of  Catholic  elementary  schools.  This  lament- 
able fact  must  have  appeared  incomprehensible  to  such  of 
the  participants  in  this  festivity  as  did  not  willingly  ignore 
the  convictions  of  the  Third  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore, 
held  in  1884 — sentiments  which  were  accentuated  by  a  decree 
that  parochial  schools  should  be  established  iu  all  parishes 
iu  which  they  did  not  already  exist,  unless  such  foundations 
proved  impossible  of  actuation ;  that  the  new  sclu)ols  should 
be  opened  luiihin  tiuo  years  :  that  deprivation  of  his  parish 
would  be  merited  by  any  pastor  who  would  be  derelict  in  this 
matter  ;  and  that  all  Catholic  parents  should  send  their 
children  to  the  parochial  schools,  unless  the  bishops  should 
decide  that  in  particular  cases  the  contrary  course  might  be 
pursued.  Certainly  poverty  could  scarcely  have  been  ac- 
cepted as  a  palliation  of  the  fault  b}^  any  friend  of  Catholic 
education  who  was  familiar  with  the  financial  prospects  of  the 
heartily  welcomed  University  ;  and  such  an  observer  might 
have  trusted  that  the  manifested  zeal  for  the  higher  education 
of  Catholic  laymeu  indicated  a  perception,  on  the  part  of  the 
wealthier  American  faithful,  that  necessary  and  proper  men- 
tal food  is  to  be  given  to  the  children  who  are  mentally 
starving  or  poisoned — that  the  vital  needs  of  the  educational 
life  of  the  majority  of  American  Catholics  are  of  paramount 
importance.  Then  it  might  have  been  deemed  not  foolish 
to  believe  that  the  endowers  of  the  University  would  finally 
equip  and  endow  a  Catholic  elementary  school  in  every 
poor  parish  in  the  Republic.  Such  fancies,  however,  would 
have  been  dissipated  when,  in  little  more   than  a  year   after 


POPE  LEO  X'll.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.    321 

the  celebration  iu  Wasliington,  Joaitli  of  pecuniary  lesources 
svas  alleged  by  one  of  the  foremost  promoters  of  the  Univer- 
sity iu  defence  of  a  transaction  which  appeared  to  menace 
the  most  important  of  the  causes  ever  championed  by  the 
American  hierarchy.  The  archbishoo  of  8t.  Paul  had 
entered  into  an  arrangement  with  the  civil  authorities  of 
Faribault  and  Stillwater,  whereby  the  Catholic  schools  of 
those  towns  were  to  pass  under  the  direction  of  the  Public 
School  Boards  for  the  space  of  one  year,  the  agreement  to 
be  renewed  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  each  party. 
It  was  understood  that  the  Sisters  who  had  hitherto  taught 
in  the  Catholic  schools  were  to  retain  their  positions,  but 
were  to  use  the  lext-books  prescribed  by  the  Board,  and  were 
to  give  no  religious  instruction  during  the  school-hours. 
The  "  Faribault  Plan,"  as  it  came  to  be  styled,  was  certainly 
a  pecuniary  relief  to  the  Catholics  who  had  hitherto  sup- 
ported the  parochial  schools  affected  by  it ;  but  it  was  regard- 
ed by  nearly  all  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  the  Repiiblic  as 
an  entering-wedge  which,  if  tolerated,  would  ultimately 
entail  the  ruin  of  the  edifice  of  Catholic  elementary  education. 
The  discussions  which  ensued  eventuated  in  a  submission 
of  the  question  to  the  judgment  of  the  Holy  See ;  and  on 
April  21,  1892,  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda 
decided  tlmt  "  while  the  decrees  of  the  Councils  of  Baltimore 
still  preserve  all  their  force,  nevertheless,  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case  having  been  considered,  the  agreement 
concluded  by  Archbishop  Ireland  may  he  tolerated''  In  his 
explanation  of  this  decision,  Cardinal  Ledochowski,  Prefect 
of  the  Propaganda,  recalls  ^he  decrees  of  his  Congregation 
and  of  the  Third  Council  of  Baltimore  concerning  the  paro- 
chial schools,  and  especially  the  Canon  by  which  the  Balti- 
morean  synodals  "  decided  very  wisely  that  every  church 
in  every  diocese  should  have  a  school  for  the  education  of 
Catholic  children  in  religion,  morality,  and  letters,  said 
r3chool  to  be  under  the  authority  and  direction  of  the  pastor." 
The  cardinal-prefect  recognizes  that  very  many  American 
ecclesiastics  blame  the  course  pursued  by  the  archbishop  of 
St.  Paul  as  derogatory  to  the  decrees  of  the  Propaganda 
and  of  the  Council  of  Baltimore ;  but  His  Eminence  adjures 


322  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

the  clergy  to  heed  the  decision  of  the  Sacred  Congregation. 
The  letter  of  the  cardinal-prefect  did  not  terminate  the  dis- 
cussion ;  it  was  asserted  by  many,  notably  by  the  editors  of 
the  Civiltd  Cattolica,  that  the  plirase  "may  be  tolerated" 
implied  a  disapprobation  of  the  "  Faribault  Plan."  In  these 
circumstances  Pope  Leo  XIII.  deemed  it  prudent  to  address, 
on  May  24,  1892,  a  letter  to  the  bishops  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Province  of  New  York,  in  which  he  declared  that  while  it 
was  his  Pontifical  will  that  the  decrees  of  Baltimore  should 
be  religiously  observed,  "  nevertheless,  in  the  case  of  all 
general  laws  whenever  anything  special  and  unexpected 
occurs,  equity  may  lead  the  lawgiver  to  tolerate  something 
which  deviates  a  little  from  the  letter  of  the  law."  And 
the  Pontiff  adds  :  "  We  have  perceived  that  the  present 
is  such  a  case  ;  and  we  have  thought  it  wise  to  follow  the 
counsels  of  moderation  and  of  prudence,  rather  than  to  judge 
according  to  the  rigor  of  the  law."  Then  the  Pontiff  draws 
attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the  United  States  there  is  not 
one  bishop  who  does  not  condemn  the  schools  of  the  State, 
as  they  are  now  constituted.  He  urges  the  prelates  to  con- 
tinue their  efforts  to  prevent  the  little  ones  of  their  flocks 
from  attending  schools  in  which  religious  instruction  is  not 
given,  and  in  which  their  morality  will  be  endangered.  He 
expresses  the  hope  that  some  day  the  fairness  of  the  non- 
Catholics  among  the  Americans  will  cause  them  to  perceive 
the  propriety  of  doing  justice  to  their  Catholic  fellow-citizens 
in  this  matter.  On  Nov.  16,  the  question  of  the  schools  was 
considered  by  the  archbishops  of  the  United  States  in  an 
apposite  meeting  held  in  New  York.  The  archbishop  of 
Lepanto,  Mgr.  Satolli,  who  had  recently  returned  to  the 
Eepublic  as  special  delegate  of  His  Holiness  to  its  prelates, 
was  present ;  and  as  he  laid  before  the  bishops  fourteen 
propositions  designed  to  regulate  the  matter  of  the  schools, 
he  declared  that  his  act  was  performed  "  in  the  name  of  the 
Holy  Father "  (1).  "We  give  the  salient  features  of  these 
propositions  :  II.  Wherever  there  is  no  Catholic  school,  or 
when  the  existing  school  does  not  furnish  a  fitting  education 
fto  the  pupils,  according  to  their  condition  of  life,  then  those 

fl)  Thus  ia  the  Offlcial  Report  of  the  meeting,  signed  by  the  secretary,  Mgr.  Chapelle. 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


')'A^ 


children  may  atteud  the  State  iustitntions  witli  a  safe  con- 
science, if  the  judgment  and  conscience  of  the  ordinaries 
perceive  no  danger  of  perversion  in  that  attendance.  V.  The 
bishops  strictly  enjoin,  in  accordance  with  the  formal  pro- 
hibition emitted  by  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  by  the  mouth  of 
the  Sacred  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda,  that  no  bishop 
or  priest  dare  to  refuse  the  Sacraments,  or  to  threaten  such 
refusal,  to  parents  who  send  their  children  to  the  public 
schools  ;  and  with  much  greater  reason  this  provision  is  to 
be  applied  to  the  children  themselves.  VI.  Ahsohikhj  and 
generaUy  speaking,  it  is  not  repugnant  that  a  Catholic  child 
should  receive  rudimentary  and  superior  instruction  in  the 
schools  of  the  State.  VII.  Bui  tlie  Church  entertains  a  horror 
for  those  public  schools  which  oppose  Christian  truth  and  true 
morality  :  and  once  that  it  appears  to  be  possible  to  procure  the 
abolition  of  such  institutions,  it  is  the  duty  of  both  clergy  and 
laity  to  aid  in  that  abolition.  The  Church,  be  it  understood, 
does  not  reprobate  secular  pedagogy  as  such ;  she  would 
rather  encourage  a  united  action  of  the  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral powers,  whereby  there  would  be  established  every- 
where public  schools  which  would  satisfy  the  legitimate 
needs  of  all  the  citizens  in  the  matter  of  instruction  in  the 
arts  and  sciences.  VIII.  The  Church  fnds  that,  as  a  rule, 
the  public  schools  in  the  United  States  are  "  dangerous  to  faith 
and  morah,"  because  they  furnish  a  merely  secular  educa- 
tion, excluding  all  religious  instruction ;  because  the  teachers 
are  indiscriminately  selected  from  among  all  the  sects  with 
which  the  Republic  abounds,  and  because  therefore  every 
kind  of  error  is  liable  to  be  inculcated  in  the  susceptible 
minds  of  the  pupils.  However,  this  article  grants  that  when- 
ever there  is  found  a  public  school  which,  thanks  to  the 
care  of  the  school  commissioners  and  of  the  parents  in  the 
community,  offers  no  danger  to  the  faith  or  morals  of  the 
children,  then  the  parents  may  avail  themselves  of  that 
school,  on  condition  that  their  offspring  are  elseivhere  taught 
carefully  all  the  truths  and  duties  of  the  Catholic  Religion. 
IX.  Each  ordinary  is  to  judge  whether,  in  such  and  such 
a  parish  of  his  diocese,  a  good  Catholic  school  can  be  main- 
tained.    XIII.  The  Catholic   schools  should  be  in   every 


324  STUDIES   IN  CHUBCH   HISTOBY. 

respect  model  institutions  ;  and  the  teachers  should  try  to 
obtain  certificates  of  their  capability  from  the  civil  educa- 
tional authorities,  both  because  such  action  will  show  that 
they  do  not  despise  the  prescriptions  of  the  State,  and  be- 
cause they  will  thus  augment  the  respect  of  the  heterodox 
for  our  schools.     Ha^'ing  carefully  considered  these    arti- 
cles, the    American  archbishops   accepted    them  all   with 
some   unimportant   modifications   (1;.     In    a    letter   which 
Leo  XHI.  addressed  to  Cardinal  Gibbons  on  May  31,  1893, 
His    Holiness    alludes  to  his   intention   of   establishing   a 
permanent   Apostolic    Delegation    in    the   United    States, 
and   then   having   remarked   that   one   of    his   objects    in 
sending   Mgr.  Satolli   to  the   Kepublic    was   a   settlement 
of  the  school  question  which  had  caused  much  perturbation 
in  well-meaning  minds,  he  says :  "  This  venerable  brother 
obeyed   our   orders  exactly.  . . .  The  wise   decisions  of  the 
a.ssembly  (of  the  archbishops  in  New  Torkj  appeared  to  the 
archbishop  of  Lepanto  to  be  worthy  of  all  praise ;  and  we 
ourselves  confirm  that  judgment."     Then  the  Pontiff  alludes 
to  the  propositions  submitted  by  Mgr.  Satolli  to  the  arch- 
bishops,  the   inopportune   publication   of  which   b\  some 
indiscreet  person   had   caused   much  agitation   among  the 
journalistic  wiseacres  of  the  Eepuljlic ;  "  Our  delegate  laid 
befoie  the  assembly  certain  propositions  which  he  had  drawn 
up,  and  which  referred  to  that  double  order  which  embraces 

the  science  of  truth  and  the  guidance  of  life (2)     These 

propositions  of  our  dele  gate  having  been  inoppoi-tunely 
published,  new  and  more  vivid  discussions  were  excited, 
and  because  of  inexact  interpretations  or  of  malign  insinua- 
tions by  certain  journals,  these  discussions  became  more 
general  and  more  acrid.  Because  of  this  fact,  several  of  the 
American  bishops,  either  disliking  the  interpretations  which 
liad  been  given  to  certain  of  those  propositions,  or  fearing 
that  said  interpretations  might  result  in  injury  to  souls, 
confidently  laid  the  matter  before  us.     Therefore,  remember- 

(1)  The  Beport  aars :  "  Quce  omnia  luta  et  perpenta  fuerunt  in  arehiepiieoporutn 
c^mventu,  res^Autis  di^uUatibus  et  actig  emendatUmOnig  requigitis,  die  17  Novem- 
bris.  1992." 

(2)  "  Prfjpogitifmes  quasdam  vfihi*  exhibuit  ah  se  eoneinnatoi.  dupHcem  attingentes 
ordintm  quo  acientin  veritatig  et  actio  rit(E  eontinetur." 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  32j 

ing  that  the  salvation  of  men  must  ever  be  our  supreme  law, 
and  wishing  also  to  give  you  another  proof  of  our  goodwill, 
we  asked  each  one  of  you  to  express  his  mind  separately  to 
us  on  this  subject.     All  of  you  hastened  to  comply  with  our 
wish.     These  replies  have  shown   that  while  some  of  you 
found  no  cause  for  fear  in  the  propositions,  others  thought 
that  they  appeared  to  abrogate  in  some  measure  the  decrees 
of  the  Councils  of  Baltimore  on  the  schools  ;  and  these  latter 
bishops  feared  that  a  consequent  diversity  of  interpretation 
of  the  decrees  of  Baltimore  would  engender  grave  dissensions. 
We  have   examined  this  question   seriously  ;  and  we   have 
found  that  the   above-mentioned  misinterpretations  (of  the 
propositions)   accord   neither   with    the   intentions   of   our 
delegate,  nor  with  the   mind   of   the    Apostolic   See.     The 
principal  proposifiouH  presented  by  the  archbishop  of  Lepanto 
luere  drawn  from  the  decrees  of  the  Third  Council  of  Baltimore  ; 
they  especially  announce  the  necessity  of  using  the  greatest  zeal 
in  the  foundation  of  Catholic  schools,  although  they  leave  to 
the  discretion  and  conscience  of  each  ordinary  the  duty  of 
determining  the  cases  when  a  child  may  or  may  not  attend 
a  public  school.     If  in  every  document  the  words  at  its  end 
ought  to  be  understood  in  the  sense  of  those  which  precede 
them,  is  it  not   dishonest  to  give  to  the  second  part  of  a 
discourse  an  interpretation  which  contradicts  the  first  part  ? 
"When  our.  delegate   presented   these   propositions   to   the 
episcopal  assembly  in  New  York,  he  proclaimed  his  admira- 
tion for  the  pastoral  zeal  shown  by  the  American  bishops  in 
their  promulgation  of  the  wise  decrees  of  the  Third  Council 
of  Baltimore  concerning  the   education  of   Catholic  youth. 
And  he  added   that  so  far  as   those  decrees  prescribed   a 
general  rule  of  conduct,  they  were  to  be  faithfully  obeyed ; 
and  that  without  any  absolute  condemnation  of  all  the  public 
schools,  energetic  efforts  ivere  to  be  put  forth  for  the  numerical 
increase  and  perfect  organization  of  CatJwlic  schools."     It  is 
evident  from  this  letter  of  Leo   XIII.,  if  indeed  it  had  not 
been  evident  before  the  letter  was  received  in  America,  that 
firstly,  parochial  schools  must  be  maintained  and  extended 
throughout  the  Kepublic  ;  secondly,  that  it  is  the  province 
of  each  bishop  to  judge,  in  the  case  of  each  parish  in  his 


326  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

diocese,  whether  parents  are  to  be  free  to  send  their  children 
to  a  public  school ;  and  thirdly,  that  a  general  permission 
for  a  use  of  the  public  schools  cannot  be  accorded,  since  only 
certain  cases  are  affected  by  the  toleration  of  what  is  in  last 
analysis  an  abuse — " possimt  enim  casus  incidere''  (1). 

During  the  years  1891  and  1892  the  minds  of  the  Catholics 
in  the  United  States  were  profoundly  agitated  by  a  question 
which  was  intimately  connected  with  that  of  the  "  Faribault 
Plan,"  and  the  consequences  of  which  promised,  at  one 
time,  to  be  as  baneful  as  those  which  would  have  been  en- 
tailed by  a  general  adoption  of  that  plan.  We  allude  to 
those  claims  which,  considered  collectively,  a  certain  element 
in  the  Republic  has  been  pleased  to  designate  as  "  Cahen- 
slyism."  In  several  of  the  countries  which  furnish  a  large 
number  of  immigrants  to  the  United  States  of  America,  there 
had  been  organized  branches  of  that  zealous  Society  of  St. 
Raphael  which  occupies  itself  with  both  the  religious  and 
material  interests  of  those  immigrants  during  the  first  few 
years  of  their  residence  in  the  New  World.  In  April,  1891, 
the  guiding  spirits  of  this  noble  organization,  among  whom 
were  such  representatives  of  the  most  worthy  among  the 
European  aristocracies  as  the  Marquis  Volpe-Landi,  the 
Count  de  Merode,  Prince  Isenburg-Bierstein,  and  the  Prince 
Scliwartzenberg,  met  in  Congress  at  Lucerne.  The  result 
of  their  deliberations  was  a  report  addressed  to  Cardinal 
RampoUa  del  Tindaro,  the  Papal  Secretary  of  State,  in 
which  it  was  declared   that   an   active   intervention   of   the 

(1)  While  the  controversy  concerning  the  "  Faribault  Plan  "  was  being  waged,  another, 
and  one  which  was  closely  connected  with  that  plan,  attracted  much  attention.  This 
dispute,  having  for  its  object  a  determination  of  the  extent  of  the  rights  of  the  State  in  the 
matter  of  popular  instruction,  was  held  by  Dr.  Bouquillon,  a  professor  in  the  Catholic 
University  in  Washington,  and  the  Civiltd  Cattolicn.  According  to  Bouquillon,  the 
State  possesses,  independently  of  all  religious  principles,  the  right  to  raise  the  children  of 
its  citizens;  it  can  and  should  regulate  every  matter  connected  with  schools,  fixing  the 
minimum  of  obligatory  instruction,  imposing  what  it  will  in  the  way  of  subject-matter 
for  acquisition,  punishing  parents  who  fail  to  obey  its  prescriptions,  and  exercising  full 
jurisdiction  over  every  private  educational  establishment.  Of  course  the  partisans  of  the 
"  Faribault  Plan,"  as  well  as  all  the  lovers  of  Statolatry.  whose  number  is  continually 
increasing  in  our  Republic,  acclaimed  the  theory  of  the  Universitarian.  The  Civiltd 
CattoUca  strenuously  controverted  the  Spartan-like  assumption,  defending  in  its  turn  the 
thesis  proposed  by  Schifflni  {Moral  Phihimphii,  Vol.  li.,  §  517)  in  these  terms  : "  Excepting 
only  that  moral  and  religious  education  which  ought  to  be  given  by  the  parental  care  under 
the  direction  of  the  ecclesiastical  and  not  the  civil  authority,  instruction  such  as  is  given 
generally  in  the  schools  cannot  be  enjoined  as  a  thing  necessarily  to  be  accepted  by  every 
citizen." 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.    327 

Holy  See  ocnild  alone  preveut  au  auuiliilation  of  tlie    spirit- 
ual interests  of  a  large  number  of  the  Germans,  Italians,  and 
Austro-Huugariaus  who  had  arrived  in  the  United  States 
during  the  previous  few  years.     This  report  was  signed  by 
Cahensly,  the  secretary  of  the  German  branch  of  the  Society 
of  St.  Kaphael,  and  by  the  Marquis  Volpe-Landi,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Italian  branch.     According  to  these  gentlemen  : 
"  The  most  authoritative  statistics  show   that   the  Catholic 
immigrants   into   the    United   States,   together   with   their 
children,  should  have  given  to  the  Republic,  by  this  time,  a 
Catholic    population   of   twenty-six   millions ;  whereas   we 
know  that  there  are  not  more  than  ten  millions  of  Catholics 
in  the  country,  showing  that  there  has  been  a   loss   of  six- 
teen millions."     Undoubtedly  there  has  been  a  very  exten- 
sive "  leakage "  in  the  Catholic  population   of  the   United 
States  ;  but  in  the  collective  letter  which  the  American  arch- 
bishops  sent  to  His   Holiness  during  their  conference  of 
Nov.,  1892,  the  prelates  protested  that  the  Raphaelite  calcula- 
tions were  a  gross  exaggeration.     Cahensly  and  Volpe-Landi 
allesred  six   causes    of  the    lamented    defection :     I.    The 
absence  of  adequate  protection  for  the    immigrants,  during 
their  voyage,  and  on  their  arrival  in  America.     II.  An  in- 
sufficiency of  priests   and  of   parishes  for  each  nationality 
among  the  immigrants.     III.  Exorbitant  pecuniary  sacrifices 
frequently   demanded   from   the   faithful.     IV.   The  public 
schools.     V.  The  need  of  benevolent  and  national  Catholic 
societies.     VI.  The    absence    of  representatives   of     each 
foreign  nationality  in  the   American   episcopate.     In  their 
illustration  of  the  first   of   these   causes   of   defection,  the 
Raphaelites  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  a  preservation  of 
their  mother-tongue  on  the  part  of  the  immigrants  as  well 
as  on  an  actuation  of  the  idea  of  national  parishes  (1).     "  Of 
course,"  said  the  report,  "  in  time  the  immigrants  will  speak 
the  English  language  ;  but  if  they  do  not  practice   their  re- 
ligion until  that  time  arrives,  there  will  be  a  probability  of 
their  not  practicing  it  at  all.     Sad  experience  has  taught  us 

(1)  In  1886  the  German  Catholics  had  even  asked  the  Propaganda  to  order  that  ''.o  Ger- 
man, or  child  of  a  German,  should  be  allowed  to  frequent  any  other  than  a  German 
church,  without  an  exeat  from  his  bishop.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  request  was 
refused. 


328  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

that  such  is  nearly  always  the  case.  And  since  each  people 
has  its  own  characteristics,  it  is  necessary  that  its  priests 
should  not  only  speak  its  language,  but  should  also  be  of 
the  same  nationality.  Therefore  it  is  desirable  that  each 
national  group  of  immigrants  be  organized  in  a  distinct 
parish,  under  a  pastor  of  its  own  nationality."  It  would  be 
absurd  to  deny  that  justice  and  Christian  prudence  formed, 
in  the  main,  the  animating  spirit  of  these  views ;  but  the 
English-speaking  Catholics  of  the  Republic,  who  formed 
the  immense  majority  of  the  faithful,  discerned  in  their 
actuation  a  danger  to  the  American  national  unity.  In  his 
admirable  work  on  the  Pontificate  of  Leo  XIIL,  Mgr. 
T'Serclaes  says  :  "  Unfortunately,  the  report  insisted,  in  a 
rather  unhappy  fashion,  on  the  possibility  of  an  American- 
ization without  a  final  abandonment  of  one's  original 
national  predilections.  This  idea  was  frequently  enunciated, 
notably  in  the  insistence  on  the  establishment  of  national 
Catholic  societies  for  the  workingmen,  and  in  the  Sixth 
Article  which  demanded  representatives  of  each  nationality 
in  the  American  episcopate.  This  last  point  excited  a  ver- 
itable storm  in  the  United  States.  The  dominating  thought 
in  the  report  of  Lucerne  was  acceptable  in  a  certain  sense. 
Certainly  an  abandonment  of  the  immigrants,  without  aid 
among  the  olden  inhabitants,  was  an  exposure  of  them  to  the 
danger  of  a  loss  of  faith  and  of  morality.  Therefore  nothing 
could  be  more  useful  than  the  establishment  of  national  socie- 
ties, which  would  remind  the  newly-arrived  of  their  mother- 
country  ;  nothing  could  be  more  just  than  to  supply  their 
religious  wants  by  means  of  priests  speaking  their  mother- 
tongue  who  were  of  their  own  nationality.  But  it  was 
undoubtedly  imprudent  to  desire  a  maintenance  of  the 
separate  nationalities  through  a  long  series  of  generations, 
in  the  very  bosom  of  that  American  people  which  is  mainly 
composed  of  persons  who  are  '  Anglo-Saxon '  or  Irish  by 
race.  The  experience  of  other  countries  proves  that  the  as- 
similation of  immigrants  with  the  nationals  is  soon  effected, 
and  often  in  the  second  generation  ;  therefore  it  would  seem 
that  protective  societies  ought  to  restrict  themselves  to 
a  preservation  of  the  religious  interests  of  the  immigrants 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHUKCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.     329 

during  the  period  of  transition,  thereby  facilitating  the  fusion 
of  the  foreigners  with  the  natives.  But  the  report  of 
Cahensly  and  Volpe-Landi  regarded  the  question  from  the 
contrary  point  of  view,  and  seemed  to  look  to  a  division  of  the 
races,  and  not  to  their  harmonious  commingling."  It  was 
quite  natural  that  the  English-speaking  Catholics  of  th6 
United  States  should  have  protested  against  the  pretensions 
of  the  Society  of  St.  Raphael ;  but  an  immediate  affectation 
of  violated  American  patriotism  attained  the  height  of  ab- 
surdity when  Catholic  pens  began  to  write  about  "  the  con- 
spiracy of  Lucerne,"  and  to  designate  as  a  "  siege  of  Rome  " 
the  report  which  Cahensly  and  Volpe-Landi  had  presented 
to  the  Father  of  the  Faithful.  The  unfortunate  secretary 
was  accused  of  the  blackest  designs ;  his  language  was 
travestied,  and  he  was  represented  as  talking  in  a  fashion 
that  would  have  frightened  him ;  it  was  declared  that  not 
only  all  the  members  of  the  noble  society,  but  also  all  the 
German  bishops  and  Wiudthorst  himself,  were  but  tools  of 
an  insidious  Austro-German  policy.  Several  of  the  weak- 
lings so  common  in  American  Catholic  journalism  told  their 
readers  that  Cahensly  insisted  on  the  establishment  of  two 
bishops,  one  American,  and  the  other  German,  in  each 
diocese  of  the  Republic  ;  whereas  the  report  had  plainly 
said  :  "  Since  the  dioceses  contain  faithful  of  different  nation- 
alities, it  is  evident  that  we  do  not  desire  any  division  of 
these  dioceses  by  nationalities.  What  we  do  request  from 
the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the  Holy  See  is  that  the  episcopal 
body  be  made  to  include  prelates  of  the  various  nationalities, 
so  that  the  different  peoples  may  be  represented  by  some  of 
their  own  in  the  episcopate,  in  the  ecclesiastical  provinces, 
and  in  the  Councils."  In  vain  Cahensly  declared  that  he 
adopted  as  his  own  the  saying  of  a  journal  of  Cincinnati  : 
*'  That  immigrant  is  a  traitor,  and  cannot  be  tolerated  here, 
who  proposes  in  this  country  to  favor  the  interests  of  his 
native  land."  The  irritation  continued ;  and  finally  the  Holy 
See  interfered.  On  June  28,  1892,  Cardinal  RampoUa  wrote 
to  Cardinal  Gibbons :  "  The  Holy  Father  cannot  but  rejoice 
because  of  the  establishment  of  associations  among  you  des- 
tined to  give  material  and  especially  spiritual  aid  to  the 


330  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Catholics  who  now  migrate  to  America.  But  we  have  heard 
that  some  of  these  associations — for  instance,  the  German 
Society  of  St.  Raphael — are  endeavoring,  in  their  zeal  to 
attain  their  object,  to  procure  the  elevation  of  a  represen- 
tative of  each  nationality  among  the  immigrants  to  the  Amer- 
ican episcopate."  His  Eminence  alludes  to  the  displeasure 
excited  even  among  the  American  bishops  by  this  project  r 
and  he  declares  that  the  Holy  See  finds  that  the  idea  "  is 
neither  necessary  nor  opportune,"  and  that  there  is  no  inten- 
tion, on  the  part  of  the  Pontiff,  of  making  any  change  in  the 
method  of  episcopal  nominations  which  has  hitherto  obtained 
in  the  United  States.  The  American  prelates  are  asked  not 
to  foster  "  a  movement  which  has  been  occasioned  by  a  fear 
which  had  no  foundation,"  but  rather  to  promote  harmony, 
resting  assured  that  the  Holy  See  will  never  entertain  any 
proposition  which  could  disturb  them.  And  the  cardinal- 
secretary  is  careful  to  add  that  His  Holiness  considers  that 
the  spiritual  interests  of  the  European  immigi^ants  are  suffi- 
ciently protected  by  the  appointment  of  pastors  who  are  tlieir 
fellow-countrymen.  Certainly  this  letter  ought  to  have 
terminated  the  trouble.  But  the  German  branch  of  the 
Society  of  St.  Raphael  was  nettled  ;  and  it  complained  to 
Cardinal  Rampolla,  because  he  had  singled  it  out  for  im- 
plicit reproof,  while  all  the  other  branches  of  the  society 
had  cherished  the  same  reprobated  ideas.  And  the  Germans 
took  advantage  of  the  opportunity,  in  a  memorial  ad  hoc,  to 
reiterate  their  desire  that  every  lawful  means  should  be 
adopted  to  secure  the  preservation  of  its  language  to  each 
nationality  in  tiie  Republic.  This  memorial  was  referred  to 
Cardinal  Ledochowski,  who  had  recently  been  made  prefect 
of  the  Propaganda  ;  and  on  May  15,  1892,  there  was  sent  to 
each  bishop  in  the  United  States  a  circular  which  put  an  end  to 
the  agitation.  After  a  meed  of  praise  to  the  zeal  of  the  Ameri- 
can prelates,  His  Eminence  thus  speaks  of  the  nomination 
of  bishops  :  "  The  discipline  now  in  force  must  be  preserved 
entire  and  inviolable. . .  .Your  Grandeur  knows  that  in  your 
country  when  there  occurs  an  episcopal  vacancy,  there  begin 
certain  movements  among  both  clergy  and  people,  and 
experience   teaches   that   these    movements   are    becoming 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.     331 

insensibly  more  grievous  and  more  frequent. . .  .We  see  the 
people  and  the  clergy  agitating,  without  regard  to  legitimate 
right,  in  favor  of  certain  candidates  for  the  episcopal  throne  ; 
discussions  concerning  them  are  held  in  the  newspapers ; 
public  and  private  meetings  are  convened,  and  each  party 
lauds  its  own  preference,  while  it  disparages  all  others." 
Such  agitations,  says  the  cardinal,  are  principally  caused  by 
the  intense  desire  of  each  faction  to  have  a  bishop  who  be- 
longs to  its  nationality,  as  though  the  choice  of  a  worthy 
pastor  were  a  matter  of  private  interest,  and  not  of  the 
general  good  of  the  Church.  The  Holy  See  regards  the  wel- 
fare of  the  whole  Church  whenever  it  appoints  a  bishop  in 
any  country  ;  and  it  must  have  that  welfare  before  its  eyes 
most  especially  when  there  is  a  question  of  the  Uuited 
States  of  America,  a  land  in  which  men  of  various  European 
nations,  seeking  a  new  country,  are  forming  one  people  and 
consequently  one  nation.  The  cardinal  says  that  the 
bishops  "  must  crush  all  attempts  "  to  undermine  the  author- 
ity of  the  American  Plenary  Councils,  especially  that  of  the 
Third  Council  of  Baltimore,  whose  decrees,  "  most  conform- 
able to  the  necessities  of  the  time  and  the  place,"  have  been 
approved  by  the  Holy  See.  It  will  be  futile,  concludes  His 
Eminence,  for  any  persons  to  devise  or  to  entertain  projects 
which  in  any  way  contradict  the  prescriptions  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Baltimore,  "  since  the  Apostolic  See  has  nothing  more 
at  heart  than  the  integrity  of  Ecclesiastical  Law,  the  guard- 
ian of  order  and  the  upholder  of  peace." 

When  it  was  announced  that  the  government  and  people 
of  the  United  States  intended  to  celebrate,  in  a  becoming 
manner,  the  fourth  centennial  anniversary  of  the  discovery 
of  America,  Pope  Leo  XIIL  wrote  to  the  Committee  of 
Arrange"ments,  declaring  his  wish  to  be  associated  with  so 
laudable  a  manifestation  of  legitimate  national  pride,  and  of 
gratitude  to  the  Giver  of  all  good  things.  Having  praised 
"  the  vigor  of  the  American  people  which  enables  them  to 
eflFect  the  most  difficult  tasks  with  such  audacity  and  suc- 
cess," His  Holiness  expressed  the  hope  "  that  their  noble 
enterprise  (the  World's  Fair),  to  the  success  of  which  other 
nations  would  contribute,  would  have  the  happy   result  of 


332  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

further  inciting  the  genius  of  man  to  the  efforts  for  the  devel- 
opment of  the  gifts  of  Nature,  and  for  the  encouragement  of 
the  Fine  Arts."  Among  the  objects  which  the  Pontiff  loaned 
to  the  Centennial  Exposition  was  the  celebrated  map  on 
which  Pope  Alexander  VI.  traced  what  was  to  be  the  future 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  Spanish  and  the  Portuguese 
possessions  in  the  New  World  (1).  The  American  secre- 
tary of  state,  in  a  letter  to  Cardinal  Rampolla,  in  which  he 
assured  His  Eminence  that  the  utmost  care  would  be  taken 
in  order  to  ensure  the  restoration  of  the  pontifical  exhibits 
to  their  proper  domicile,  recognized  the  intimate  association 
of  the  Holy  See  with  the  enterprise  of  Columbus' ;  and  in  his 
turn  the  cardinal-secretary  of  state  to  His  Holiness,  after 
thanking  the  American  government  for  its  courtes}',  an- 
nounced that  the  Pontiff  would  be  represented  by  a  special  del- 
egate at  the  Columbian  ceremonies  ;  "  His  Holiness,  who  has 
so  much  reason  for  manifesting  special  regard  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  because  of  the  freedom  enjoyed 
by  the  Catholic  Church  in  that  country,  has  determined  to 
be  represented  at  the  festivities  in  honor  of  the  great  Gen- 
oese, and  by  a  personage  .who  is  distinguished  no  less  by  his 
own  merits  than  by  his  exalted  position  in  the  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy.  This  person  is  Mgr.  Satolli,  Archbishop  of  Le- 
panto,  a  prelate  greatly  esteemed  for  his  virtue,  as  well  as 
for  the  profound  erudition  which  he  has  exhibited  in  so 
many  writings."  On  July  16,  1892,  Leo  XIII.  addressed 
to  the  bishops  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  North  and  South 
America  the  Encyclical  concerning  the  imminent  Columbian 
festivities  to  which  we  have  already  alluded  (p.  190). 

In  the  beginning  of  1893  Pope  Leo  XIIL  actuated  his 
long-entertained  design  of  establishing  a  permanent  Apostolic 
Delegation  in  the  United  States,  appointing  Mgr.  Satolli, 
whom  we  have  already  seen  fulfilling  a  temporary  mission 
to  the  American  bishops,  as  the  first  incumbent  of  the 
important  position-  In  the  letter  by  which  he  anounnced 
the  new  departure  to  the  cardinal-archbishop  of  Baltimore, 
the  Pontiff  said  that  the  mission  of  Mgr.  Satolli  during  the 
Columbian  festivities  had  been  intended  as  a  testimony  of 

(1)  See  our  Vol.  ill.,  p.  231. 


POPE   LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHUKCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  333 

"  the  pontifical  ]-eganl  for  those  who  are  at  the  liead  of  the 
Americaii  llepublic  "  ;  aud  then  he  eontiuued  :  "  We  have 
openly  declared,  not  onl}-  that  your  nation  is  as  dear  to  us 
as  are  those  flourishing  nations  to  whom  we  are  accustomed 
to  accredit  representatives  of  our  authority,  but  that  we 
earnestly  desire  a  firmer  consolidation  of  the  ties  which  bind 
you  and  your  flocks  to  our  person."  Shortly  after  the  pro- 
mulgation of  this  Apostolic  Letter,  His  Holiness  felt  himself 
justified  in  writing  again  to  Cardinal  Gibbons  :  "  We  were 
greatlv  gratified  when  we  learned  that  tlie  additional  mark 
of  our  regard  for  your  nation  had  been  followed  by  demon- 
strations of  a  general  gratitude  and  respect  for  ourself." 
Noteworthy  indeed  was  the  reception  accorded  to  the  Papal 
representative  in  each  one  of  the  great  cities  of  the  Republic 
which  he  visited  officially  during  the  first  few  months  of  his 
delegation ;  but  special  interest  was  attached  to  his  magnif- 
icent reception  in  New  York,  since  it  afi'orded  to  Arch- 
bishop Corrigan  an  opportunity  to  break  a  noble  silence,  and 
to  finally  vindicate  himself,  without  any  debasement  of  his 
personal  or  official  dignity,  from  the  aspersions  which  many 
of  the  secular  and  even  some  Catholic  journals  had  cast  upon 
His  Grace  as  they  deliberately  falsified  his  position  on  the 
School  Question,  and  as  they  travestied  his  sentiments  in 
regard  to  the  delegate-apostolic.  On  Aug.  15,  1893,  Mgr. 
Satolli  pontificated  in  the  cathedral  of  the  metropolis,  before 
a  congregation  of  more  than  10,000  persons.  After  the 
Gospel,  His  Grace  of  New  York  mounted  the  pulpit,  and 
began  a  discourse  on  the  duties  of  bishops  and  their  flocks 
to  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  and  to  his  delegates.  Finally,  the 
archbishop  approached  the  subject  which  most  of  his  audi- 
tors, who  had  borne  with  impatience  his  long  silence  in  face 
of  his  detractors,  were  anxiously  awaiting.  He  entered  on 
the  matter  by  an  allusion  to  the  happiness  and  advantages 
experienced  by  those  who,  like  himself,  had  receivec?  their 
ecclesiastical  education  in  the  Eternal  City.  Then  he  de- 
clared that  he  who  had  enjoyed  those  privileges  would  fee^ 
himself  humiliated  if  he  found  that  he  was  expected  to  pro- 
test that  never,  even  for  an  instant,  had  he  entertained  tlif 
idea  of  disobeying  the  explicit  commands,  or  of  even  disre- 


334  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY, 

garding  the  wishes  of  the  Holy  Father.  For  it  is  certain, 
insisted  the  prelate,  that  excepting  that  sorrow  which  is  en- 
tailed by  an  offence  against  God,  no  more  poignant  grief 
can  afflict  the  heart  of  a  conscientious  bishop,  than  that  which 
he  feels  when  his  faith  is  attacked,  or  when  doubt  is  ex- 
pressed concerning  his  fidelity  to  his  oaths  of  consecration. 
Of  course,  the  archbishop  reflected  that  such  a  cross  might 
be  prodactive  of  great  merit  ;  and  he  knew  that  a  bishop  so 
afflicted  was  in  duty  bound  to  imitate  his  Master,  and  to 
forgive  his  calumniators.  In  conclusion,  His  Grace  protest- 
ed that  he  rejoiced  with  his  brethren  of  the  clergy,  because 
of  the  honor  accruing  to  their  diocese  from  the  presence  of 
the  representative  of  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Clirist ;  and  in  the 
name  of  his  priests,  as  well  as  in  his  own,  he  welcomed  the 
delegate-apostolic  most  cordially.  Then  the  archbishop  de- 
clared that  he  repudiated  whatever  had  been  said  in  public 
or  in  private,  against  the  undeniable  rights  or  against  the 
sacred  character  of  his  venerable  guest ;  but  he  cheerfully 
endorsed  everything  that  had  been  said  in  exaltation  of  the 
delegate's  office  and  prerogatives  (1). 

During  several  years  previous  to  the  period  which  now  en- 
gages our  attention,  certain  imaginative  American  clerics  had 
devoted  much  of  their  time  to  a  fanciedly  imperative  task 
of  indoctrinating  the  Catholics  of  the  Eepublic  with  lessons 
in  patriotism,  although  outside  their  diminutive  circle  no 
one  had  dreamed  that  the  American  Catholics  needed  this 

(1)  Mgr.  Satolli  was  destined  to  look  askance  at  those  who  had  asked  him  to  distrust  the 
Archbishop  of  New  York.  We  cull  the  followinp;  remarks  from  the  Chvrch  Progresx  of 
St.  Louis  (Aug.  12,  1899) :  "  It  is  well  to  look  back  at  times.  Past  history  often  casts  a 
light  on  present  events.  I  remember  when  Cardinal  Satolli  Qrst  came  to  this  country  as 
Papal  Ablegate.  He  was  acclaimed  with  a  flourish  of  trumpets  and  with  huzzahs  by  the 
Faribaulters.  They  had  prepared  Mgr.  Satolli  in  Rome  ;  his  right  ear  was  filled  with  their 
dust.  When  he  arrived,  they  hedged  him  round,  jealously  guarding  him  from  everybody 
save  their  own  clique.  The  Papal  Ablegate  could  not  then  speak  English.  He  had  been  led 
to  believe  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  were  eager  to  embrace  Catholicity,  if  only 
some  slight  concessions  were  made  in  matters  of  discipline.  Aftera  time  Mgr.  Satolli,  who 
has  eyes  and  ears  of  his  own,  and  had  learned  to  read  and  speak  English,  learned  that 
things  were  not  in  this  country  as  he  had  been  led  to  suppose.  From  that  time  Karibault- 
ism  ceased  to  flourish  in  Rome.  Its  weediness  became  apparent.  Cardinal  Satolli  had 
studied  the  situation  and  understood  what  it  meant.    Since  then  His  Eminence  at  Rome 

has  been  guarding  the  integrity  of  the  Church  In  this  country As  long  as  Mgr.  Satolli 

was  in  their  hands  (the  hands  of  the  "  Americanists"),  and  was  ignorant  of  the  real  con- 
ditions in  this  country,  they  could  not  blow  his  praises  too  loud  nor  too  long.  And  now 
that  he  has  seen  through  their  complot,  alas !  for  human  fickleness.  His  Eminence  Is  con- 
signed to  the  limbo  of  their  wrath." 


POPE  LEO  Xlir.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.     335 

instructiou.  Plat  form  aud  even  pulpit  were  made  to  resound 
with  declamations  which  implied  that  these  clergymen  alone 
were  the  models  of  all  that  was  patriotic  for  the  imitation  of 
their  Catholic  compatriots  ;  and  as  such  models  they  were 
persistently  indicated  by  the  heterodox  press,  and  by  a  few 
of  the  weaker  sort  of  Catholic  journals  and  periodicals. 
Had  the  exuberances  of  these  gentlemen  been  manifested  by 
nothing  more  grave  than  their  titillating  verbiage  ;  had  they 
and  their  comparatively  few  acclaimants  prudently  confined 
the  resultant  theories  within  the  regions  of  simple  academics ; 
the  American  hierarchy,  as  well  as  the  immense  majority  of 
the  Catholic  laity,  might  have  continued  to  smile  indulgently, 
waiting  until  the  lessons  of  experience  would  act  with  their 
wonted  vigor.  But  the  region  of  pure  academics  was  not 
sufficiently  broad  for  the  new  "  Americanists,"  as  they  had 
come  to  be  stjled.  In  a  sermon  devoted  to  a  commentary 
on  the  Apostolic  Letter  which  will  soon  claim  our  attention, 
Dr.  McQuade,  the  venerable  bishop  of  Kochester,  N.  Y., 
very  aptly  described  a  few  of  the  vagaries  of  the  "  American- 
ists," after  their  descent  from  the  realms  of  theory  to  those 
of  practice  :  "  Firstly,  3' ou  will  remember  the  sorry  spectacle 
of  the  Parliament  of  Religions  at  the  Chicago  Fair,  when 
the  Catholic  Church  was  put  on  a  par  with  every  pretense 
of  religious  denomination  from  Mohammedanism  and  Bud- 
dhism down  to  the  lowest  form  of  Evangelicalism  and  infi- 
delity. It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  our  simple  Catholics, 
who  knew  their  CafecJnsm  in  its  letter  and  spirit,  were 
shocked  at  this  degradation  of  the  Religion  of  Christ.  The 
Holy  Father's  reprobation  of  such  parliaments  satisfied  the 
just  sentiments  of  our  Catholic  people.  Secondly,  there  was 
heard  the  cry  from  some  quarters  that  if  our  Catholic  peo- 
ple  would  adopt  the  State  system  of  public  school  education 
— education  without  religion  or  God — the  American  people 
would  be  disarmed  and  would  embrace  us  all  as  brothers. 
Many  of  the  lukewarm  and  the  indifferent  were  led  for  a  time 
to  think  that  schools  without  religion  would  suffice.  The 
whole  question  went  before  the  head  of  our  Chui-ch  for  ad- 
judication, and  the  response  gratified  the  heart  of  every  loyal 
child  of  the  Church.     It  left  no  room  for   doubt   or   cavil. 


STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Thus  ended  tlie  second  cropping  out  of  false  Americanism. 
Thirdly,  an  assault  was  directed  against  the  ban  placed  on 
secret  societies.  Just  when  the  evil  consequences  of  secret 
organizations  are  making  themselves  felt  everywhere,  and 
non-Catholic  religious  denominations  find  their  churches 
depleted  because  the  Lodge  has  become  a  substitute  for  the 
Church,  and  a  few  natural  virtues  replace  the  supernatural 
teachings  and  counsels  of  Christ,  our  liberal-minded  Catholics 
would  open  the  doors  of  the  Lodges  to  our  Catholics.  They 
were  not  satisfied  with  permitting  Catholics  to  enter  the  '  Odd 
Fellows '  and  '  Knights  of  Pythias  '  Lodges,  but  held  out 
the  hope  that  soon  the  ban  would  be  raised  from  Freema- 
sonry. The  Pope's  letter  condemning  the  '  Odd  Fellows,' 
the  '  Knights  of  Pythias,'  and  the  'Sons  of  Temperance,'  ex- 
tinguished all  hope  of  raising  the  ban  against  Freemasonry. 
Thus  the  third  form  of  false  Americanism  among  Catholics 
was  shattered.  The  fourth  exhibition  came  before  the  pub- 
lic when  a  Catholic  ecclesiastic  took  his  stand  before  a  non- 
Catholic  University  in  his  clerical  robes  to  advertise  to  the 
community  the  new-born  Liberalism  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
It  was  an  advertisement  well  worth  paying  for,  as  it  was  an 
encouragement  to  Catholic  parents  to  send  their  sons  to  Uni- 
versities of  such  liberal  tendencies  that  they  were  glad  to  rank 
among  the  alumni  the  veriest  atheists  in  the  land.  It  was 
an  innovation  that  affected  the  whole  ecclesiastical  body  ;  yet 
the  leaders  in  these  proceedings  never  condescended  to  take 
counsel  except  from  their  superior  wisdom."  The  bishop  of 
Rochester  might  have  adduced  many  other  illustrations  of 
the  necessary  consequences  of  the  new  theories  ;  bat  these 
will  suffice  to  indicate  the  dangers  which  were  threatening 
the  Church  in  the  United  States  when  Pope  Leo  XIII.  sent  to 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  under  date  of  Jan.  22,  1899,  an  Apostolic 
Letter  which  showed  those  dangers  in  their  native  hideous- 
ness  to  the  American  Catholics.  The  reader  will  remember 
that  in  1891  there  appeared  in  the  United  States  a  biogra- 
phy of  one  of  the  founders  of  the  community  of  secular 
priests  known  as  the  Congregation  of  St.  Paul  the  Apos- 
tle (1).     The  author  of  this  biography  must  have  been  sur^ 

(1)  The  Life  of  Father  Hecker,  by  the  Rev.  Walter  Elliott. 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.     337 

prised  wlieu  he  heard  the  "  Aiiiericauists  "  lauding  his  hero 
as  "the  Paul  of  the  niueteeuth  ceutury,"  aud  it  is  improb- 
able that  he  believed  with  the  innovators  that  Hecker  was 
"  the  apostle  of  the  reconciliation  of  the  Church  with  the 
age."  Certain  peculiar  views  of  the  famous  Paulist  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  European  theologians,  when  his  biogra- 
phy was  translated  into  French  by  the  Abbe  Klein ;  then 
Magnien  asked  :  W( is  Father  Hecker  a  saint?  and  Delattre 
examined  the  nature  of  An  American  Catholicism.  Finally, 
on  Jan.  22,  1899,  m  order  to  terminate  the  controversies 
which  had  been  excited  by  "  Heckerism,"  as  the  new  opinions 
had  come  to  be  designated,  His  Holiness  issued  the  letter, 
Testem  benevolentioi  nostrce,  from  which  we  shall  quote  the 
more  salient  passages  :  "  You  are  well  aware,  Beloved  Son, 
that  the  Life  of  Isaac  Thomas  Hecker,  especially  through  the 
agency  of  those  who  undertook  to  publish  it  in  a  foreign 
language  or  to  interpret  it,  has  excited  no  little  controversy 
by  reason  of  certain  opinions  that  have  been  introduced 
concerning  the  Christian  manner  of  living  (1). .  .  .The  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  new  opinions  we  have  mentioned  are 
based  may  be  reduced  to  this,  that  in  order  the  more  easily 

(1)  There  were  some  acrimonious  debates  between  the  "Americanists"  and  their 
opiwnents.  concerning  the  proper  translation  of  this  passage.  The  Roman  correspondent 
of  the  FrecmaiC><  Jinirnal  of  New  Yorli  (St.  Kilian  More)  thus  commented  on  the  matter: 
"The  translation  (made  in  the  office  of  the  Baltimore  Siuu  and  then  copied  by  the  other 
American  papers),  is  in  the  main  a  very  satisfactory  one;  but  it  fails  altogether  to  give 
the  true  sense  of  the  Pontiff's  thought  in  a  part  of  one  important  paragraph:  In  the 
Latin  this  runs  :  '  Oimpertum  tihi  est,  dilcvtc  fiU  noster.  lilirum  de  vita  Ixaaci  Thomcc 
Hecker,  eornm  prae^ertim  opera.  quiaUena  Uugua  cdouhim  vel  interprctandtim  axi^- 
ceperunt,  controversial  cxcitmse  non  mudica-x  uh  invcctas  quaadam  de  ratif))ic  Oiris- 
tiane  xiivendi  opiniones.''  In  the  Italian  version  (which,  let  me  point  out,  is  official)  the 
passage  is  as  follows  :  'Lie  ben  notn,  diletto  Uglio  nnstro,  che  il  lihro  intorno  (dla  vita 
di  Imrco-Tomwnsso  Hecker,  per  opera  inispeciaUta  di  cuh>ro  c/(C  lo  traditftaero  in 
altra  Unij\ia  <>  lo  cliiasarono,  svxcitd  controremie  iion  poclie  per  tahmeopininni 
viexse  fuorivUorno  al  viverc  Cristiano.'  And  flnally,  the  English  translation  puts  It 
this  way:  'It  is  known  to  you,  beloved  son,  that  Tlic  Life  of  Imnc  Thomnx  Hecker 
especially  as  interprett'd  and  translated  in  a  foreign  language,  has  excited  not  a  little  con- 
troversy, because  therein  have  been  voiced  certain  opinions  concerning  the  way  of  leading 
a  Christian  life.'  Now  the  real  sense  of  the  passage  is  this :  'It  is  well  known  to  you, 
beloved  son,  that  the  book  on  The  Life  of  Immc  Tluonnx  Ilrckcr  has,  especially  through 
the  work  of  those  who  have  undertaken  to  publish  it  in  a  foreign  tongue  or  to  comment 
upon  it,  excited  no  little  controversy,  by  reason  of  certain  opinions  advanced  concerning 
the  way  of  leading  a  Christian  life.'  This  last  version  is  not  elegant  (far  from  il>,  but  in 
the  light  of  the  Latin  and  Italian  texts,  it  is  accurate,  and  that  is  the  main  thing  to  be 
considered  now.  The  difference  between  it  and  the  published  translation  is  sufficiently 
Important  in  itself.  Init  it  l)ecomes  more  important  still,  owing  to  the  coloring  it  has  given 
to  the  entire  document.    The  translation  makes  His  Holiness  put  all  the  responsibility  ol 


338  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

to  bring  over  to  the  Catholic  doctrine  those  who  dissent  from 
it,  the  Church  ought  to  adapt  herself  somewhat  to  our 
advanced  civilization,  and  relaxing  her  ancient  rigor,  show 
some  indulgence  to  modern  popular  theories  and  methods. 
Many  think  that  this  is  to  be  understood  not  only  with 
regard  to  the  rule  of  life,  but  also  to  the  doctrines  in  which 
the  deposit  of  faith  is  contained. . . .  On  that  point  the  Vati- 
can Council  says  :  *  The  doctrine  of  faith  which  God  has 
revealed  is  not  proposed  like  a  theory  of  philosophy  which 
is  to  be  elaborated  by  the  human  understanding,  but  as  a 
divine  deposit  delivered  to  the  Spouse  of  Christ  to  be  faith- 
fully guarded  and  infallibly  declared.  . . .  That  sense  of  the 
sacred  dogmas  is  to  be  faithfully  kept  which  Holy  Mother 
Church  has  once  declared,  and  is  not  to  be  departed  from 
under  the  specious  pretext  of  a  more  profound  understand- 
ing.' ....  Nor  is  the  suppression  to  be  considered  altogether 
free  from  blame,  which  designedly  omits  certain  principles 
of  Catholic  doctrine  and  buries  them,  as  it  were,  in  oblivion. 

The   same   Vatican   Council   says  :     '  By   the   divine 

and  Catholic  faith  we  miist  receive  all  of  those  things  which 
are  contained  in  the  word  of  God,  either  written  or  handed 
down,  and  are  proposed  by  the  Church  whether  in   solemn 

the  conf^versy  on  the  French  version  of  The  Life  of  Fathei-  Hecker  and  the  views  of 
the  religious  life  contained  in  it ;  whereas  the  Holy  Father  lays  the  responsibility  on  all 
those  who  have  given  countenance  and  publicity  to  those  views  by  promoting  the  publi- 
cation  of  The  Life  of  Father  Hecker  in  French  and  by  commenting  on  it  in  various 
ways.  Now  leaving  this  subject  of  responsibility,  it  is  a  very  serious  mistake  to  suppose 
that  only  the  French  Life  is  referred  to  in  the  Papal  document  I  note  that  an  American 
clergyman  has  in  a  manner  excused  His  Holiness  for  the  condemnation  of  The  Life  of 
Father  Hecker  on  the  ground  that  the  Pope,  being  a  very  busy  man,  has  not  time  to 
examine  the  accuracy  of  a  translation,  and  just  trusts  to  luck  in  dashing  off  a  condemna- 
tion. This  view  of  the  matter  Is  wildly  grotesque,  besides  being  grossly  disrespectful. 
The  supreme  authority  of  the  Church  does  not  work  on  these  off-hand  lines,  and  in  the 
present  case  I  am  in  a  position  to  state  that  the  English  as  well  as  the  French  edition  has 
V)een  subjected  to  the  most  careful  examination  and  (this  is  the  most  important  point) 
"been  found  to  be  out  of  harmony  with  Catholic  teachings.  Indeed,  nobody  who  reads  the 
English  work  and  the  Papal  letter  together  can  fail  to  see  that  a  mimhcr  of  propositions 
aiiKjled  out  for  reproof  in  the  latter  are  contained  explicit])  in  the  former,  while  the 
tone  of  the  one  is  simply  in  violent  contradiction  with  the  tone  of  the  other.  Let  me  ob- 
serve here  that  I  am  not  now  discussing  what  Father  Hecker  or  his  followers  and  admirers 
held  or  hold  subjectively.  That  is  another  matter,  and  it  is  highly  satisfactory  to  see 
with  what  unanimity  everybody  concerned  repudiates  and  condemns  all  the  propositions 
repudiated  and  condemned  by  His  Holiness.  But  let  us  look  objective  facts  squarely  in 
the  face  and  bow  to  their  inexorable  logic,  no  matter  how  much  hurt  we  may  he  by  them. 
It  is  a  fact  that  The  Life  of  Father  Hecker  in  English  as  well  as  in  French  contains 
ahjectivelv  teachings  which  are  not  in  consonance  with  the  teachings  of  the  Catholic 
Church." 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.    339 

decision  or  by  the  ordiuary  uuiversiil    magisterium,    to   be 
believed  as  liaviug  been  divinely  revealed.'     Far  be  it  then 
from  anyone  to  diminish  or  tor  any  reason  whatever  to  pass 
over  anything  of  this  divinely  delivered  doctrine  ;  whosoever 
would  do  so,    would    wish  to  alienate  Catholics   from   the 
Church,  rather  than  to  bring  over  to  the  Church  those  who 
dissent  from  her.  .  . .  The  history  of  all  the   past    ages  is 
witness  that  the  Apostolic  See,  to  which  not  only  the  ofKce  of 
teaching,  but  also  the  supreme   government   of   the   whole 
Church  was  committed,  has  constantly  adhered   to  the  same 
doctrine,  in  the  same  sense  and  in  the  same  mind :  but  it  has 
always  been  accustomed  to  so  modify  the  rule  of  life,    that, 
while  keeping  the  divine  right  inviolate,  it  has  never   disre- 
garded the  manners   and   customs   of  the   various   nations 
which  it  embraces.     If  required  for  the  salvation  of   souls, 
who  will  doubt  that  it   is   ready   to  do   so   at   the   present 
time  ?— But  this  is  not  to  be  determined  by  the  will  of  pri- 
vate individuals  who  are  mostly  deceived  by  the  appearance 
of  right,  but  ought  to  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  Church. 
In  this  all  must  acquiesce  who  wish  to  avoid  the  censure  of 
our  predecessor  Pius  VL,  who  proclaimed  the  18th  Proposi- 
tion of  the  Synod  of  Pistoia  'to  be  injurious  to  the  Church 
and  to  the  Spirit  of  God  which  governs  her,  inasmuch  as  it 
subjects  to  scrutiny  the  discipline  established  and  approved 
by  the  Church,  as  if  the  Church  could   establish  a   useless 
discipline  or  one  which  would  be  too  onerous  for  Christian 
liberty  to  bear '  (1).     It  is  far  indeed  from  our  intention  to 
repudiate  all  that  the  genius  of  the  time  begets  ;  nay,  what- 
ever the  search  for  truth  attains,  or   the   effort   after   good 
achieves,  will  always  be  welcome  to  us,  for  it  increases  the 
patrimony  of  doctrine   and  enlarges   the   limits   of  public 
prosperity.     But  all  this,  to  possess  real  utility,  should  thrive 
without   setting   aside   the  authority   and   wisdom   of    the 
Church.  ...  It  is  hard  to  understand  how  those  who  are  im- 
bued with  Christian  principles  can  place  the  natural   ahead 
of  the  supernatural  virtues,  and  attribute   to   them   greater 
power  and  fecundity.     Is  nature,  then,  with  grace  addf id  to 
it,  weaker  than  when  left  to   its   own  strength  ?  and  have 

(1)  See  our  Vol.  iv.,  p.  r>96. 


340  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

the  eminently  holy  men,  whom  the  Church  reveres,  shown 
themselves  weak  and  incompetent  in  the  natural  order,  be- 
cause they  have  excelled  in  Christian  virtue  ?  Even  if  we 
admire  the  sometimes  splendid  acts  of  the  natural  virtues, 
how  rare  is  the  man  who  really  possesses  the  habit  of  these 
natural  virtues  ? ....  If  we  scrutinize  more  closely  these 
particular  acts,  we  shall  discover  that  oftentimes  they  have 
more  the  appearance  than  the  reality  of  virtue.  But  let  us 
grant  that  they  are  real.  If  we  do  not  wish  to  run  in  vain, 
if  we  do  not  wish  to  lose  sight  of  the  eternal  blessedness 
to  which  God  in  His  goodness  has  destined  us,  of  what  use 
are  the  natural  virtues  unless  the  gift  and  strength  of  divine 
grace  be  added?. . .  .With  this  opinion  about  natural  virtue, 
another  is  intimately  connected,  according  to  which  all 
Christian  virtues  are  divided  as  it  were  into  two  classes, 
passive,  as  they  say,  and  active  ;  and  they  say  that  the  for- 
mer were  better  suited  for  the  past  times,  but  the  latter  are 
more  in  keeping  with  the  present.     There  is  not  and   can 

not  be  a  virtue  which  is  really  passive From  this  species 

of  contempt  of  the  evangelical  virtues  which  are  wrongly 
called  passive  it  follows  that  the  mind  is  imbued  gradually 
with  a  feeling  of  disdain  for  the  religious  life.  And  that 
this  is  common  to  the  advocates  of  these  new  opinions,  we 
gather  from  some  of  their  utterances  concerning  the 
vows  which  Keligious  Orders  pronounce.  For,  say  they, 
such  vows  are  altogether  out  of  keeping  with  the  spirit 
of  our  age,  inasmuch  as  they  narrow  the  limits  of  human 
liberty  ;  they  are  better  adapted  to  weak  minds  than  to 
strong  ones  ;  they  avail  little  for  Christian  perfection  and 
the  good  of  human  society,  and  rather  obstruct  and  interfere 
with  them.  That  these  assumptions  are  false  is  evident 
from  the  usage  and  doctrine  of  the  Church,  always  accord- 
ing the  most  formal  approval  to  religious  life.  Nor  should 
there  be  any  distinction  of  praise  between  those  who  lead 
an  active  life  and  those  who,  attracted  by  seclusion,  give 
themselves  up  to  prayer  and  mortification  of  the  body.  How 
gloriously  they  have  merited  from  human  society  and  do 
still  merit,  should  be  evident  to  all  who  do  not  ignore  how 
the  continual  prayer  of  a  just  man,  especially  when  joined 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  .VND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNTTED  STATES.    341 

to  affliction  of  the  body,  avails  to  propitiate  aud  conciliate 
the  majosty  of  God. ...  If  there  are  any,  therefore,  who  prefer 
to  unite  together  in  one  society  without  the  obligation  of  vows, 
let  them  do  as  they  desire.  That  is  not  a  new  institution 
in  the  Church,  nor  is  it  to  be  disapproved.  But  let  them  be- 
ware of  setting  such  association  above  Keligious  Orders. 
Since  mankind  is  more  prone  now  than  heretofore  to  the  en- 
joyment of  pleasure,  much  greater  esteem  is  to  be  accorded  to 
those  who  have  left  all  thi)i(js  and  have  folloived  Clirlst. . . . 
Lastly  it  is  also  maintained  that  the  method  which  Catho- 
lics have  followed  thus  far  for  recalling  those  who  differ 
from  us  is  to  be  abandoned,  and  another  followed.  It  sufh- 
ces  to  advert  that  it  is  not  prudent.  Beloved  Son,  to  neglect 
what  antiquity  with  its  long  experience,  guided  as  it  is  by 
Apostolic  teaching,  has  stamped  with  its  approval. ...  If 
among  the  different  methods  of  preaching  the  word  of  God, 
one  may  sometimes  prefer  that  by  which  those  who  dissent 
from  us  are  addressed,  not  in  the  Church  but  in  any  private 
and  proper  place,  not  in  disputation  but  in  amicable  confer- 
ence, such  method  is  not  to  be  reprehended,  provided  that 
those  who  are  devoted  to  that  work  by  the  authority  of  the 
bishop  be  men  who  have  given  proof  of  science  and  virtue. 
....  Hence  from  all  that  we  have  hitherto  said,  it  is  clear, 
Beloved  Son,  that  we  cannot  approve  the  opinions  which 
some  comprise  under  the  head  of  Americanism.  If  by  that 
name  be  designated  the  characteristic  qualities  which  reflect 
honor  on  the  people  of  America,  just  as  other  nations  have 
what  is  special  to  them  ;  or  if  it  implies  the  condition  of 
your  commonwealths,  or  the  laws  and  customs  which  prevail 
in  them  ;  there  is  surely  no  reason  why  we  should  deem  that 
it  ought  to  be  discarded.  But  if  it  is  to  be  used  not  only  to 
signify,  but  even  to  commend  the  above  doctrines,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  but  that  our  Venerable  Brethren  the  Bishops 
of  America  would  be  the  first  to  repudiate  and  condemn  it,  as 
being  especially  unjust  to  them  and  to  the  entire  nation  as 
well.  For  it  raises  the  suspicion  that  there  are  some  among 
you  ivho  imagine  and  desire  a  Church  in  America  different 
from  that  which  is  in  the  rest  of  the  loorld.  One  in  the 
unity  of  doctrine  as  in  the  unity  of  government — such  is  the 


342  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

Catholic  Clmrcli ;  and  since  God  has  established  its  centre 
and  foundation  in  the  Chair  of  Peter,  one  which  is  rightly 
called  Roman,  for  where  Peter  is,  there  is  the  Church  "  (1). 
The  reader  will  have  noted  that  Pope  Leo  XIII.  was 
careful  to  assure  us  that  this  condemnation  of  a  false 
"  Americanism  "  did  not  involve  any  reprobation  of  the 
political  or  patriotic  predilections  of  the  American  people. 
It  was  to  be  expected,  therefore,  that  "  the  opinions  which 
some  comprise  under  the  head  of  '  Americanism'  "  would  be 
repudiated  by  the  entire  American  Church  as  soon  as  the 
Roman  Pontiff  drew  attention  to  the  falsity  and  evil  tenden- 
cies of  those  principles  ;  especially  since  a  further  advocacy  of 
such  ideas  would  confirm  "the  suspicion  that  there  were 
some  who  imagined  and  desired  a  Church  in  America  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  is  in  the  rest  of  the  world."  Nor  was 
this  expectation  entirely  unsatisfied.  But  a  few  of  the 
"  Americanists,"  while  professing  submission  to  the  Pontifical 
decision,  insisted,  in  a  quasi-Jansenistic  fashion,  that  none 
of  the  condemned  theories  had  been  received,  if  indeed  they 
had  ever  been  known,  in  the  American  Church  ;  that  His 
Holiness  had  been  deceived  by  certain  intriguing  spirits 
surrounding  him,  and  by  the  mistakes  or  perhaps  criminal 

(1)  Commenting  on  this  Apostolic  Letter  in  Its  issue  of  MarchilS,  1899.  the  Chnltd  CattoUca 
says  :  "  It  is  a  historical  fa-,t  that  the  word  '  Americanism  '  was  coined  neither  in  France 
nor  in  Germany  nor  anywhere  else  in  Europe  by  enemies  of  the  United  States.  Its  origin 
was  purely  American,  and  theve  it  was  employed  at  first  to  indicate  in  general  the  'new 
Idea'  which  was  to  rejuvenate  the  Church  and,  in  particular,  the  '  new  crusade '  which 
was  to  be  led  against  the  uncompromJslng  position  of  the  Catholics  of  the  old  creed.  But 
one  capital,  all-important  imitation,  muft  be  tome  in  mind.  The  word  *  Americanism  ' 
although  it  is  neither  void  of  sense  nc-  indicative  of  a  phantom,  does  not  mean, 
neither  is  it  employed  in  the  apostolic  letter  to  designate,  a  set  of  opinions  common  to  all 
Americans  or  even  one  peculiar  to  all  Cathol'cs  in  the  United  States.  .  .  .  But  if  the 
*  Americanism  '  condemned  by  Leo  XIII.  cannot  be  called  American  in  the  sense  of  its 
being  common  to  all  Americans,  or  at  least  to  those  who  profess  the  Catholic  faith,  it  must 
be  called  and  is  American  in  the  sense  that  America  was  us  birthplace  and  that  there  it 
found  its  first  advocates  and  adherents.  These  in  truth  were  never  numerous  in  the 
United  States,  but  being  restless  and  noisy,  they    always  professed  to  be  the  only  true 

Ampricans  and  the  only  genuine  representatives  of  the  Church Whoever  knows 

anythingaboutthecausesdefendedbv  them,  their  speeches  that  have  been  printed,  the 
Introductions  with  which  they  have  prefaced  the  works  of  others,  the  apprcal  which  they 
have  given  to  certain  books,  the  pamphlets  and  articles  which  they  have  published  in 
various  periodicals,  the  memoirs  scattered  right  and  left;  whoever  knows,  we  say,  all  this 
and  other  things  besides,  needs  not  names  or  other  proofs  to  be  convinced  that  the 
'Americanism'  that  has  been  reproved  by  the  supreme  head  of  the  Church  is  not  'an 
inflated  balloon,'  is  not  an  invention  of  the  enemies  of  the  United  States,  but  a  sad  reality 
which  precisely  on  account  of  the  evils  which  it  had  already  produced  in  the  United 
States  and  of  the  greater  evils  threatened,  if  it  had  been  allowed  to  progress  and  grow 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.    343 

unfaitlifuluess  of  tlie  Freuclimeu  who  had  respectively  trans- 
lated aud  misinterpreted  the  Life  of  Father  Hecker — in  fine, 
the  more  obstinate  of  the  "  Americanists  "  asked  the  Cath- 
olic world  to  believe  that  His  Holiness  was  simply  a  theo- 
logical and  Pontifical  Don  Quixote.  The  assertion  that  the 
"Americanistic  "  opinions  had  been  unknown  in  the  Amer- 
ican Church  before  their  ostentatious  discovery  by  the 
Roman  Pontifi",  or  perhaps  by  the  Abbes  Magnien  aud 
Delattre,  was  daring  indeed  ;  it  implied  that  the  memories 
of  the  more  persistent  of  the  "  Americanists  "  had  conven- 
iently failed  to  retain  the  matter  of  their  teachings,  during 
the  previous  ten  or  fifteen  years,  aud  that  those  ebullitions 
had  been  forgotten  by  such  Catholic  readers  as  are  wont  to 
consult  the  columns  of  the  press.  Had  such  oblivion  over- 
taken all  those  utterances,  however,  the  spirit  of  the  false 
"  Americanism  "  would  have  manifested  itself  to  all  who  per- 
used such  passages  as  that  in  the  Preface  to  the  original 
Life  of  Fat  Iter  Hecker,  in  which  it  was  insisted  that  precisely 
because  the  dogma  of  Papal  Infallibility  has  been  defined, 
Catholics  should  now  enjoy  greater  scope  for  individual 
action — an  action  free  from  external  direction.  "There 
have  been  epochs  in  history,"  said  the  archbishop  of  St. 
Paul,  "where  the  Church,  sacrificing  her  outposts  and  the 

strong  in  Europe  also,  deserved  to  be  condemned  without  delay  or  hesitation. .  . .  We 
come  now  to  its  nature.  If  by  the  name  of  '  Americanism '  are  meant  those  peculiar 
qualities  of  mind  wlih  which  the  peoples  of  America  are  endowed  as  other  nations  are  with 
other  qualities;  likewise  If  it  means  the  condition  of  their  cities  or  the  laws  and  customs 
which  are  peculiar  to  them  ;  that  is,  if  it  is  a  question  of  an  Americanism  in  the  political 
sense,  '  There  is  no  reason,'  writes  the  Pontiff,  *  why  it  should  be  rejected  by  us." 
This  must  be  understood  to  mean,  as  is  only  natural,  after  excluding  the  exaggerations  of 
the  Americanists.  Such  are.  for  example,  that  of  proposing  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  as  the  ideal  of  political  perfection  to  be  imitated  by  all  other  nations,  or  that  of  per- 
sons who,  arguing  from  the  fact  that  in  the  United  States  the  Church,  unhindered  by  the 
laws  of  the  civil  Government,  enjoys  without  obstacles  the  secure  liberty  of  living  and 
acting  according  to  the  simple  common  law,  infer  that  from  America  the  model  forthe  best 
condition  of  the  Church  must  be  taken  ;  or  that  it  is  allowable  or  e.xpedient.  speaking 
generally,  that  Church  and  State  should  be  disunited  and  separated  in  other  countries  just 
as  they  are  in  the  United  Stares.  Wherefore,  as  Leo  XIII.  said  wisely  on  another  occasion  : 
"  If  in  the  United  States  the  Church  remains  unharmed,  if  even  it  prospers  and  spreads, 
that  in  every  way  Is  the  result  of  the  fruitfulness  granted  by  God  to  His  Church  which, 
when  it  is  not  opposed  by  others,  when  it  fluds  no  impediment,  grows  and  expands  through 
its  own  power  ;  when,  nevertheless,  it  would  give  far  more  copious  fruit  if,  besides  hav. 
ing  liberty,  it  enjoyed  favor  from  the  laws  and  patronage  from  the  social  power.  (En- 
cyclical Lony'uiqua  to  the  bishops  of  the  United  States,  1895.).  .  .  .  Another  exagger- 
ation of  the  Americanists  is  that  of  exalting  American  democracy,  representing  it  as  the 
torm  of  government  most  loved  by  the  Church,  indeed  as  the  Bower  of  its  principles. 
To  arouse  the  idea  or  suspicion  that  the  Church  is  a  partisan  of  one  form  of  government 


344  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

ranks  of  her  skirmisliers  to  the  preservation  of  her  central 
and  vital  fortresses,  put  the  brakes,  through  necessity,  from 
the  nature  of  the  warfare  waged  against  her,  upon  individual 
activity,  and  moved  her  soldiers  in  serried  masses  ;  and  then 
it  was  the  part  and  the  glory  of  each  one  to  move  with  the 
column.  The  need  of  repression  has  passed  aivay.  The 
authority  of  the  Church  and  of  her  /Supreme  Bead  is  beyond 
danger  of  being  denied  or  obscured,  and  each  Christian  soldier 
may  take  to  the  fiejd  obeying  the  breathings  of  the  Spirit  of 
Truth  and  piety  loithin  him,  feeling  that  lohat  lie  may  do  he 

should  do The  responsibility  is    upon  each  one ;   the 

indifference  of  others  is  no  excuse.  Said  Father  Hecker  one 
day  to  a  friend  :  '  There  is  too  much  waiting  upon  the  action 
of  others.  The  layman  waits  for  the  priest,  the  priest  for 
the  bishop,  and  the  bishop  for  the  Pope,  while  the  Holy 
Ghost  sends  down  to  all  the  reproof  that  He  is  prompting 
each  one,  and  no  one  moves  for  Him. '  Father  Hecker  was 
original  in  his  ideas,  as  well  as  in  his  methods  ;  there  was 
no  routine  in  him,  mental  or  practical."  It  is  not  improb- 
able that  it  was  this  passage  from  tlie  pen  of  His  Grace  of 
St.  Paul  that  drew  from  the  Pontiff  the  following  commen- 
tary :  "  It  is  of  importance,  therefore,  to  note  particularly 
an  opinion,  which  is  addressed  as  a  sort  of  argument  to  urge 

rather  than  another,  or  that  it  is  better  adapted  to  one  form  rather  than  to  another,  is  a 
wicked  artlflce  contrary  to  reason  and  to  history. . . .  There  is  no  question  in  the  Apostolic 
letter  of  political '  Americanism.'  It  is  a  question  of  that  '  Americanism  '  which  pre- 
tends not  merely  to  rejuvenate  the  Church  by  promoting  its  evolution  in  dogma  and  in 
discipline  in  such  a  way  that  it  may  accord  with  the  century,  but  also  to  renew  Christian 
life  and  regulate  it  according  to  the  aspirations  and  demands  of  new  times.  Every  cen- 
tury, says  '  Americanism,'  must  have  a  special  type  of  holiness.  Ours  demands  that  the 
natural  virtues  should  be  more  particularly  cultivated,  and  that  the  first  place  should  be 
given  to  personal  Initiative,  or  to  the  so-called  spirit  of  individualism.  It  should,  there- 
fore, be  active  rather  than  passive,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  free  from  religious  vows,  inde- 
pendent of  all  external  authority,  and  subject  almost  solely  to  the  internal  and  personal 
direction  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  whose  language  the  soul  is  supposed  to  have  perfect 
knowledge.  By  this  system,  which  is  condemned  in  all  its  parts  by  the  Apostolic  Letter, 
religious  life  would  be  reduced  to  a  sort  of  independent  republican  and  democratic  asceti- 
cism, or  if  you  prefer,  to  tlie  transformation  of  the  Protestant  idea  of  '  free  examinatiou  • 
into  a  personal  '  free  sentiment,'  that  should  be  then  applied  to  the  Christian  and  religi- 
ous life  of  every  one. ...  If  Americanism  has  been  condemned,  whose  fault  is  it  ?  Cer- 
tainly not  that  of  the  '  enemies  of  the  United  States,'  to  whom  till  the  other  day  even  the 
existence  of  Father  Heeker  was  unknown,  and  who,  if  they  were  Catholics,  could  not 
avoid  being  delighted  at  seeing  glorified  the  first  'saint '  of  the  American  Church.  The 
fault,  if  that  term  must  be  used,  belongs  alone  to  the  friends  and  commentators  of  theii/e 
of  Hecker,  who  have  repeatedly  dignified  his  opinions  with  the  name  of  '  Americanism  ' 
and  have  proposed  him  to  the  admiration  and  veneration  of  the  faithful  as  the  standard- 
bearer  of  their  new  school." 


POPE  LEO  XriT.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.    345 

the  granting  of  such  liberty  to  Catholics.  For,  they  say,  in 
speaking  of  the  infalUble  teaching  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  that 
after  the  solemn  decision  formulatedin  the  Vatican  Council,  there 
is  no  need  of  solicitude  in  that  regard,  and,  because  of  its  now 
being  out  of  dispute,  a  loider  field  of  thought  and  action  is  thrown 
open  to  individuals.  Truly  this  is  a  preposterous  argumen- 
tation. For  if  anything  is  suggested  by  the  infallible  teach- 
ing of  the  Church,  it  is  certain  that  no  one  should  wish  to 
withdraw  from  it,  nay,  that  all  should  strive  to  be  thoroughly 
imbued  with,  and  be  guided  by  its  Spirit,  .so  as  to  be  the  more 
easily  preserved  from  any  private  error  whatever."  And  His 
Holiness  adds  :  "  Qui  sic  arguunt,  a  provident  is  Deisapieatia 
discedunt  admodum.  For  in  willing  that  the  authority  and 
teaching  office  of  the  Apostolic  See  should  be  more  solemnly 
asserted,  God  willed  above  all  to  guard  more  efficaciously 
the  minds  of  Catholics  from  the  dangers  of  the  present  age. 
A  license  which  is  often  confounded  with  liberty,  a  craving 
to  put  in  a  word  on  every  topic,  and  the  freedom  of  thinking 
as  one  pleases  and  putting  one's  thoughts  in  print,  have  cast 
such  dense  darkness  over  men's  minds  that  never  before  ivas 
there  greater  need  for  the  existence  and  exercise  of  ecclesias- 
tical authority  to  prevent  them  from,  running  counter  to  con- 
science and  duty"  In  several  other  reprobations  of"  Amer- 
icanistic "  ideas.  His  Holiness  paraphrases  those  notions 
with  words  which,  just  as  in  this  case  of  the  Preface  to  the 
Life  of  Father  Hecker,  are  all  but  identical  with  utterances 
of  "  Americanist  "  publicists.  But  if  we  were  to  grant  that 
it  is  allowable  to  credit  Pope  Leo  XIII,  with  crass  ignorance 
of  the  state  of  affairs  which  he  undertook  to  remedy,  are  we 
to  ascribe  the  same  want  of  knowledge  to  all  those  American 
bishops  who,  in  their  replies  to  the  Apostolic  Letter,  pro- 
claimed the  fact  of  at  least  a  limited  circulation  of  the 
stigmatized  errors  in  the  American  Catholic  community? 
Of  course  the  "  Americanists  "  would  have  us  ignore  as  of  no 
value  the  avowal  of  the  bishops  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Province 
of  Milwaukee  ;  since,  as  the  innovators  insisted,  these  prelates 
were  "merely  a  few  Germans  in  obscure  dioceses" — as 
though  the  most  pronounced  Catholic  opponent  of  the 
Teutonic   Idea    would   fail   to   recognize   those   bishops  as 


346  STUDIES   IN   CHUBCH    HISTORY. 

competent  witnesses  in  regard  to  matters  which  are  presented 
to  their  observation.  Archbishop  Elder  of  Cincinnati  was 
not  "  a  German  bishop  of  an  obscure  diocese  "  ;  and  never- 
theless he  and  his  suffragans  wrote  to  His  Holiness  :  "The 
errors  you  condemn  were  calculated  to  work  great  harm  to 
souls.  Your  Apostolic  Letter,  with  its  lucid  explanation  of 
Catholic  truth,  will,  we  fell  confident,  end  all  future  misunder- 
standing. Boma  locuia  est  ;  causa  Jinita  est.''  And  certainly 
Archbishop  Corrigan  of  New  York  and  the  prelates  of  his 
province  were  not "  Germans  in  obscure  dioceses  "  ;  but  on 
March  10,  1899,  these  bishops  declared  to  the  Holy  See  : 
"  If  Your  Holiness  had  not  opportunely  come  to  our  aid  with 
your  admirable  letter,  how  numerous  might  have  been  those 
who,  through  ignorance  rather  than  malice,  would  have  been 
taken  in  the  snare  !  The  bishops  and  clergy  would  have  had 
a  heavy  task  to  keep  the  peof)le  far  from  error.  . . .  We  rejoice 
greatly  that  by  reason  of  your  infallible  teaching  we  will  not 
have  to  transmit  to  our  successors  the  ungrateful  task  of 
having  to  struggle  with  an  enemy  which  perhaps  would  never 
die"(l). 

Among  all  the  luminaries  of  the  Liberal  school  in  Europe, 
probably  very  few  had  even  heard  of  "  Americanism,"  when 
the  Pontifical  condemnation  of  that  vagary  appeared  ;  but 

(1)  This  letter  of  the  bishops  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Province  of  New  York  should  be  read 
in  its  entirety  :  "  Most  Holy  Father  :  We  cannot  express  in  words  the  feelings  of  admira- 
tion, of  joy,  and  of  pratitude,  with  which  our  hearts  have  been  penetrated  on  reading  the 
masterly  and  admirable  letter  which  Your  Holiness  deigned  to  issue  concerninfr  what  has 
been,  for  some  time  past,  designated  under  the  name  of  '  Americanism.'  With  what 
wisdom  has  Your  Holiness  known  how  to  summarize  the  multitude  of  fallacies  and  errors 
which  it  has  been  sought  to  pass  as  good  and  Catholic  doctrine  under  the  specious  title  of 
'  Americanism  '  !  And  at  the  same  time,  with  what  prudence,  discretion,  and  gentleness, 
together  with  force  and  clearness,  has  Your  Holiness  fulfilled  the  offlce  of  supreme  and 
infallible  teacher  !  Certainly  this. last  emanation  from  the  wisdom  of  Your  Holiuess  is  not 
Inferior  to  any  of  the  many  which  have  excited  the  admiration  of  the  nations  during  the 
course  of  your  glorious  Pontificate.  As  for  us,  placed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  as  bishops  to  rule 
the  Church  of  God  under  the  guidance  of  Your  Holiness,  we  hasten  to  offer  to  you  our 
sentiments  of  unqualified  adhesion.  We  receive  in  the  most  absolute  manner,  for  ourselves 
and  for  our  clergy,  for  the  religious  orders  and  congregations  working  with  us  for  the 
salvation  of  souls,  and  also  for  our  flocks,  the  doctrinal  Letter  Testem  bcnevolentice  sent 
to  us  by  Your  Holiness.  We  accept  it,  and  we  make  it  wholly  ours,  word  for  word  and 
sentence  for  sentence,  in  the  very  same  sense  according  to  which  Your  Holiness,  following 
the  tradition  and  wisdom  of  all  Christian  antiquity,  understood  and  understands  it,  and 
wishes  it  to  be  understood  by  all.  We  shall  never  be  guilty  of  any  reservation  or  tergiver- 
sation, either  directly  or  indirectly,  in  regard  to  it ;  nor  shall  we  tolerate  such  a  course  on 
the  part  of  thosewho  are  under  our  care.  Your  Holiness  has  spoken  ;  therefore  the  ques- 
tion is  terminated.  This  thought  gives  us  great  satisfaction,  audit  was  this  satisfaction 
ttat  we  wished  to  express  in  the  first  words  of  this  letter.     And  we  may  now  say  that 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  lY.  THE  UNITFJ-  STATES    347 

immediately  the  Masouic  iiiul  Protestant  joiirna's  of  Italy, 
Frauce,  Euglaud,  aud  Germany,  expressed  their  sympathy 
with  the  alleged  progressists  whom  the  retrograde  Vatican 
was  said  to  be  persecutiug.  None  of  these  efifusious  merits 
citation  ;  but  it  may  interest  the  reader  to  note  the  manner 
in  which  the  Papal  pronouncement  was  received  by  those 
nondescripts  who  so  pathetically  endeavor  to  vindicate  for 
themselves  a  right  to  be  considered  as  Liberal,  even  while 
they  pose  as  Catholic.  No  sincerely  Catholic  periodicals  or 
journals  would  loan  their  columns  for  a  ventilation  of  the 
"  Liberal  Catholic "  ideas ;  but  fortunately  for  the  van- 
ity of  the  purveyors  of  those  theories,  the  heterodox  aud  in- 
differentist  organs  are  ever  ready  to  publish  what  promises 
to  injure  Catholicism,  while  it  increases  their  circulation. 
Three  of  these  periodicals,  iu'Enghiud  the  Niuefeenfh  Century 
and  the  Contemporary  Review,  and  in  the  United  States  the 
North  American  Revieiv,  were  made  vehicles  for  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  latest  concoction  of  "  Liberal  Catholic  "  poison 
Tinder  the  guise  of  a  defence  of  "  Americanism."  The  iW??e- 
teenth  Century,  in  its  issue  of  May,  1899,  enabled  the  Hon. 
William  Gibson,  a  gentleman  whose  ravings  in  the  matter 
of  Lamennais  we  found  it  necessary  to  notice  in  our  dis- 

alniost  on  its  first  appearance,  death  has  overtaken  that  monstrosity  which,  in  order  to 
obtain  a  durable  Iioine  among  us,  usurped  the  fair  name  of 'Americanism ';  and  it  is  to 
Your  Holiness  that  this  happy  result  is  due,  for  if  you  had  not  opportunely  come  to  our  aid 
with  your  admirable  letter,  how  numerous  might  have  been  those  who,  through  ignorance 
rather  than  malice,  would  have  been  taken  in  the  snare  !  The  bishops  and  clergy  would 
have  had  a  heavy  task  to  keep  the  people  far  from  error.  Error  would  have  been  able, 
little  by  little,  always  to  take  a  greater  hold  ;  and  we  would  soon  he  designated  by  the 
thoughtless  as  persons  who  are  not  Americans.  Meanwhile  the  false  '  Araericanisui,' 
understood  like  similar  titles  whi(  h  have  endured  for  ages  among  the  nations  to  the  great 
detriment  of  souls,  would  have  taken  tranquil  possession  among  us,  ever  increasing  its 
conquests  in  enormous  proportions  of  time  and  place.  Therefore  we  rejoice  because  of 
your  infallible  teaching  which  has  so  effected  that  we  will  not  be  obliged  to  transmit  to  . 
our  successors  the  ungrateful  task  of  having  to  struggle  with  an  enemy  which  perhaps 
would  never  die.  Now,  with  heads  erect  we  can  repeat  that  we  also  are  Americans  ;  we 
are  Americans,  and  we  glory  in  the  fact.  We  glory  in  this  fact  because  our  nation  is  grent 
in  its  institutions  and  in  its  undertakings,  great  in  its  development  and  in  its  activity  ; 
but  in  matters  of  religion,  doctrine,  discipline,  morals,  and  Christian  perfection,  we  glory 
in  entire  obsequiousness  to  the  Holy  See.  For  these  reasons  we  are,  and  shall  ever  he. 
most  grateful  to  Your  Holiness  for  the  signal  benefit  which  your  Letter  T(!<trm  heiirvnleu- 
tim  has  conferred  on  us  and  on  all  the  Calholios  of  America.  By  the  testimony  of  your 
kindness.  Your  Holiness  has  uprooted  this  cockle  from  the  field  of  wheat,  as  soon  as  it 
appeared.  May  God  preserve,  etc. !  For  the  Risrht  Reverend  Bishops  of  this  Ecclesiastical 
rrnvince,  the  Most  Humble  Servant  of  Your  Holiness.  Michael  augustink.  Archbishop 
OF  New  York." 


348  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

sertation  on  the  great  unfortunate  (1),  to  prove  that  the  lapse 
of  time  had  not  augmented  his  store  of  common  sense.  A 
writer  who  thinks  that  the  great  Napoleon's  "  war  of  libera- 
tion "  in  Italy — a  war  which  "  demonstrated  the  utility  of 
an  organization  like  that  of  the  Carbonari  " — was  followed 
by  a  great  mistake  on  the  jDart  of  the  Pontiffs  who  "  might 
at  this  time  have  succeeded  in  winning  for  themselves  a  great 
position  as  the  representatives  of  a  great  idea  "  ;  a  writer  who' 
represents  Lamennais  as  the  victim  of  "  the  cowardly  and 
underhand  operations  "  of  men  whose  religion  was  "  identi- 
fied with  the  divine  right  of  kings  "  ;  might  well  be  expected 
to  see  in  every  teaching  of  Leo  XIII.  an  attempt  to  crush 
all  independent  thought  in  man.  According  to  this  honor- 
able gentleman,  the  numerous  Encyclicals  of  Leo  XIII.  have 
produced  but  one  effect ;  they  have  demonstrated  that  the 
Church  so  distrusts  all  progress  in  science,  that  no  true 
devotee  of  science  can  be  a  faithful  Catholic.  And  Mr. 
Gibson  finds  the  most  conclusive  proof  of  this  Pontifical 
ojjpression  in  the  condemnation  of  that  "  Americanist " 
tenet,  according  to  which  "  the  manner  and  method  hitherto 
adopted  to  effect  the  return  of  dissidents  should  henceforth  be 
abandoned  for  another  "  (2).  The  writer  in  the  Contemporary 
Revieiv,  also  of  May,  1899,  is  anonymous  ;  but  he  claims  to 
be  a  Catholic,  albeit  "  independent."  He  regards  the  con- 
demnation of  "  Americanism  "  as  consistent  with  a  system 
which  gives  a  place  in  the  Index  to  the  work  of  nearly  every 
Catholic  who  is  sufficiently  brave  to  write  on  scientific  matters. 
He  asserts  that  the  Church  is  now,  if  not  formally,  at  least 
practically,  divorced  from  science  ;  the  two  are  "  separated  at 
least  a  moisa  ef  thoro.''  The  Civiltd  Caftolica  thus  comments 
on  this  aberration  :  "  He  utters  an  untruth  and  he  calumniates 
the  Church,  if  he  refers  to  real  science  which  is  the  certain 
and  evident  knowledge  of  a  thing  through  a  true  knowledge 
of  its  causes ;  the  science  which  does  not  rest  on  nothing, 
and  is  not  bolstered  by  silly  theories  and  gratuitous  hypo- 
theses,   but   is    derived   from   unshakeable   principles,  and 

(1)  See  our  Vol.  v.,  p.  280,  287. 

(2)  Sinc'j  such  are  the  views  of  Mr.  Gibson,  the  Review  nf  Reviews  miRht  well  express 
its  surprise  on  learning  that  the  gentleman  still  remains  in  the  fold  of  Catholicism. 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHUltCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.     349 

deals  with  facts  rigorously  established — the  science,  in 
short,  which  is  taught  us  by  those  who  have  a  right  to  speak 
for  it.  From  this  science  the  Church  is  not  separated — 
rather  does  she  make  it  her  own,  promote  it,  bless  it, 
and  desire  that  it  be  cultivated  with  all  zeal  by  her  children. 
Far  from  plucking  from  the  brows  of  real  scholars  a 
single  leaf  from  the  bays  of  learning  that  adorn  them,  she 
would  have  new  laurels  of  still  more  glorious  conquests 
added  thereto.  If,  however,  we  are  to  judge  by  the  names 
of  '  our  best  Catholic  writers,'  the  giants  '  whose  heads 
tower  above  the  crowd,  which  we  find  cited  in  the  pages  of 
the  Contemporary,  it  is  evident  that  the  anonymous  writer 
does  not  know  what  real  science  is,  and,  as  a  consequence,  who 
are  the  true  scholars.  We  are  far  indeed  from  wishing  to 
detract  in  any  way  from  the  scientific  and  literary  attain- 
ments of  a  Semeria  and  a  Genocchi ;  but  to  present  these 
two  young  priests  to  the  English  public  as  '  the  best  thinkers, 
the  only  true  scholars,  the  giants  of  science  among  Italian 
Catholics,'  is  certainly  an  exaggeration  which  borders  on 
the  ridiculous.  It  is  a  little  remarkable  that  the  anony- 
mous Contemporary  writer,  while  knowing,  or  pretending  to 
know,  a  number  of  giants  in  France,  Germany,  Italy,  and 
the  United  States,  is  a  complete  stranger  to  those  of  England. 
He  never  quotes  them — and  he  is  wise,  for  were  he  to  quote 
English  '  giants '  of  the  calibre  of  the  Loisys,  Schells, 
Semerias,  and  De  Wits,  he  would  be  simply  laughed 
at  by  every  Englishman  who  knows  anything  about  the 
scientific  history  of  his  country."  Certainly  the  surviv- 
ing "  Americanists  "  must  have  wished  that  they  had  been 
spared  the  ignominy  of  such  defences  as  those  advanced 
by  Mr.  Gibson  and  by  the  anonym  of  the  Contemporary  : 
and  we  would  fain  believe  that  few  of  them  were  grateful 
for  the  encouragement  tendered  in  the  Xorfli  American 
Review  (July,  1899)  by  Dr.  William  Barry,  an  English 
priest  whose  pen  had  hitherto  done  excellent  service  in 
the  cause  of  religious  truth,  but  who  then  announced  to 
the  world  an  alleged  discovery  of  a  Spanish  diplomatic 
complicity  in  the  matter  of  the  Letter  Tesfem  benevolent  ice. 
According  to  this  English  champion  of  the  "  Americanist " 


350  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORl. 

idea,  the  condemnation  of  tliat  idea  was  the  \rork  of  "  the 
party  which  in  France  has  pursued  Dreyfus  to  extermination ; 
which  in  Italy  is  accused  of  coquetting  with  Socialists  to 
overturn  the  monarchy  ;  and  which  saw  itself  confronted 
with  a  new  enemy,  and  that  enemy  America."  And  why 
did  this  party,  these  conspirers  against  the  Savoyard  of  the 
Quirinal,  regard  "Americanism  "  as  an  enemy  ?  Dr.  Barry 
finds  the  reason  in  the  fact  that  "  The  Franco-Latin  world 
had  been  shaken  to  its  foundations  by  the  triumph  of  an 
English-speaking  race  over  Spain  ;  and  if  anything  was  to  be 
undertaken  by  way  of  safeguard  or  revenge,  American  Catho- 
lics stood  in  the  front,  the  first  line  of  battle,  resting  on  Eome. 
At  Rome,  accordingly,  they  have  been  assailed."  After  this 
malevolent  identification  of  the  French  Catholic  party  with 
the  Jew-baiters  whose  chief  leaders  are  by  no  means  prom- 
inent in  Catholic  circles,  and  many  of  whom  are  no  more 
Catholic  than  are  those  foremost  of  Anti-Semites,  the 
Communist  Eochefort,  and  the  German  court-preacher, 
Stoecker;  after  this  slur  on  those  who  would  restore  the 
Papacy  to  its  proper  independence  ;  after  this  sop  to  the 
ignorant  prejudices  of  that  Celtico-Anglo-Saxonico-Dano- 
Norman  stock  which  a  defiance  of  historical  truth  terms  the 
"  Anglo-Saxon  "  race ;  Dr.  Barry's  discovery  thus  unfolds 
itself :  "  The  Society  of  Jesus  opened  fire  upon  Liberalism, 
an  ancient  enemy  ;  the  Dominicans  were  solicitous  for  the 
credit  of  the  Master  of  the  Sacred  Palace  (Father  Lepidi, 
who  granted  the  Imprimatur  to  the  book  by  Magnien). 
There  was  another  place  in  Rome,  too,  that  of  the  Spanish 
embassy,  whose  tenants  were  not  idle.  The  high  Roman 
society  was  led  by  Spaniards,  and  its  tone  was  violent  against 
America."  In  plain  words,  therefore,  Dr.  Barry  would 
ask  us  to  regard  the  Apostolic  Letter  Testem  henevolentice 
as  the  work  of  supposedly  retrograde,  absolutistic,  vindictive, 
and  ignorant  Jesuits ;  of  presumedly  timorous  and  vain- 
glorious Dominicans  ;  and  of  a  Spanish  government,  most  of 
the  members  of  which,  like  nearly  all  their  predecessors 
during  the  now  closing  century,  were  votaries  of  the  Dark 
Lantern.  And  according  to  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  "  cleric  with 
a   Norman-Irish  name,   the  Apostolic  Letter   has  resulted 


POrE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.    351 

principjilly  in  an  acquisition  of  "  ovorlastin<,'  lionor  "  for  those 
"Americanist"  leaders  who  have  (so  supertiuoiisly)  "shown 
the  world  how  they  can  be  at  once  fervent  Catholics  and 
loyal  Americans" — for  those  victims  of  European  obscuran- 
tism who  "  in  the  name  of  America  have  undergone  a  moral 
martyrdom"  Such  might  have  been  the  chief  consequence 
of  the  Leonine  c<mdemnati(m  of  "  Americanism,"  had  that 
VRf^ary  been,  as  Dr.  Barry  afterward  asserted  in  the  Liver- 
pool Catholic  Times,  "a  scarecrow  set  up  under  that  name, 
and  manufactured  in  Paris  "  (1). 

It  is  well  to  note,  however,  that  in  an  article  which  this 
"Americanist"  champion  published  in  the  Contemporary 
Review  simultanecmsly  with  the  one  in  the  North  American 
—an  article  which  professedly  descanted  on  the  "  Troubles 

(I)  The  Chunh  I'rooriKx  of  Sept.  16,  1899.  says :  "  Now  that  we  have  discovered  that  we 
are  in  the  category  of  those  who  know  nothing  about  Christian  liberty,  who  detest  the 
American  Constitution  as  the  work  of  Antichrist,  and  who  hate  England  because  of  her 
freedom,  we  venture  the  hope  that  Dr.  Barry  is  done  telling  Americans  what  *  American- 
ism' is/ and  where  'Americanism'  came  from Dr.   Barry  assures  his  American 

brethie'n  tliat  they  have  had  nothing  In  common  with  the  condemned  opinions,  and  that 
there  is  nothing  to  be  avoided  or  corrected.  Hitherto,  we  were  wont  to  suppose  that  a  certain 
amount  of  human  prudence,  at  least,  was  exercised  by  the  Holy  See  before  condemning  or 
locating  any  set  of  errors,  and  that  its  practice  was  more  conscientious  and  inore  methodi- 
cal than  to  be  driven  '  by  sheer  force  of  lungs  '  to  find  error  where  error  did  not  exist.  It 
was  very  old-fashioned,  to  be  sure ;  but  we  believed  that  were  error  to  begin  spreading,  for 
instance,  among  the  Catholics  of  Austria,  the  Church  would  hardly  be  satisfying  her  obli- 
gation as  custodian  of  the  deposit  of  faith,  by  sending  her  condeinnation  to  Honolulu. 
Those  of  us  who  are  prepared  to  accept  Dr.  Barry's  explanation  of  the  proscription  of 
•Americanism'  will  certainly  be  ready  for  just  such  an  hypothesis  as  that  we  have  men- 
tioned  We  do  not  wonder  that  general  readers  arise  from  the  perusal  of  such  lan- 
guage as  Dr.  Barry's  with  the  conviction  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  full  of  foolish  and 
dishonest  people,  and  that  the  supreme  authority  permits  itself  to  be  made  the  tool  of  their 
foolishness  and  their  dishonesty.  It  must  be  quite  painful  to  an  up-to-date  Anglo-Saxon 
like  Dr.  Barry  to  have  to  notice  the  ignorance  of  the  Roman  ofBcials.  What  strangely 
uncultured  intellects  these  Latins  have,  anyhow,  that,  when  we  talk  error  or  heresy,  they 
can't  see  that  we  are  only  poking  fun  at  somebody  !  Most  devoutly  do  we  hope  that  the 
Apostolic  See  will  make  itself  acquainted  with  the  labyrinthal  eccentricities  of  the  American 
mind,  before  it  risks  another  Encyclical,  warning  us  what  to  beware  of  and  to  correct.  A 
tremendous  responsibility  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  those  zealous  men  who  at 
present  find  it '  an  imperative  duty  '  to  amend  or  to  explain  away  the  Pope's  mistakes. 
Doubtless  Dr.  Barry  would  be  prepared  to  say  that  he  had  spoken  with  some  of  those  whose 
names  were  chiefly  associated  with  the  proscribed  views,  and  that  they  emphatically  denied 
ever  having  held  them.  Of  course,  they  emphatically  denied  it.  The  distinction  between 
riuht  and  fact  is  an  ancient  but  very  common  weapon  of  defence.  Every  second  man 
whose  opinions  have  met  with  the  Holy  See's  disapproval  will  tell  you  that  Rome  did  not 
understand  him. ...  If.  as  often  as  a  I'apal  Encyclical  were  Issued,  we  were  prepared  with 
an  interpretation,  neutralizing  its  point  and  palpably  foreign  to  its  spirit,  we  might,  at  an 
opportune  moment,  gain  some  cheap  publicity.  We  might  even  have  the  honor  of  being 
classed  with  those  progressive  spirits  who,  on  their  own  showing,  are  eternally  rescuing 
the  Church  from  collision  with  the  judgments  of  advanced  thought.  But  we  think  we  can 
forego  that  dazzling  distinction.  We  are  satisfied  to  be  taught  by  the  Church :  we  doa't 
seek  to  be  her  teacher." 


352  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY, 

of  Catholic  Democracy" — lie  presented  "Americanism  "  as 
any  tiling  but  a  "scarecrow  set  up  under  that  name."  The 
following  passages  alone  would  suffice  to  show  that  "Amer- 
icanism," as  understood  by  the  "  obscurantists,"  is  a  real 
entity,  and  that  Dr.  Barry  is  saturated  with  its  poison. 
"The  years  of  Leo  XIIL,  shining  once  with  all  the  milder 
lights  of  reconciliation,  are  drawing  toward  sunset,  and 
clouds  come  up  from  the  north  and  the  west.  Secessions 
have  taken  place  ;  books  are  denounced  to  the  Index  :  per- 
sons fall  under  suspicion  ;  the  battle  of  the  nations,  never 
quite  asleep,  has  broken  out  afresh  in  Eome.  . . .  '  Keaction  ' 
is  the  cry  of  assault  and  defence.  The  elements  in  conflict 
are  many  ;  it  is  a  tangled  situation,  which  we  may  view  from 
the  standing  ground  of  theology,  politics,  or  historical  criti- 
cism. . . .  The  American  demand — for  there  is  a  demand — 
turns  not  upon  doctrine,  but  upon  government ;  it  is,  in  a 
high  and  important  sense,  political ;  but  it  has  no  concern 
with  revolutions  in  dogma.  ...  My  drift  is  to  explai)i  ichy 
many  of  us  tvlio  know  tilt  Church  from  inside,  and  who  see 
what  the  fortunes  of  religion  have  been  since  private  judg- 
ment took  hold  of  it  in  .Northern  countries,  are  Catholics  still 
despite  imperfections,  abuses,  tyrannies,  and  all  the  evil,  great 
or  petty,  ivhich  has  encrusted  itself  during  ages  on  a  venerable 
institution.  . . .  The  nations  are  perishing.  That  any  large 
number  of  men  and  ivomen  ivill  he  draivn  to  tJie  Church  by 
arguments,  by  decrees,  ivhich  bear  on  mimde  details  in  the  text 
or  the  history  of  the  Bible,  or  lohich  deahvith  recondite  points 
OF  DOGMA  and  rarefied  systems  of  philosophy,  it  is  impossible 
to  imagine.  The  issues  of  life  and  death  are  elsewhere.  . . . 
We  are  constrained  to  cry  aloud  and  spare  not ;  to  warn 
those  who  threaten  liberty  in  the  name  of  Absolutism 
(in  the  name  of  common  sense,  who  are  these  parties  ?)  that 
they  are  darkening  the  door  of  faith,  and  repeating  their 
ancient  error  which  confounded  religion  with  dynasties,  as 
now  they  would  confound  it  with  national  prejudice  and 
local  interests  (of  course  Dr.  Barry  and  the  other  "Amer- 
icanists "  are  guiltless  of  this  crime).  It  is  well  that  they 
should  learn  that  the  youthful  peoples  who  speak  our  tongue 
do  not  mean  to  be  ruled  by  Philip  II.  from  his  tomb  in  the  Es' 


POPE  LEO  XIII.  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  THL  UNITED  STATES.    353 

curiat  :  that  tliey  preter  Ste])lien  Lanf^ion  aud  Maj^ua  Charta 
to  Spauisii  and  lieiiaissance  nietlu)ds,  and  will  ever  dc 
so."  The  foolish  howl  coiiceiiiiug  the  tomb  of  Philip  IL 
of  S[)aiu  may  be  pardoned  as  a  mere  mauifestatiou  of 
"  Auiflo-Saxou  "  spleen  ;  but  it  is  not  easy  to  qualify,  within 
the  limits  of  ordinary  courtesy,  an  ebullition  .)f  conten^pt 
for  the  Latin  races  with  whi"li  Dr.  Barry  panders  to  "  Anglo- 
Saxon  "  and  German  arrogance  as  he  perorates  for  the  recog- 
nition of  "  an  English  or  German  school "  which  should 
at  least  rank  with  "  the  Scotists  and  Thomists  who  once,  long 
ago,  fought  their  battles  in  the  arena  of  the  Vatican."  Hav- 
ing reminded  us  that  the  pre-eminently  freedom-loving  and 
noble-minded  English-speaking  peoples  "  live  under  the 
Common  Law,"  while  the  wretched  Latins  groan  *'  under  the 
Roman,"  the  English  "Americanist"  hurls  this  promuicia- 
mieuto  :  "  Futile  indeed  will  be  the  task  (who  has  under- 
taken it  ?)  of  those  who  attempt  to  persuade  us  that  the 
laws  we  have  inherited  from  our  Catholic  ancestors  are  not 
preferable  to  a  jurisprudence  derived  from  imperial  Caesar 
and  heathen  Rome."  This  deliberate  concealment  of  the 
fact  that  the  jurisprudence  of  the  Latin  nations  is  no  more 
derived  from  that  of  heathen  Rome  than  is  the  Common  Law 
which  is  presented  for  our  veneration ;  this  lamentable 
indication  that  Dr.  Barry  wished  to  forget  that  the  mediae- 
val and  modern  Roman  Law  of  the  Latin  peoples  resulted 
from  the  transforming  action  of  Catholicism  on  the  ancient 
Roman  jurisprudence  ;  this  insinuation  that  when  compared 
with  the  Common  Law  of  blissful  Anglo-Saxondom,  the 
fundamental  codes  of  the  Latins  are  heathen  in  nature  ^nd 
tendency  ;  may  flatter  the  prejudices  of  the  more  ignorant 
among  those  Americans  who  desire  that  Anglo-American 
Alliance  for  w^hich  Dr.  Barry  seems  to  hold  a  brief,  but  the 
cause  of  "  Americanism  "  is  not  strengthened  by  this  tra- 
vesty of  the  trutli. 

What  will  be  the  effect  of  the  Leonine  condemnation  of 
tlie  so-called  "  Americanism  "  ?  Unless  we  are  prepared  to 
admit,  with  Dr.  Barry,  that  "  the  plane  of  thought  (of  the 
American  Catholics)  was  unexplored  by  the  officials  of  the 
Curia  "  /  and  that  Pope  Leo  XTII  was  utterly  deficient  'jx 


354  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

even  a  commonplace  knowledge  of  religious  matters  in  the 
United  States — a  want  under  which  lie  would  have  labored, 
had  he  called  "  attention  to  things  to  be  avoided  and  cor- 
rected," when  those  things  were  fantasies  or  inventions  of 
hallucinated  or  dishonest  Europeans  ;  we  must  believe  that 
the  consequences  of  the  Letter  Testera  benevokntice  will  be 
many  and  beneficial.  One  great  and  practical  consequence, 
a  more  intimate  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  Catholic  truth 
is  ever  the  same  in  all  lands  and  in  all  times,  has  already 
been  observed,  and  has  been  thus  noted  by  the  Civilta  Cat- 
tolica  :  "  The  practical  lesson  which  we  must  all  draw  from 
Leo  XIII. 's  Apostolic  Letter  is  that  Catholic  principles  do 
not  change,  whether  through  the  passing  of  years,  or  the 
changing  of  countries,  or  new  discoveries,  or  motives  of  util- 
ity. They  are  always  the  principles  that  Christ  taught,  that 
the  Church  made  known,  that  Popes  and  Councils  defended, 
that  the  Saints  loved,  that  the  Doctors  demonstrated.  As 
they  are,  they  must  be  taken  or  left.  Whoever  accepts  them 
in  all  their  fulness  and  strictness  is  a  Catholic ;  whoever 
hesitates,  staggers,  adapts  himself  to  the  times,  makes  com- 
promises, may  call  himself  by  what  name  he  will,  but  before 
God  and  the  Church  he  is  a  rebel  and  a  traitor." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

POPE  LEO   XIII.   AND  SOCIALISM. 

The  Encyclical  JRerum,  novarum,  published  by  Leo  XIII. 
on  May  15,  1891,  and  dealing  with  the  relations  between 
capital  and  labor,  was  a  veritable  programme  for  a  recon- 
ciliation of  these  apparently  irreconcilable  factors  of  mod- 
ern society.  But  before  we  enter  on  an  analysis  of  the 
teachings  of  our  Pontiff  in  the  matter  of  the  great  social 
qiiestion  of  our  day- — convictions  which  had  been  presented 
at  least  in  germ  in  several  of  the  pastorals  of  the  archbishop- 
bishop  of  Perugia,  it  may  be  well  to  consider  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  term  "  Socialism."  In  its  more  general  sense, 
the  term  indicates  certain  theoretical  and   practical  efforts 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   SOCIALISM.  355 

to  remedy,  by  meaus  of  social  institutions,  tlie  evils  now 
predominant  in  society.  Such  a  Socialism  as  this  the  Church 
must  necessarily  favor — witness,  in  the  practical  order,  the 
monastic  system,  and  the  Jesuit "  Reductions  "  of  Paraguay  ; 
and  in  the  line  of  theory,  the  Civifas  Soils  of  Campanella, 
and  the  Utopia  of  St.  Thomas  More.  It  is  not  this  species 
of  Socialism,  however,  that  has  become  an  object  of  distrust 
to  such  minds  as  are  still  projierly  conservative  at  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  whether  those  minds  be  Catholic, 
heterodox,  or  pagan.  As  the  term  is  now  generally  under- 
stood. Socialism  is  a  species  of  philosophy  which  inculcates 
the  necessity  of  destroying  the  now- existing  society,  with  an 
intention  of  forming  a  new  order  of  things  on  its  ruins.  This 
idea,  until  our  day  resident  only  in  the  domain  of  theory, 
has  now  become  a  real  danger ;  and  all  the  more  easily, 
because,  on  account  of  the  present  prevalence  of  religious 
indiflference.  Socialism  seems  to  have  reason  on  its  side. 
Kemembering  the  words  with  which  St.  Paul  characterized 
the  pagan  times  in  which  he  lived,  "  You  were  at  that  time 
without  Christ. . .  and  without  God  in  this  world  "  (1),  we 
may  define  Socialism  as  the  philosophy  of  those  moderns 
whose  souls  know  not  God,  and  who,  being  strangers  to 
resignation,  would  form  a  society  founded  solely  on  a  hope 
of  enjoying  unto  satiety  the  things  of  earth.  Philosophi- 
cally speaking,  Socialism  is  Pantheism  reduced  to  practice  ; 
the  doctrine  of  continuous  progress,  of  the  legitimacy  of 
evil  inclinations,  and  many  other  ravings,  are  taught  also 
by  Saint-Simonism,  Fourierism,  and  Communism,  all  of 
which  are  derived  from  Pantheism  and  Naturalism,  which  in 
their  turn  are  the  progeny  of  Protestantism.  It  is  not  re- 
served for  men  like  Bossuet  to  demonstrate  the  logical 
sequence  between  Luther's  war  on  the  Papacy  and  the  more 
modern  war  on  social  order ;  the  arch-revolutionist,  Louis 
Blanc,  averred  :  "  The  revolution  prepared  by  philosophy, 
begun  by  theology,  and  continued  by  statecraft,  must  finish 
in  Socialism.  Protestantism  ivas  the  first  step  toward 
Anarchy  :  Luther  led  straight  to  Munzer.'"  A  logical  system 
like  that  of  Socialism  cannot  be  combatted  successfully  by 

(1)  Ephe»ian.%  il.,  12. 


356  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

SO  illogical  a  system  as  Protestantism — a  conglomeration 
of  conceits  which  was  born  in  a  contempt  of  logic  ;  the  sole 
invincible  foe  of  Socialism  is  the  true  Church  of  Christ, 
teaching  and  acting  according  to  the  principles  of  the  divine 
revelation  which  was  entrusted  to  her  alone.  The  eminent 
Protestant  publicist,  the  Count  de  Tocqueville,  admitted : 
"  Catholicism  alone,  by  her  union  of  all  classes  of  society  at 
the  foot  of  the  same  altar — a  union  such  as  they  present  in 
the  eyes  of  God,  solved  the  great  problem  of  human  dignity 
and  of  hierarchical  dependence."  Coming  now  to  a  brief 
consideration  of  the  history  of  Socialism,  the  most  intellectual 
of  its  votaries  whom  we  meet  are  Robert  Owen  in  England, 
and  Saint-Simon,  Fourier,  and  Proudhon,  in  France.  Owen, 
whom  some  regard  as  the  founder  of  Socialism,  published  a 
manifesto  in  1840,  in  which  he  stigmatized  as  false  all  the 
social  systems  which  had  hitherto  obtained ;  all  the  history 
of  the  past,  he  insisted,  is  but  a  narrative  of  "  the  irrational 
period  of  humanity."  History  has  been,  he  well  declares, 
an  interminable  series  of  wars  and  massacres;  it  shows  us 
humanity  in  a  constant  state  of  opposition  to  all  that  might 
work  for  its  happiness ;  each  one  is  always  fighting  against 
the  rest — "  one  against  all,  and  all  against  one."  He  essayed 
a  new  system  as  a  remedy  for  these  evils,  the  scene  of  the 
•experiment  being  at  New  Harmony,  in  Indiana  ;  but  finan- 
'cial  ruin  and  ridicule  were  his  sole  rewards.  The  basis  of 
Owen's  society  was  the  life  in  community ;  there  was  to  be  no 
private  property ;  education  was  to  be  the  same  for  all. 
As  for  Saint-Simon,  who  was  the  first  of  the  French  Social- 
ists, chronologically  speaking,  and  the  no  less  celebrated 
Fourier,  we  have  already  detailed  their  hallucinations  (1). 
Proudhon,  easily  the  most  intellectual  and  best  equipped  of 
the  entire  school  of  Socialists,  would  have  based  all  social 
economy  on  mutual  justice — a  justice,  he  believed,  asserting 
itself  little  by  little,  amid  a  number  of  economic  contradic- 
tions, the  most  important  of  which  is  the  antithesis  of 
property  and  also  of  community.  According  to  Proudhon, 
"  property  has  a  just  basis,  namely,  liberty  ;  but  it  becomes 
unjust,   when   it    becomes   capital.      On    the   other   hand, 

(1)  Vol.  v..  p.  378,  e«  seqo. 


rOPE    LEO    Xlir.    AND    SOCIALISM. 


357 


commuuity  of  ^n^xls,  alth()Ui;h  it  is  derived  from  the  just 
idea  of  association,  is  iu  its«>lf  an  injustice."     When  asked 
how  he  could  reconcile  these  "  antitheses,"  he  replied  that 
"  synthesis  "  would  effect  the   reconciliation;  the  ''synthe- 
sis "  was   furnished  by  the  idea  of  "  mutuality."      He  ex- 
cogitated an  ideal  society,  formed  of  "  free  and  independent 
laborers,"  making  one  family,  with  no  capital  besides  their 
tools  of  trade,  and  such  like.     Hours  of  work  were  to  be 
equal,  and  wages  the  same.     The  State  would  be  composed 
of  working   persons  alone  ;  there   were  to  be  no  idle  con- 
sumers.    Central   government   would   be  unknown  ;   but  a 
local  police  and  magistracy  would  be  necessary.     As    for 
property,  according  to  Proudhon,   "  that  is  theft."     As  for 
God,  "  that  is  evil  itself."     As  for  capital,  "  that  is  truly  ihe 
infamous  one."      It  is  noteworthy  that  like  the  Reformers  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  who  agreed  in  destruction,  but  could 
not  agree  in  constructing,  the  Socialists  have  such  divergent 
notions  of  the  essential  constituents  of  their  expected  mil- 
lenium,  that  it  is  difficult  to  define  their  aspirations  with  any 
degree  of  precision.     Perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  idea  of 
their  general  ambition  is  found  in  the  programme  which  is 
often  presented  as  the  basis  of  the  futvire  social  edifice — 
"  the  free  consent  of  all"     In  his  admirable  work  on  Social- 
ism, Count  Edward  Soderini  thus  descants  on  the  difference 
between  French  and  German  applications  of  the  pestiferous 
theory :  "  French   Socialism,  while   elaborating   theoretical 
systems,  has  nevertheless  sought,  iu  order  to  render  them 
acceptable  to  the  masses,  to  bring  them  to  the  concrete,  and 
to  apply  them  immediately.     On  the  other  hand,  German 
Socialism  has  assumed  a  shape  more  definitely  scientific ;  and 
while  in  France  the  Socialists  for  a  long  time  sought  to  show 
themselves  humanitarian  ratlier  than  speculative,  in  Germany 
the  matter  has  proceeded  very  differently.     Learned  men, 
devoted  either  to  politics  or  to  the  study  of  public  economy, 
have   unfolded   the   banner   of   discontent ;  but   instead   of 
repeating  with  Proudhon  and  Rousseau  that  all  economic 
ills  are  derivable  from  faulty  social  organization,  they  have 
preferred  asserting  that  the  economic  systems  prevailing  have 
been  the  true  cause  of  social  corruption.     Hence,  while  the 


358  STUDIES   IN  CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

former  hastened  to  demand  the  destruction  of  the  State,  the 
latter,  on  the  contrary,  have  declared  themselves  its  partisans 
in  order  to  get  the  upper  hand  in  it,  to  reform  it  to  their  own 
liking,  especially  by  the  application  of  a  wholly  different 
system  of  political  economy.  Protectionists  have  affirmed 
that  social  salvation  is  to  be  found  in  a  system  of  protective 
duties,  and  hence  through  intervention,  more  or  less  pro- 
nounced, on  the  part  of  the  State.  Somewhat  nearer  akin  to 
them  are  the  so-called  Katheder  or  '  pedant '  Socialists,  in 
whose  eyes  the  great  remedy  consists  in  the  State's  interven- 
ing with  intent  to  recast  the  whole  economic  situation.  Then 
come  Free-traders,  who  afford  lavish  assurance  that  the 
problem  would  be  happily  solved  were  only  the  most  ample 
and  unlimited  freedom  of  competition  adopted,  and  the  action 
of  the  State  dwindled  down  to  the  narrowest  range  possible. 
Some  even  have  pushed  matters  so  far  as  to  demand  the 
complete  abolition  of  the  State.  But  while  they  have  been 
thus  wrangling  among  themselves,  and  their  quarrels,  break- 
ing over  the  borders  of  Germany,  have  been  embraced  by  the 
several  economic  schools  of  all  Europe,  German  Socialism 
has  burst  forth  in  sudden  and  full  maturity.  It  has  stood 
forth  as  a  body  of  doctrines,  or  rather  a  creed,  which,  present- 
ed previously  under  various  guises  and  elaborated  gradually, 
is  found  thoroughly  condensed  in  the  manifesto  recently  pub- 
lished by  the  directing  centres  of  revolutionary  Socialism, 
all  of  which  now  receive  their  password  from  Bebel  and  his 
adherents.  .  . .  The  Socialist  State  must  begin  by  taking 
possession  of  the  great  industrial  establishments ;  expro- 
priating on  the  ground  of  public  utility  the  actual  owners, 
who  are  to  be  indemnified  according  to  conditions  to  be  deter- 
mined, either  by  bonds  bearing  slight  interest  or  by  an 
annuity  payable  up  to  the  death  of  the  respective  owners- 
This  only  in  case  of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  question.  But 
if,  contrariwise,  the  Socialist  workmen  have  to  attain  to 
victory  by  means  of  a  violent  revolution,  the  measures  would 
change  and  might  prove  far  more  radical  in  regard  to  capital- 
ists. The  manifesto  does  not  state  in  what  such  radical 
reform  is  to  consist ;  but  we  are  led  to  understand  that  they 
would  not  shrink  from  the  revolutionary  enormities  of  the 


rOPE  LEO   XIII.    AND   SOCIALISM.  359 

last  eeiitury,  reserviug  the  fate  that  theu  befel  the  nobles, 
the  ricli,  aud  the  clerg}-,  for  such  hiudlords  and  middle-class 
folk  who  should  refuse  to  relinquish  voluntarily  their  prop- 
erty to  their  new  masters  "  (1). 

Now  for  a  few  words  concerning  the  connection  between 
Socialism  and  Freemasonr}-.  In  his  monumental  work  on 
Secret  Societies  (2),  Deschamjjs  demonstrates,  by  means 
of  an  analysis  of  the  Masonic  llituals,  and  of  the  writings 
of  the  chief  luminaries  of  the  sect,  that  its  doctrines 
are  radicalh'  destructive  of  the  rights  of  property,  whatever 
may  be  the  secret  and  natural  proclivities  of  the  more 
wealthy  and  therefore  more  "  conservative  "  adepts.  But  let 
us  listen  rather  to  the  avowals  of  conspicuous  contemporary 
Masonic  authorities.  The  Socialistic  manifesto  published 
by  the  litvolfe  of  Geneva,  on  the  occasion  of  the  working- 
men's  Congress  held  in  Marseilles  in  Sept.,  1879,  began  with 
this  fanfaronade  :  "  Considering  that  every  man,  b}'  the  very 
fact  of  his  being  a  man,  has  a  right  from  his  birth  to  the 
same  satisfaction  of  his  desires  that  any  one  else  enjoys, 
etc."  Here  we  have  the  doctrine  of  the  "  Rights  of  Man," 
according  to  which  emanation  of  1793,  the  right  to  property 
was  one  of  the  "  natural  rights  "  of  every  citizen,  to  whom 
the  State  was  to  assign  his  quota  of  other  men's  goods  ; 
"  the  Jacobins  cried  loudly  for  equality  of  right,  the  sole  right 
compatible  with  individual  property.  Condorcet  (the  author 
of  the  above-mentioned  doctrine)  was  more  revolutionary 
when  he  said :  '  Equality  in  fact,  the  ultimate  end  of 
the  social  art '  "  (3).  Hearken  to  Ragon,  the  founder  of  the 
"  Trinosophs  "  of  Paris,  whose  work  was  solemnly  approved 
by  the  Grand  Orient  of  France  in  1840,  "  as  written  by 
a  profoundly-instructed  brother,"  and  was  afterward  sent 
to  a  second  edition  by  the  Capitular  Lodge  of  Nancy,  with 
orders  that  it  should  be  termed  "  a  sacred  edition,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  reconstructing  unity  of  thought,  from  which  eventually 
will  come  unity  of  power  and  of  action."  This  authoritative 
Ragon  tells  us  :  "  Masonry  alone  is  capable  of  realizing  that 

(1)  Socialism  and  CathnJicism.    Rome,  1895. 

'2)  Secret  Societies  and  Society  ;  or,  Tlie  Philompliy  of  Contemporary  History,  Bk.  i.. 
Ch.  6.    Paris,  18S2.  Sixth  Edition. 
(3)  Malo.n  ;  Exfjoxition  of  tlic  SociaUftt  Schooh.    Paris,  1872. 


360  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

grand  and  beautiful  social  unity  which  was  conceived  by 
Jaunez,  Saint-Simon,  Owen,  and  Fourier.  Let  the  Masons 
only  will  it,  and  the  generous  conceptions  of  these  philan- 
thropic thinkers  will  cease  to  be  vain  Utopias  "  (1).  Saint- 
Simon  is  regarded  by  Masonic  authors  as  one  of  the 
luminaries  of  their  order ;  and  the  infamous  Enfantin  (2), 
quite  naturally  a  Masonic  adept,  thus  unites  his  patriarch 
with  the  Carbonari  and  the  Jacobins  :  "  Those  who  sympa- 
thize to-day  with  Saint-Simon,  if  they  are  thirty  or  forty 
years  old,  will  have  sympathized  with  Foy,  Manuel,  and 
Lafayette  ;  and  if  they  are  sixty,  they  will  have  sympathized 
with  Mirabeau,  Saint-Just,  and  I  might  also  say,  with 
Robespierre  "  (3).  The  chief  founders  of  Fourierism  were 
Masons,  and  the  Lodges  were  their  proselytizers  ;  this 
is  especially  true  of  Jaunez  and  Pompery  (4).  Eugene  Sue, 
the  first  of  Socialistic  romancers,  received  special  honors 
from  the  Belgian  Lodges  in  1845  ;  and  in  his  letter  of  thanks 
to  the  Lodge  Pemeverauce  of  Antwerp,  written  on  Jan.  13, 
1845,  he  congratulated  himself  on  the  fact  that  "  the  Masonic 
Lodges  were  at  the  head  of  the  Liberal  Socialist  Party." 
On  Nov.  7,  1S()6,  the  United  Lodges  of  Porfaite  Intelligence 
and  Z'  EtoUe,  both  of  Liege,  were  affiliated  to  the  Lodge  of 
Philadelphs  in  Jjondon;  and  they  avowed  that  their  object 
was  to  further  the  work  of  "  Militant  and  Progressive 
Masonry,"  according  to  the  following  programme  :  "  To 
Imnish  from  the  human  mind  all  vain  thoughts  of  a  future 
life,  and  the  fetichism  of  a  Divine  Providence  succoring 
humanity  in  its  miseries  ;  to  crush  the  pride  of  money  and 
of  privileges ;  to  transform  charity  to  the  poor,  as  a  thing 
which  humiliates  them ;  to  procure  for  the  poor  the  rights 
which  will  elevate  them  ;  to  equalize  all  intelligences  by 
instruction,  all  fortunes  by  a  proper  equilibrium  of  salaries 
(sic),  and  all  protections  by  laws  which  treat  all  alike  ;  and 
finally  to  realize  justice  here  on  earth,  instead  of  promising 
it  in  a  future  and  unknown  world"  (5).  In  1868,  when  there 
was  question  of  revising  the  statutes  of  Belgian  Masonry, 

(1)  Cnurse  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Initiating,  p.  46.       (2)  See  our  Vol.  v..  p.  380. 

(3)  Letter  to  Oeneral  Saint-Cur. 

(4)  See  the  fJlDhe,  Joiirjial  dcs  Imtiations,  ia39,  p.  170 ;  1840,  p.  144, 168,  310. 

(5)  Cited  by  Le  Monde,  Jan.  16, 1867. 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND     SOCIALISM.  361 

Brother  Jacobus,  iu  an  address  to  the  Lodge  Amis'  Philan- 
thropes of  Brussels,  said  :     "  The  trausformatiou  of  cliaritj 
into  emaucipatiou,  of  beueficeuee  into  social  institutions,  of 
protection    into   definitive    freedom — that   is   the    doctrine 
which  may  be  termed  'practical  Socialism,'  and   which  we 
desire  to  express  clearly  in   the   very   first   Article   of   the 
Oeneral   Statutes    of  Belgian    Freemasonry "    (1).     In   its 
issues  of  August  and  November,  1879,  the  Monde  Ma^oimique, 
which  disputes  with   the    Chaine  tV  U)non   the   right   to  bo 
considered  the  most  reliable  Masonic  organ    in  the    world, 
told  how  the  Lodges  of  Paris  were  about  to  found  a  "  Superior 
School  of  Positive  Science,"  destined  to  propagate  Social- 
ism scientifically  among  the   members   of   the    "  intelligent 
classes."     And  why   not?     Did   not  Brother  Jules   Ferry 
proclaim,    in   1875,    the    identity   of  Masonry  and    Social- 
ism ?  (2).     The  first  German  Socialist,  "Weitling,  who  began 
liis  propaganda  in  Switzerland  and  German}-  iu  1837,  or- 
ganized his  societies  on  the  model  of  the  Ilium inati  and  the 
Carbonari ;    and  the   "  Musical  Associations,"  founded  by 
him,  were  Masonic  Lodges  iu  thin  disguise  (3).     Finalh',  we 
would  ask  the  reader  to  heed  the  remarks  of  the  3Ionde  3Iaf- 
onntqne,  as  it  eulogizes  Proudhon  in  its  issue  of  Dec,  1881  : 
"  Masonry  never  forgets  Proudhon  ;  and  when  the  celebrated 
jjublicist  died,  in  1865,  Massol  wa5  charged  with  the  task  of 
interpreting  the  regrets  of  us  all,  and  of  showing  how  the  life 
and  work   of   Proudhon  conformed   to   the   aspirations   of 

Masonry In   spite  of  his  various  occupations,  Proudhon 

never  grew  lukewarm  in  his  love  for  Masonry.  Read  the 
following  page,  written  by  him  at  the  close  of  his  life,  a  page 
which  was  a  precious  encouragement  to  the  friends  of  pro- 
gress." And  then  we  are  treated  to  a  morsel  which  is  as 
Proudhonesque  as  it  is  Masonic.  Since  the  accredited 
organs  of  Masonry  assert  that  the  work  of  the  patriarch  of 
Socialism  "  conformed  to  the  aspirations  of  Masonry,"  we 
are  not  surprised  when  we  read  that  on  March  4,  1882,  iu 
the  Lodge  Libre  Pensee  of  Aurillac,  Brother  Paul  Roques, 

(1)  cited  by  La  PatrLeot  Bourges.  Oct..  1868. 

(2)  See  the  Chaiue  d'TInion,  1877,  p.  181. 

(.3)  Frost  ;  Tlie  Se^:ret  Societies  of  the  European  Revolution.  Vol.  II.,  p.  "268.    London, 
1876. 


362  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

after  reminding  liis  brethren  that  the  French  Revohition 
was  the  work  of  their  order,  declared  :  "  The  past  is  a  guar- 
antee of  what  you  will  do  in  the  future.  The  task  of  Free- 
masonry is  far  from  finished.  After  having  effected  the 
Political  Revolution,  Freemasonry  must  now  undertake  the 
Social  Revolution  "  (1). 

The  Encyclical  Rerum  novarum  is  at  once  a  forcible 
arraignment  of  Socialism  at  the  tribunal  of  religion  and 
reason,  and  a  guide  for  Catholics  when  they  find  themselves 
confronted  by  the  social  questions  of  these  days.  That 
a  "  redoubtable  conflict "  now  subsists  among  the  social 
classes ;  and  that  this  conflict  is  due  to  a  too  great  concen- 
tration of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  to  the  increasing 
exigencies  of  the  workers,  to  the  closer  union  of  workers 
among  themselves,  but  above  all,  to  the  corruption  so  pre- 
valent in  modern  society ;  Pope  Leo  XIII.  cannot,  if  he 
would,  avoid  perceiving.  As  in  the  fulfilment  of  his  Apos- 
tolic duty.  His  Holiness  approaches  the  problems  which 
are  entailed  by  the  social  question,  he  realizes  that  these 
problems  are  both  difficult  and  dangerous.  Their  difficulty 
is  evident  to  the  most  superficial  thinker ;  they  are  dangerous, 
because  the  revolutionary  spirit  now  so  rampant  profits  by 
their  difficulty  to  foment  disorder.  But  the  Roman  Pon- 
tiff must  speak,  since  the  working  classes  are  in  so  many 
lands  "  in  a  situation  of  unmerited  misfortune  and  misery." 
His  Holiness  discerns  the  causes  of  this  situation  in  the 
disappearance  of  the  mediaeval  guilds  which  protected  the 
workingman  ;  in  the  present  non-existence  of  religious  prin- 
ciple in  civil  Jurisprudence  ;  and  in  the  consequent  isolation 
of  the  workingman  as  he  is  oppressed  by  "  irrepressible  com- 
petition "  and  by  "  employers  too  often  inhuman."  Then  there 
is  usury,  always  condemned  by  the  Church,  and  which  appears 
every  day  in  new  form  ;  and  there  is  also  "  the  monopoly  of 
labor,  and  of  the  fruits  of  trade,"  possessed  by  a  few  rich  ones 
"  who  impose  an  almost  servile  yoke  on  an  infinite  multitude 
of  laborers."  For  these  evils  Socialism  proposes  a  remedy  in 
the  shape  of  an  abolition  of  private  property,  and  a  State- 
ownership  of  everything  ownable — a  system  which  would 

(1)  Chaiiic  iVUniim,  July.  1882. 


rOPE    LEO    Xlir.    AND    SOCIALISM.  363 

not  ouly  auiiiliilate  preseut  proprietuiy  rights,  but  would 
ultimately  injure  the  workingmau.  "  The  right  of  private 
proprietorship  is  according  to  the  Natural  Law  ; "  a  brute, 
governed  entirely  by  instinct,  attains  his  end  by  a  transient 
use  of  preseut  things,  whereas  man,  endowed  with  reason, 
"  by  virtue  of  this  prerogative,  is  capable  not  ouly  of  using 
the  things  around  him,  but  also  of  acquiring  a  perpetual 
right  to  them."  To  a  certain  extent,  man  is  a  law  and 
providence  unto  himself,  subjected,  of  course,  to  the  Supreme 
Providence  of  God ;  nor  can  the  Socialists  reasonably  ap- 
peal to  a  Providence  of  the  State."  The  State's  existence  is 
of  later  date  than  that  of  man  ;  long  before  the  State  received 
its  being,  man  "  had  acquired  the  right  to  live,  and  to 
defend  his  existence."  Nor  can  it  be  objected  that  since  the 
Scriptures  tell  us  that  the  fulness  of  the  earth  was  given 
to  the  children  of  men,  private  proprietorship  must  be 
wrong.  The  Bible  "  tells  us  merely  that  God  did  not  assign 
any  part  of  the  earth  to  this  or  that  particular  individual — 
that,  on  the  contrary,  God  wished  to  leave  the  limitations 
of  property  to  human  enterprise  and  to  the  ordinances  of  the 
peoples."  Even  when  the  land  is  divided  among  various 
owners,  it  serves,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  benefit  of  all ; 
in  fact,  we  may  say  "  in  all  truth,  that  labor  is  the  universal 
means  with  which  all  provide  what  is  needed  for  life,  whether 
that  labor  be  exercised  on  one's  own  bit  of  land,  or  in  some  lu- 
crative occupation,  the  remuneration  for  which  is  drawn  from 
the  many  products  of  the  earth — products  which  are  exchanged 
for  the  things  produced  by  some  other  kind  of  labor."  When 
a  man  has  applied  his  intelligence  to  the  cultivation  of  some 
bit  of  the  earth,  to  Avhicli  no  other  man  has  a  better  right,  he 
acquires  aii  inviolable  right  to  that  estate  ;  "  for  those  fields, 
under  tlie  hand  of  the  cultivator,  have  changed  their  nature  ; 
they  were  wild,  and  now  they  are  fertile.  Would  justice 
allow  a  stranger  to  appropriate  that  soil  which  has  been 
improved  by  the  sweat  of  another's  labor  ? "  As  for  tlie 
rights  of  property,  when  considered  in  reference  to  the 
family,  we  must  remember  that  the  family  existed  hy 
nnfuml  right,  before  the  State,  and  independently  of  the 
State  ;  and  in  this  domestic   society,  "  a  society  very  small 


364  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

nndoubtedly,  but  nevertheless  real,  there  must  be  recog^ 
nized  certain  rif^hts  and  duties  which  are  absolutely  in- 
dependent of  the  State."  Among  these  rights,  that  ot 
proprietorship  must  be  counted  as  "  possessed  by  man, 
considered  as  head  of  a  family."  Therefore  ibe  Pontiff 
concludes  that  "paternal  authority  cannot  be  abolished 
or  absorbed  by  the  State  "  ;  the  children,  a  kind  of  extension 
of  the  personality  of  the  parent,  are  incorporated  into  civil  so- 
ciety only  "by  the  medium  of  that  domestic  society  in  which 
they  were  born."  Here  we  perceive  the  monstrous  injustice 
of  the  Socialistic  idea  which  would  substitute  a  Providence 
of  the  State  for  that  of  the  parent.  And  the  consequences  of 
such  a  substitution  are  as  patent  as  their  injustice  :  "  Per- 
turbation in  every  rank  of  society  ;  a  hateful  servitude  for 
all  citizens ;  an  open  door  to  all  jealousies  and  discontents  ; 
talents  deprived  of  their  necessary  stimulants,  and  there- 
fore the  sources  of  prosperity  abolished ;  in  fine,  instead  of 
the  desired  equality,  an  equality  in  every  kind  of  misery." 
Having  shown  that  the  Socialistic  theory  of  collective 
proprietorship  is  untenable,  Leo  XIII.,  in  the  plenitude  of 
his  Pontifical  right  and  of  his  Apostolic  duty,  proceeds  to 
point  out  the  remedies  for  the  present  social  miseries. 
To  secure  an  amelioration  of  the  present  conditions,  "  the 
intervention  of  governments,  of  the  rich,  of  employers, 
and  of  the  workingmen  themselves,  is  certainly  indispensa- 
ble "  ;  but  all  the  efforts  of  these  powers  will  be  futile, 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  Church  (1).     The  first  thing 

(1)  "On  opposite  sides,  two  schools  or  two  parties  are  bent  oq  representing  Catholicism 
or  Social  Christianity  as  a  sort  of  purely  lay  and  earthly  doctrine,  stripped  of  all  supernat- 
ural elements,  entirely  devoted  to  the  solution  of  a  painful  problem  by  means  of  human 
activity.  Those  who  will  not  accept  Social  Christianity,  because  they  hate  Christ's  religion, 
and  those  who  will  not  accept  Christian  Socialism  because  they  hate  the  mere  thought  of 
anorganic  reform  of  society,  agree  with  certain  men  of  more  pronounced  zeal,  but  ignor- 
ant in  their  good  will,  in  order  to  deprive  this  great  movement  of  its  true  sense  and  import. 
To  bring  down  religion  to  an  earthly  level ;  to  efface,  or  at  least  put  in  the  background,  all 
supernatural  elements  of  Christianity;  to  treat  dogma  as  old-fashioned  rubbish,  which  is 
preserved  through  a  sort  of  pious  weakness  for  the  past :  to  make  human  solidarity  thealpba 
and  omega  of  morality,  without  resting  it  on  the  fatherhood  of  God  revealed  by  the  bro- 
therhood of  Christ :  to  transform  the  Church  into  an  immense  Friendly  or  Benefit  S<^>ciety  ; 
to  wish  to  perform  the  miracle  of  human  love  in  the  sphere  of  men's  interest*^,  after  having 
rejected  the  miracle  C)f  divine  love  on  the  Cross;  in  a  word  to  pretend  to  renew  humanity, 
to  establish  the  reign  of  justice  and  charity  on  the  earth  without  the  help  of  those  great 
deeds  which  contain  all  salvation,  thesalvation  of  the  species  as  that  of  the  individual,  such 
is  the  vague,  unhealthy  dream  of  minds  who  think  they  can  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone,  un- 
i-iiristianize  the  Church,  and  with  it  regenerate  the  world.    They  would  not  all  deflne  with 


rOPE  LEO   XTII.    AND   SOCIALISM.  365 

for  the  disoonteuted  t(^  roinoinhcr  is  tluit  "  grief  uutl  suffer- 
ing are  the  appanage  of  humanity  "  ;  to  attempt  an  entire 
suppression  of  this  inheritance  is  purely  chimerical.  In  the 
state  of  innocence,  had  it  endured,  lal)or  would  have  been  a 
pleasure  ;  after  the  fall  of  man,  labor  became  one  of  the 
inevitable  expiations  of  sin.  But  coming  to  the  very  heart 
of  the  present  question,  His  Holiness  says  that  its  capital 
error  "  is  to  suppose  that  the  'rich  and  the  poor  are  born 
enemies  of  each  other  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  are  destined 
by  nature  to  help  each  other  in  a  perfect  equilibrium  ;  there 
can  be  no  capital  without  labor,  and  no  labor  without 
capital."  As  to  the  conflict  of  to-day,  "  Christianity  amply 
and  multifariously  provides  for  its  termination."  Manual 
labor  is  honorable  ;  "  but  it  is  shameful  and  inhuman  to  use 
men  as  though  they  were  mere  instruments  of  gain,  and  to 
esteem  them  merely  in  accordance  with  the  strength  of  their 
arms."  On  the  other  hand,  the  workingman  should  remem- 
ber his  obligation  to  furnish  the  labor  demanded  by  a  free  and 
just  contract ;  he  should  in  no  way  injure  his  employer, 
either  bv  violence,  or  by  seditious  insistence  on  presumed 
rights,  or  b}^  hearkening  to  the  seducers  of  the  people.  In 
considering  this  question,  the  Pontiff  does  not  omit  the  part 
which  pertains  by  right  to  the  State — not  to  this  or  that  par- 
ticular State,  but  to  "  every  government  which  acts  in  accor- 
dance with  the  dictates  of  natural  reason,  and  of  the  divine 
teachings."  It  is  the  duty  of  the  State  "  to  see  that  public 
and  private  prosperity  flow  without   effort   from   the   very 

this  pitiless  precision  the  object  of  their  secret  desires  or  their  unconscious  aspirations. 
There  are  souls  still  half-reli(rious.  but  tainted  by  the  deadly  contai?ion  of  modern  rational- 
ism, who  think  that  all  that  lessens  the  share  of  dogma  and  increases  that  of  practical  activity 
in  the  Church  makes  her  truer  to  her  vocation,  and  more  conformable  to  her  Master's 
desiftn.  It  is  often  the  noble 'error  of  ardent  and  generous  hearts  touched  profoundly  by 
the  sufferings  and  the  injustice  of  society,  indignant  at  the  indifference,  I  had  almost  said 
the  passive  complicity  of  the  Church,  who  long  to  see  her  fulfll  her  sacred  mission,  and 
who  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  without  these  dogmas,  in  which  they  say  she  Is  selfishly 
absorbed,  she  would  have  neither  authority,  nor  strength,  nor  means  of  action,  nor  motive 
power.  In  our  day,  when  it  is  so  difflcult  to  maintain  resolutely  our  testimony  in  honor  of 
Christian  supernaturalism  and  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  miracle  of  miracles,  nothing  is  so  dan- 
gerous as  the  coalition  of  very  practical  rationalism  and  imprudent  charity.  Therefore 
one  cannot  profess  enough  gratitude  for  the  inflexible  champions  of  principles,  who,  while 
being  the  first  to  preach  with  incomparable  ardor  the  social  crusade  of  the  Churc  i.  have 
been  careful  to  connect  this  crusade  closely  with  the  profession  of  objective,  dogmatic, 
orthodox  Christianity.  Thev  have  not  only  cleansed  the  Church  from  a  reproach  ;  thej 
have  offered  to  the  world  the  only  efficacious  instrument  of  salvation.    What  particular 


366  STUDIES    IN    CHUKCH   HISTOKY. 

organization  of  society  "  ;  and  the  State  being  ordained  for 
the  good  of  all,  the  rich  and  poor,  it  should  "  take  special 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  its  most  numerous  class  of  citizens, 
tlie  workiugmen."  The  State  should  see  that  "  the  working- 
men  receive  a  proper  share  of  all  the  wealth  that  they 
procure  for  society ;  that  they  be  enabled  to  live  with  the 
least  possible  amount  of  privation  and  suffering ;  that, 
in  fine,  they  be  not  always'  familiar  with  misery."  The 
authority  of  the  State  comes  from  God,  and  it  should  be 
exercised  for  all  the  children  of  God.  The  bodily  interests  of 
the  workingmen  demand  that  the  State  "  protect  them  from 
those  speculators  who  see  in  them  so  many  machines,  and 
abuse  their  persons  to  the  utmost  for  the  sake  of  mere 
cupidity."  The  care  of  female  and  youthful  operatives  is 
especially  incumbent  on  the  State ;  "  no  child  should  be 
allowed  to  labor,  until  it  is  sufficiently  developed  in  all  its 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  forces ;  for  otherwise,  like 
a  tender  plant,  it  will  wither."  Touching  the  question  of 
wages.  His  Holiness  does  not  agree  with  those  economists 
who  hold  that  once  that  an  employer  has  paid  the  precise 
wages  demanded  by  the  contract,  his  obligations  are  satis- 
fied ;  and  who  contend  that  justice  is  offended,  only  when 
the  employer  retains  wages  that  are  due,  or  when  the  em- 
ployed do  not  fulfil  their  engagements.  The  Pontiff  holds 
that  these  reasoners  ignore  a  very  serious  side  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  he  insists  that  labor  is  at  once  perso)ud  and  necessary  : 
"  it  is  2icrsonal,  because  it  is  the  property  of  him  who  exerts 

value  would  men  ever  attach  to  the  purely  natural,  buman.  and  terrestial  action  of  a  great 
corporate  body  ?  Witbout  a  divine  mandate,  witbout  the  help  of  her  Master,  without  the 
Gospel  to  awaken  consciences,  witbout  the  Sacraments  to  nourish  souls,  what  could  the 
Church  be,  do.  even  hope  for,  in  social  matters  ?  Social  Christianity  will  either  be  Chris- 
tian in  the  full  sense  of  ihe  word,  or  it  will  not  exist.  That  is  what  Manning  set  forth,  with 
incomparable  strength  and  clearness,  not  only  in  all  he  said  and  wrote  on  Social  Catholi- 
cism in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  but  by  his  whole  career.  He  believed  he  ought  to  become 
a  Catholic,  because  he  did  not  believe  he  could  otherwise  remain  a  Christian ;  in  virtue  of 
the  same  need,  he  was  a  Catholic  upholding  authority  and  centralization  ;  finally  be  was 
the  Initiator  of  Social  Christianity  or  Catholicism  through  his  very  fidelity  to  doctrinal 
Catholicism.  AH  this  development  is  alike  connected  and  self-complete.  It  is  one  of  the 
greatest  honors  to  the  memory  of  Manning  to  have  been  tlie  first  representative — at  least 
in  his  country— of  the  beuefleent  doctrine  which  the  Social  Encyclicals  of  Leo  XUI.  have 
sine*  sanctioned  and  set  forth,  and  which  has  the  double  object  of  reminding  the  Church 
of  the  performance  of  an  essential  part  of  her  divine  vocation,  and  of  offering  to  our  un- 
healthy society  the  remedy  of  supernatural  Christianity."  Pressense  ;  Caidinal  Mann- 
ing, in  I)itrochiction.    Paris,  1896. 


rOPE   LEO    XIII.    AND   SOCIALISM.  3C7 

it,  and  to  whom  the  power  of  exerting  it  was  given   for   his 
own  benefit ;  it  is  xvccsmnj,  because  man   has  need   of   the 
fruit  of  his  labor,  in  order  that  lie  may  live."     If  we  consider 
the  matter  of  labor  as  personal,   the  workingman  is  iree  to 
engage  for  insufficient  wages  ;  but  if  we  consider  labor  from 
the  second  point  of  view,  which  really   is   inseparable   from 
the  first,  such  will  not  be  our  conclusion.     "  It   is   the  duty 
of  every  man  to  preserve  his  existence,  and  he  cannot  neglect 
that  duty  without  sin.     From  this  duty  comes  naturally  the 
right  to  procure  the  necessaries  for  life,   things    which   the 
poor  man  must  buy  with  his  wages.     Therefore  let  the  em- 
ployer and  the  employee  come  to  what  agreement  they  will, 
far  above  their  free  consent  is  the  more  elevated  and  older 
law  of  natural  justice,  which  proclaims  that  wages  ought   to 
be  sufficient  to  secure  subsistence  for  an  honest  and  sober 
workingman."     The  Pontiff  deprecates   those   societies   of 
workiugmen  which  obey  the  commands  of  unknown  leaders, 
and  which  are  "  equally  hostile  to  Christianity   and  to  the 
welfare  of  nations  "  ;  but  he  has  words  only  of  praise  for  bene- 
ficent societies,  labor-unions,  etc.,  which  are  conducted  in  the 
light  of  day,  and  in  a  Christian  manner.     Here  we  take  occa- 
sion to  notice  the  course  pursued  by  our  Pontiff  in  regard 
to  a  powerful  association  of  workiugmen  which  had  recently 
been  formed  in  the  United  States  and  Canada.     Justin  McCar- 
thy thus  comments  on  this  subject :  "Men  will  always   find 
some  allurement  in  the  mysterious,  and  the  Knights  of  Labor 
at  first  put  on  certain  of  the  forms  and  fashions  of  the  secret 
society,  and  of  the  Masonic   Lodge.     This,    however,    was 
afterward  altered  by  the  American  order,  in  deference  mainly 
to  the   objections  of   the  Irish  Catholics,  who   counted  for 

much  in  the  ranks  of  the  Knights  of  Labor In  Canada, 

however,  the  condition  of  things  was  not  quite  the  same  ;  and 
the  archbishop  of  Quebec,  upheld  indeed  by  all  the  Canad- 
ian bishops,  condemned  the  association  because  of  its  mys- 
tery and  its  secrecy  and  its  possibly  dangerous  tendencies. 
The  archbishop  appealed  to  Eome,  and  obtained  from  Eome 
an  expression  of  disapproval  as  regarded  the  form  and  the 
rules  of  the  Canadian  association,  which,  be  it  observed,  had 
not  undergone  the  revision  applied  to  the  association  in  the 


368  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

United  States.  On  the  other  hand,  the  archbishops  and 
bishops  of  the  United  States  sent  to  the  Pope  a  clear  and 
very  interesting  memorial,  drawn  up  by  Cardinal  Gibbons, 
archbishop  of  Baltimore.  The  order  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  in  the  United  States  numbered  nearly  three-quarters 
of  a  million  of  men.  Cardinal  Gibbons  explained  that  a 
council  of  archbishops  and  bishops  had  examined  the  rules 
of  the  association,  and  that  only  two  out  of  twelve  of  the 
bishops  were  in  favor  of  its  condemnation.  No  oath  was 
exacted  by  the  society.  Cardinal  Gibbons  pointed  out ;  no 
obligation  of  secrecy  was  imposed  ;  no  blind  obedience  to 
the  chiefs  of  the  order  was  exacted  from  its  members. 
There  was  no  indication  of  hostility  toward  civil  authority 
or  the  Church.  Cardinal  Gibbons  went,  at  some  length, 
into  the  subject  of  the  grievances  against  which  the  associa- 
tion protested,  and  against  which,  as  he  explained,  the  associa- 
tion only  claimed  a  legal  remedy. . .  .No  one,  he  insisted, 
could  deny  the  existence  of  the  evil,  and  the  necessity  of  a 
remedy.  But  then  came  the  question,  whether  the  methods 
employed  by  the  Knights  of  Labor  were  lawful  in  themselves  ? 
On  this  point  the  cardinal  was  very  distinct.  To  obtain 
any  public  object,  he  said,  the  association  and  organization 
of  multitudes  interested  in  a  reform  must  be  the  most  effec- 
tive means  to  the  end — a  means  at  once  natural  and  just. 
Such  a  method  he  declared  to  be  especially  in  conformity 
with  the  genius  of  the  American  Republic,  and  of  its  essen- 
tially popular  social  state  ;  and,  indeed,  almost  the  only 
means  of  commanding  public  attention,  and  of  giving  power 
to  the  most  legitimate  resistance,  and  weight  to  the  most 
reasonable  demand.  Cardinal  Gibbons  submitted  that  the 
strikes,  in  which,  undoubtedly  and  unhappily,  acts  of  vio- 
lence sometimes  occurred,  were  by  no  means  the  invention  of 
the  Knights  of  Labor,  but  were  the  rough-and-ready  methods 
by  which,  in  every  country,  and  in  all  times,  the  employed 
protest  against  injustice  on  the  part  of  the  emj^loyers.  The 
rules  and  the  leaders  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  endeavored,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  discourage  violence,  and  to  keep  the  whole 
movement  within  the  limits  of  good  order  and  lawful  action. 
Cardinal   Gibbons  admitted  that  amongst   the   Knights  of 


POPE   LEO    XIII.    AND    SOCIALISM.  369 

Labor,  as  iu  every  inoveineut  wliere  workiugmeu  are  grouped 
in  tliousauds  and  hundreds  of  thousands,  there  must  be 
wild,  or  even  criminal  men,  who  commit  violence,  and  urge 
their  fellows  to  the  same  course.  But  he  protested  earnestly 
against  the  tendency  to  attribute  those  evils  to  the  organiza- 
tion itself.  ...  A  condemnation  of  their  movement  from 
Rome  would  be  regarded  as  unjust,  and  would  perhaps  not 
be  accepted.  Cardinal  Gibbons  admitted  that  the  condition 
of  things  might  be  different  in  Canada,  especially  in  Lower 
Canada,  where  the  population  might  be  said  to  be  altogether 
Catholic.  He  did  not  fail  to  point  out,  also,  that  the 
Canadian  bishops  had  criticised  the  constitution  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  before  the  recent  modifications  which  the 
interest  of  Mr.  Powderley  had  been  able  to  introduce  into 
the  rules  of  the  American  order.  .  .  .  The  Pope  referred  the 
whole  question  to  one  of  the  Sacred  Congregations  of  Rome. 
The  Sacred  Congregation  does  not  seem  to  have  quite  entered 
into  the  spirit  of  Cardinal  Gibbons'  recommendations.  The 
Congregation  abstained  from  condemning  the  movement  of 
the  Knights  of  Labor,  but  only  extended  to  it  a  certain 
conditional  toleration.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that  Leo  XIIL  was,  for  himself,  much  more  sympathetic 
with  the  purposes  of  the  labor  organization  all  over  the 
world.  He  had  more  than  one  opportunity  of  expressing 
his  sentiments  in  person.  Several  pilgrimages  of  French 
workingmen — one  of  them  organized  and  introduced  by  the 
Count  de  Mun — waited  on  him,  during  the  time  of  his 
sacerdotal  jubilee.  One  of  these  pilgrimages  contained 
nearly  two  thousand  members  ;  another  was  much  larger 
still.  To  all  of  these  deputations  the  Pope  spoke  with 
sympathy,  with  encouragement,  and  with  affection.  He 
warned  them  against  the  danger  of  expecting  too  much  ;  he 
told  them  that  the  solution  of  the  whole  question  would  be 
impossible,  except  on  a  basis  of  mutual  charity,  of  morality, 
and  of  religion.  But  he  recognized  and  accepted  their 
movement ;  he  welcomed  them  for  such  as  they  were — the 
delegates  of  a  great  trade-union  organization.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  diplomacy,  he  '  recongized  their  existence,'  and  he 
made  it  impossible  for  anyone,  thereafter,  to  say  that  the 


370  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

Pope  had  pronounced  against  the  movement  for  the  organi- 
zation of  labor.  That  in  itself  made  one  of  the  great 
events  of  the  time  "  (1).  Returning  now  to  our  synopsis  of 
the  Pope's  great  Encyclical  on  labor,  we  observe  that  His 
Holiness  especially  commended  the  zeal  manifested  by  his 
wealthier  children  throughout  the  world  for  a  betterment  of 
the  condition  of  the  working  classes,  chiefly  by  efforts  to  im- 
prove the  relations  between  employers  and  the  employed,  and 
by  measures  calculated  to  make  the  workingmen  more  exact 
in  the  performance  of  their  religious  duties — a  course  which 
infallibly  leads  to  harmony.  He  also  praises  the  numerous 
Catholic  Congresses  which  have  been  held  so  frequently  in 
our  day,  serving  as  means  for  a  profitable  interchange  of 
ideas,  and  for  the  arrangement  of  definite  programmes  of 
united  Catholic  action.  He  praises  perhaps  more  than  any- 
thing else  the  endeavors  to  establish  something  like  the 
mediiBval  guilds ;  and  he  would  have  the  State  protect  these 
associations,  without  any  attempt  at  interference  with  their 
action.  These  Corporations,  which  have  been  the  object  of 
so  man}'  dreams  of  a  possibly  happy  future  for  the  modern 
workingmau  (2),  should  be  so  organized,  says  the  Pope,  that 
"  they  may  obtain  for  the  laborer,  as  far  as  possible,  an  in- 
crease of  all  the  goods  of  body,  soul,  and  fortune."  The 
first  Christians,  remarks  His  Holiness,  were  despised  by  the 
Pagans,  because  of  the  poverty  which  afflicted  the  majority 
of  them ;  but  wise  and  charitable  conduct  finally  silenced 
sarcasm,  and  opened  the  way  of  triumph  for  Christian  truth. 
So  it  ought  to  be  with  the  social  question  of  to-day,  if  taken 
in  hand  by  Catholics  throughout  the  world.  Let  all  the 
Catholic  workingmen  unite  with  a  will,  and  let  them  act 
according  to  Catholic  principles  :  then  there  will  be  no 
longer  a  Labor  Question.  "  Let  the  lorce  of  prejudice  and  of 
passion  be  what  it  will,  sooner  or  later  the  public  good  must 
turn  toward  those  workingmen  who  are  seen  to  be  active  and 
modest,  preferring  justice  to  profit,  and  placing  duty  above 
everything  else."  The  truly  admirable  Encyclical  terminates 
with  this  call  to  action  :  "  Let  each  one  begin  the  task  that 

(1)  Justin  McCarthy  ;  Life  nf  Leo  XIIT.    New  rork,  1896. 

(2)  See  our  remarks  on  Trades  Unions,  in  the  Supplement  to  our  work,  this  voluma 
(D  chapter  on  Salient  Features  of  the  Middle  Age. 


rOPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   SOCIALISM.  371 

is  incumbeut  on  liiin,  ;iml  without  delay,  lest  the  disease 
now  so  grave  may  prove  to  bo  iiicurablo.  Lot  governments 
use  the  proteetiug  authority  of  laws  aud  institutions.  Let 
the  wealthy  aud  employers  remember  their  duties.  Let  the 
workiuginon,  whose  future  is  involved,  seek  their  interests 
by  legitimate  means  ;  and  since  religion  alone  can  destroy 
evil  in  its  very  root,  let  the  laboring  classes  remember  that 
their  first  ambition  must  be  for  a  restoration  of  Christian 
morality,  without  which  very  little  good  will  be  produced 
by  the  means  which  human  prudence  regards  as  efficacious." 
In  the  minds  of  non-Catholics  of  thinking  proclivities  this 
Encyclical  produced  sentiments  of  mingled  astonishment 
and  admiration.  The  London  Times  declared  that  it  pre- 
sented many  observations  worthy  of  universal  attention,  and 
breathed  the  spirit  of  Christian  charity,  and  a  good-will 
which,  if  it  were  imitated  and  shared  widely,  would  nearly 
resolve  all  the  industrial  questions  of  the  epoch.  The  same 
journal  described  the  Encyclical  as  clear,  logical,  and  written 
with  all  the  knowledge  of  a  statesman.  The  Tory  St.  James  s 
Gazette  thanked  the  Pope  for  the  courageous  words  in  which 
he  had  enforced  the  necessity  of  keeping  the  multitudes 
within  the  limits  of  duty.  It  asked  the  question.  How  many 
of  our  politicians  who  have  votes  to  keep  or  to  win,  would 
have  ventured  to  express  such  a  sentiment  in  a  form  so  in- 
trepid ?  But  the  St.  James's  Gazette  carefully  noted  that  it 
would  be  a  serious  injustice  to  the  Pope  if  his  Encyclical 
were  to  be  treated  as  a  declaration  in  favor  of  the  capitalists. 
Every  paragraph,  said  the  Gazette,  breathed  a  love  for  the 
working  people,  and  many  passages  of  it  were  inflamed  with 
an  eloquent  auger  against  the  inhuman  abuses  which  too 
often  made  their  way  into  industries  and  commerce.  The 
High  Church  Guardian  spoke  in  the  warmest  terras  of  the 
tone  and  purpose  of  the  Encyclical,  and  said  that  its  effects 
could  not  fail  to  be  important,  since  in  all  questions  which 
concern  labor,  the  Catholic  Church  put  itself  readily  on  the 
side  of  the  working  population.  The  Pope's  Encyclical  had 
done  this  in  a  wise  and  moderate  spirit,  and  with  the  con- 
stant care  to  distinguish  legitimate  claims  from  those  which 
are  extravagant,  and  are  set  up  in  the  pretended  interest  of 


372  STUDIES    IN    CHUIICH    HIJiTORY. 

the  working-people.  The  Poi^e,  added  the  Guardian,  spoke 
as  a  prudent  friend,  not  as  a  blind  and  impassioned  advocate. 
The  effects  of  the  Encyclical,  the  Guardian  predicted,  would 
be  of  immense  importance  in  the  development  of  the  social 
question,  and  it  would  be  so  also  without  doubt  for  the  future 
of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  Anglican  incumbent  of  Man- 
chester declared  at  a  public  meeting  that  the  Encyclical 
revealed  a  spirit  very  vast,  a  great  depth  of  knowledge,  and 
a  foresight  most  sagacious.  The  Pope,  according  to  this 
Protestant  dignitary,  had  put  his  finger  on  the  sore  part  of 
the  social  system,  and  his  word  must  be  heeded  or  otherwise 
the  world  would  have  to  expiate  its  neglect  by  terrible 
calamities.  The  principal  organ  of  German  Socialism,  the 
Vorwoirts,  was  apparently  thunderstruck  ;  for  it  exclaimed  : 
"  In  the  plenitude  of  his  power,  the  Pope  has  stolen  a  march 
on  the  princes  and  governments  of  all  the  civilized  States, 
and  has  solved  the  social  question.  Yes,  undoubtedly  he 
has  solved  the  social  question,  so  far  as  any  existing  power 
can  solve  it."  The  ultra-liberal  Breslauer  Zeitung  said : 
*'  We  praise  the  attitude  of  the  Pope.  His  Encyclical  is  the 
teaching  of  a  wise  and  generous  man,  who  has  carefully 
studied  the  economic  and  social  situation  of  these  days." 
In  France,  the  judgments  emitted  by  Maurice  Barres,  a 
famous  Socialist  deputy  ;  by  the  Socialist  economist,  Leroy- 
Beaulieu,  a  member  of  the  Institute ;  by  Emile  Ollivier,  an 
ex-Minis  ter  of  the  Second  Empire;  are  worthy  of  being  noted 
at  some  length.  Barres  said :  "  In  discussing  the  social 
question,  the  Pope  recognizes  the  right  of  the  weak.  Give  us 
a  few   more  years  for   the  disappearance  of  mistrust,  and 

democracy  will  no  longer  discern  an  enemy  in  a  priest 

Will  Leo  XIII.  be  content  with  having  disarmed  hatred  ? 
Will  he  not  try  to  restore  to  the  Papacy  the  power  that  it 
had  in  the  Middle  Age  ?  We  may  well  suppose  that  such  is 
his  ambition  ;  that  he  intends  St.  Peter  to  direct  the  social 
reorganization  which  all  demand.  Wonderful  audacity  I 
Unforeseen  metamorphosis  !  To  reconcile  the  Church  and 
modern  society  by  thrusting  them  together  into  the  same 
unknown  !  To  change  with  one  breath  the  mental  attitude  of 
many  millions  of  believers,  at  least  in  their  views  of  the  old 


POPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   SOCIALISM.  373 

social  forms  of  Europe !  I  admire,  aud  I  am  astonislied. 
The  more  I  feel  my  iaiability  to  conceive  all  the  possibil- 
ities of  the  uew  policy,  the  more  do  I  feel  a  respectful 
curiosity  iu  regard  to  that  illustrious  old  mau  who,  as  tliey 
say,  is  about  to  undertake  it."  Leroy-Beaulieu  was  so 
impressed  by  the  Papal  pronouncement,  that  he  wrote  an 
apposite  book  on  The  Papacy,  Socialism,  and  Democracy, 
which  was  entirely  devoted  to  a  respectful  criticism  of  what 
he  reluctantly  admired.  He  began  his  work  with  the  follow- 
ing reflections  :  "  What  is  the  Pope  troubling  himself  about 
to-day  ?  How  does  the  social  question  concern  the  Church 
and  the  priests  ?  Such  a  question  migiit  be  put  by  an  old 
man,  and  he  would  talk  according  to  the  Frencii  tradition  of 
the  last  century.  The  nineteenth  century  was — we  may  now 
speak  of  it  as  having  been — congratulating  itself  for  having 
deprived  the  Church  of  all  connection  with  the  things  of 
this  world.  It  had  thought  that  religion,  having  been 
made  for  things  of  heaven,  should  have  no  connection  with 
those  of  earth.  Liberalism,  professing  all  respect  for  re- 
ligious liberty,  had  carefully  shut  up  the  clergy  in  their 
churches,  seminaries,  and  convents.  The  nineteenth  century 
had  acted  like  those  mayors  and  sub-prefects  who,  in  the 
name  of  the  law,  ordered  Christ  not  to  show  Himself  in  the 
street.  The  cross  was  to  be  seen  only  in  the  solitude  of  the 
cemeteries,  or  on  the  tombs  of  the  dead,  or  on  the  tops  of 
church-towers,  up  there  in  the  air,  far  from  the  gaze  of  the 
living.  Well,  all  this  was  a  mere  illusion.  The  Church 
could  not  remain  very  long,  without  taking  some  interest  in 
those  who  lived  and  acted  around  her.  Her  priests  could 
not  remain  content  with  chanting  psalms  in  the  immobility 
of  their  choirs,  with  intoning  the  De  profundis  at  the  bier  of 
the  dead,  with  teaching  the  Catechism  to  distracted  children, 
or  with  listening  to  the  monotonous  avowals  of  the  devout 
of  every  age  iu  the  silent  twilight  of  the  confessional. . . . 
And  now  behold  !  That  old  mother,  treated  like  a  dotard  by 
so  many  of  her  irreverent  sons,  has  begun  to  talk  to  men 
dbout  things  which  interest  and  divide  them  most.  Just  as 
though  we  were  living  in  the  days  of  Gregory  VII.  or  of 
Sixtus  v.,  the  Pope  must  have  his  word  on  human  affairs ; 


374  STUDIES   IN   CHUBCH    HISTORY. 

and  the  world  shows  iio  irritability,  it  does  not  seem  to  be 
surprised.  Here  is  a  sign  of  the  times  that  are  coming.  It 
seems  that  we  are  beholding  one  of  the  great  actors  in  history 
returniug  to  the  stage.  On  that  old  theatre  from  which  some 
people  believed  it  for  ever  banished,  the  Papacy  beholds  a 
nQw  personage  of  its  own  order,  indeed,  but  very  different 
from  those  whom  during  a  thousand  years  the  world  has 
seen.  The  Papacy  shows  that  it  has  the  spirit  of  its  age, 
and,  without  lingering  over  useless  dissertations,  it  goes 
straight  to  the  democracy,  and  of  what  does  it  speak  ?  Of 
that  which  comes  closest  to  the  heart  of  the  people — the 
social  question."  Emile  OUivier,  whose  judgments  on  Leo 
XIII.  are  not  always  accurate,  has  naught  but  praise  for  the 
Berum  novarum.  "  Here  Leo  XIII.  surpasses  himself ;  he 
has  never  been  so  much  the  Pope  of  enlightenment  and  of 
harmonious  serenity.  These  pages  are  a  wonder  of  elevation, 
of  justice,  of  elegant  and  strong  language,  of  delicate  and 
firm  handling  of  contradictory  ideas  and  interests. ...  In 
all  the  theses  of  this  Encyclical  we  meet  an  incomparable 
circumspection,  an  imperturbable  equilibrium,  because  of 
which  the  fundamental  question  of  the  intervention  of  public 
authority  is  solved,  without  any  injury  to  any  other  principle 
which  is  equally  fundamental.  Thus  Leo  XIII.  is  favorable 
to  the  poor  man,  but  he  is  no  foe  to  the  rich  man  ;  he  does 
not  hurl  against  the  latter  any  paraphrases  of  the  text :  '  Woe 
to  the  rich ! '  He  speaks  severely  of  the  too  evident  hardness 
of  heart  of  certain  rich  men  ;  but  instead  of  maltreating  them, 
he  implores  them,  and  he  tries  to  convince  them.  To  this 
end,  he  is  not  satisfied  with  leaving  them  to  the  judgment  of 
God  ;  he  shows  them  the  perils  that  menace  them,  and  he 
does  not  exaggerate  these  dangers,  for  every  observer  knows 
that  the  social  conflict,  excited  wherever  employers  are 
•  intelligent  concerning  the  poor  and  the  indigent,'  is  con- 
tinually growing  more  bitter  in  those  centres  of  ferocious 

egotism The  politicians  themselves,  turned  temporarily 

from  their  rivalries,  have  been  impressed  by  this  language 
of  a  sage  and  an  apostle,  language  which  is  beautiful  with 
the  beauty  that  comes  from  on  liigh;  and  they  have  admired 
it.     Trulv,   said   these   gentlemen,  the   venerable  man   has 


POPE  LEO   XIII.    AND   SOCL\LISM.  375 

uttered  very  significant  words  ;  lie  understands  the  drift  of 
the  times,  and  he  marches  with  it ;  hitherto  the  Church  has 
been  in  the  tents  of  the  rich,  but  now  she  caters  to  the  poor ; 
Leo  is  an  able  tactician.  Leo  XIII.  does  not  merit  this 
species  of  eulogy  in  which  irony  is  mingled  with  distrust. 
Had  the  franiers  of  this  eulogy  understood  the  policy  of  the 
Church,  they  would  have  abstained  from  it.  The  Church, 
depository  of  many  doctrinal  treasures,  does  not  exhibit  them 
all  at  once,  and  with  equal  insistence  (?)  ;  she  puts  forth  more 
especially  those  which  meet  the  intellectual  and  moral  needs 
of  the  present.  When  Pelagius  contested  the  divine  sover- 
eignty, the  Pontiffs  and  the  Doctors  explained  the  doctrine  of 
grace.  When  the  free  will  of  man  was  attacked  by  Luther, 
Calvin,  Bains,  and  Jansenius,  the  Pontiffs  and  Doctors  defend- 
ed that  free  will.  To-day  the  object  of  general  preoccupa- 
tion is  the  problem  of  Poverty  and  Wealth  ;  and  the  Pope 
explains  the  Catholic  doctrine  on  the  relations  between  the 
two.  Where  is  the  strategy  of  tliis  explanation  ?  It  is  not 
necessary  for  the  Church  to  change  her  domicile,  in  order 
that  she  may  be  found  with  the  poor.  When  was  she  not 
with  them  ?  At  what  moment  were  her  maternal  ears  closed 
to  their  cries  ?  The  jjoor  have  always  been  her  favorite 
children.  Have  the  poor  ever  had  such  servants  as  Francis 
of  Assisi  and  Vincent  de  Paul  ?  What  land  does  not  testify  to 
the  inexhaustible  fecundity  of  the  Church's  charity?  So 
much  the  worse  for  you,  if  you  have  not  hitherto  perceived 
this  truth." 

Naturally  an  immediate  consequence  of  the  Encyclical 
Eerum  novarum  was  an  effort,  on  the  part  of  Catholics  in 
every  civilized  land,  to  mobilize  their  social  forces  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  spirit  indicated  by  the  Pontiff.  In  France, 
always  at  the  head  of  every  movement  involving  the  destinies 
of  Catholicism,  the  systematic  opposition  of  the  Republican 
government  could  not  prevent  the  development  of  such  ad- 
mirable institutions  as  the  many  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Circles,  the  Confraternity  of  Notre-Dame  de  TUsine,  the 
model  co-operative  establishments  of  the  Harmels  at  Tal- 
des-Bois,  etc.  In  Germany,  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  the 
United  States  of  America,  there  was  manifested  an   instan- 


376  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

taneous  desii'e  to  meet  the  paroxysms  of  an  anti-Cliristian 
demagogy  with  Catholic  organizations  which  would  be  no 
longer  purely  isolated  and  individual.  In  Spain  and  in 
most  of  the  Spanish-American  countries,  the  pre-eminently 
Catholic  spirit  of  nearly  all  their  inhabitants  had  caused 
labor-agitations  to  be  unknown,  because  they  were  without 
any  reason  for  being ;  but  the  sentiments  of  the  Rerum 
novarum  gave  in  these  lands  a  new  impetus  to  the  already 
dominant  Catholic  idea  that  the  workingmau  and  his  em- 
ployer were  but  servants  of  the  same  Master,  and  conse- 
quently Catholic  charity  began  to  consider  the  possibility 
of  ameliorating  social  conditions  which  were  already  far 
superior  to- those  which  obtained  in  the  "Anglo-Saxon"  and 
the  other'  regions  which  are  of  Teutonic  or  of  partially 
Teutonic  origin.  In  Celtic  and  Catholic  Belgium,  the  land 
so  dear  to  Leo  XIII, ,  the  several  Catholic  Congresses  of 
Liege  had  already  drawn  the  attention  of  the  rest  of  Chris- 
tendom to  the  schemes  of  the  Socialistic  foes  of  the  Christian 
name ;  and  the  echoes  from  the  trenchant  words  of  the 
Pontiff  had  not  died  out,  ere  there  arose  everywhere  in  the 
original  home  of  Clovis  those  Maisons  dcf  Ouvriers  which 
were  to  be  powerful  centres  for  the  propaganda  of  a  Christian 
Socialism.  Everywhere  in  Belgium  the  Catholics  founded 
guilds  similar  to  those  associations  which  had  been  the  very 
life  of  the  mediaeval  Flemings,  and  which  were  now  to  contest 
with  Pagan  Socialism  for  the  empire  over  the  hearts  of  Flem- 
ish workingmen.  Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
kingdom,  there  were  held  festivals  which  were  at  once 
religious  and  civic — festivals  at  which  tens  of  thousands  of 
Catholic  workingmen  prayed  before  the  renowned  shrines 
of  their  motherland,  or  enjoyed  their  simple  games  in  the 
parks  of  the  first  nobles  of  the  country.  But  it  is  to  the 
Pontiffs  own  city  of  Rome  that  we  must  turn — to  the  Eome 
that  the  Vatican  could  reach,  not  to  the  Rome  of  the  Quiri- 
nal — if  we  wish  to  see,  in  a  pre-eminent  degree,  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Rerum  novarum  reduced  to  practice.  Of  course, 
when  Leo  XIII.  mounted  the  pontifical  throne,  he  found  Rome 
as  ever  the  model  for  Christian  charity,  very  nearly  such  as 
his  predecessors  had  made  her  ;  for  not  even   a   devastat- 


POPE   LEO   XIII.   AND  SOCIALISM.  377 

ing  regime  such  as  that  of  the  Quirinal  coukl  at  once  oblit- 
erate tlie  work  of  centuries  which  had  its  roots  in  the  hearts 
and   traditions  of  tlie  real  Romans.     But  it  devolved  on  the 
new  Pope,  even  though  he  was  not  in  fact  a  Pope-King,  to 
protect  and  sustain  the  many  Catholic  Schools  in  the  Eternal 
City,  the.  hope  of  future  Roman  generations,  and  the  many 
orphanages  and  refuges  which  had  made  the  Rome  of  the 
Popes  the  most  beneficent  city  in   the  universe.     And  the 
financial  crimes  of  the  "  liberators  of  Italy  "  had  entailed  new 
duties  ou  the  Pontiff;  thousands  of  workingmen   were   in 
abject  destitution.     For  the  succor  of  these  victims  of  "  free 
Rome,"  Leo  XIII.,  through  the  Circle  of  St.  Peter,  established 
cheap' kitchens  throughout  the  city,  furnishing  a  solid  and 
appetizing  meal  for  four  cents.     The  same  Circle  of  St.  Peter 
established   Night  Refuges   which   were    managed   by   the 
Sisters  of  Charity,  and  superintended  by  the  members  of  the 
Circle  ;   in  these  asylums,  the  poor  man  or  woman   found  a 
clean  and  comfortable  bed  for  two  cents.     Then   there  was 
tbe  "  Primary,  Artistic,  and  Operative  Association  of  Recip- 
rocal Charity,"  which,  established  by   Pius  IX.,  received 
a  splendid  development  under  Leo  XIII.     This  association 
is  a  society  of  mutual  help,  numbering  about  five  thousand 
members,  divided  into  several  sections,  all  sections  having 
their  delegates  in  the  directing  council.     Painters,  sculptors, 
jewellers,  printers,  and  workers  of  every  kind,  are  admitted  to 
membership.     In  1888,  Pope  Leo  donated  to  the  Association 
a  piece  of  ground  for  its  home,  which  cost  five  hundred  thou- 
sand francs.     One  of  the  sections,  especially  concerned  with 
workingmen  and  the  smaller  employers  of  labor,  has  in  its 
charc-e  Uie  making  of  allowances  to  its  associates  in  case  of 
sickness  or  want  of  employment.     The  funds  of  this  section 
are  obtained  by  subscriptions  from  its  members,  and  by  vol- 
untary contributions  from  the  public.    This  section  also  gives 
gratuitously  the  medicines  necessary  for  its  members  who  are 
out  of  health  and  are  poor.     It  has  created  savings  banks  on  a 
small  scale,  which  have  done  much  to  encourage  a  spirit  of 
economy  and  of  foresight  among  the  poorer  class.     In  fact, 
the  Association  forms  a  centre  of  economy  and  of  self-help, 
around  which  various  similar    institutions   have   recently 


378  STUDIES   IN   CHUECH   HISTORY. 

grouped  themselves.  Among  these,  the  least  important 
is  not  the  one  which  grants  loans  without  other  security 
than  the  "  honor  "  of  the  borrower  ;  nor  another  which  builds 
comfortable  houses  for  Avorkmen.  As  for  alms-giving  prop- 
erly so-called,  on  the  part  of  Leo  XIII.,  it  ought  to  be  suf- 
ficient to  remember  that  he  is  a  Roman  Pontiff ;  b.ut  never- 
theless certain  journals  of  the  Quirinal  party  have  dared, 
from  time  to  time,  to  assert  that  he  is  avaricious.  In  1890, 
the  Cittadino  of  Genoa  and  the  Osservaiore  Romano  gave 
details  which  showed  that  in  the  previous  year  His  Holiness 
had  distributed  427,125  francs  in  private  charity.  Even  the 
Sera,  a  Liberal  organ,  experienced  nausea  on  reading  these 
aspersions  on  the  character  of  its  chief  priestly  adversary, 
and  said  :  "It  is  false  that  the  charities  of  Leo  XIII.  have 
become  unfrequent.  Were  we  to  enumerate  the  families 
who  are  continually  aided  and  even  supported  by  the  Pope, 
we  would  never  finish.  And  all  of  his  alms  are  distributed 
to  the  designated  beneficiary,  even  to  the  last  penny  ;  for  the 
bureaus  charged  with  this  duty  are  so  scrupulously  careful, 
that  it  is  impossible  for  any  sums  to  be  alienated  from  their 
proper  objects." 

Concerning  the  burning  question  of  wages,  the  mind  of 
the  Holy  See,  although  never  indicated  by  an  apposite  and 
positive  decision  as  to  the  details  of  that  question,  can  be 
sufficiently  apprehended  by  him  who  reads  the  Encyclical 
Rerum  novarum  ;  but  in  1891,  there  appeared  a  document 
which  was,  if  not  inspired  by  the  Pontiff,  at  least  tacitly 
approved  by  him,  and  which  served  to  develop  the  already- 
emitted  pontifical  judgments  on  the  rights  of  wage-earners. 
When  the  Congress  of  Malines  was  about  to  be  held  in  1891, 
Cardinal  Goossens,  the  archbishop  of  the  honored  city, 
anticipating  a  discussion  on  certain  points  of  the  Rerum  no- 
varum, submitted  three  questions  to  the  Holy  See.  It  was 
not  deemed  necessary,  or  perhaps  advisable,  to  give  an 
official  answer  ;  but  Cardinal  Goossens  was  informed  that 
the  doubts  would  be  submitted  to  a  reliable  theologian  for 
solution.  This  theologian  was  the  erudite  and  judicious 
Cardinal  Zigliara  ;  and  the  reader  will  note  that  his  views 
in  the  premises  are  to  be  regarded  with  more  than  ordinary 


rOPE   LEO   XIII.    AND   SOCIALISM.  379 

deference,  since  the  Holy  See  intended  tliem  to  serve  .as 
guidance  for  tlie  deliberutions  of  a  very  important  Catliolic 
Congress.  Cardinal  Goossens  observed  that  the  pontifical 
Encyclical  contained  the  following  passage  :  "  Let  the  em- 
ployer and  the  employee  come  to  what  agreement  they  will, 
far  above  their  free  consent  is  the  more  elevated  and  older 
law  of  natural  justice,  which  proclaims  that  wages  ought  to 
be  sufficient  to  secure  subsistence  for  an  honest  and  sober 
workingman."  Regarding  these  words,  His  Eminence 
asked,  firstly,  whether. the  "  natural  justice  "  here  mentioned 
was  to  be  understood  as  "  commutative  justice,"  or  rather 
as  "  natural  equity  "  (1).  The  reply  was  :  "  Commutative 
justice."  In  support  of  his  answer,  Zigliara  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  labor  of  the  workman,  a  free  and  wage- 
deserving  labor,  difiers  greatly  from  a  piece  of  merchandise 
that  is  sold  for  a  determined  price  ;  but  that  nevertheless 
said  labor  may  be  regarded  as  a  merchandise,  when  it  is  con- 
sidered from  the  point  of  veiw  wdiich  makes  merchandise  an 
object  of  price.  Just  like  a  piece  of  merchandise,  therefore, 
the  work  of  the  laborer  is  an  object  of  commutative  justice. 
"  Whenever,"  continues  Zigliara,  "  the  workingmau  has  ful- 
filled the  natural  duty  of  obtaining  the  immediate  object  of 
his  labor,  and  it  is  found  that  the  wage  does  not  procure  for 
him  food,  lodging,  and  clothing,  then  from  the  very  nature 
of  things,  it  follows  that  there  has  been  produced  an  object- 
ive inequality  between  the  labor  and  the  Avage — in  plain 
words,  vo)nmntative  justice  has  been  violated."  Cardinal 
Goossens  had  asked,  secondly,  whether  sin  is  committedby 
the  employer  who  pays  wages  which  suffice  for  the  decent 
support  of  a  workingmau,  but  which  are  utterly  insufficient 
for  the  sustenance  of  his  dependent  family.     To  this  deli- 

(1)  For  the  benefit  of  the  reader  who  is  not  conversant  with  the  terminology  of  Moral 
Theology,  we  note  that  theologians  distinguish  three  kinds  of  justice:  h{jnU  <UMtil>u- 
tiii:,  and  (iiminutatiir.  The  hyal  turns  on  the  relations  of  an  individual liody-corporate, 
or  the  State ;  it  is  called  Irgah  because  it  has  for  its  objects  things  that  a  man  owes  to  the 
coniniunity,  because  of  positive  law.  Di.s^M'hi/N'iv  justice  turns  on  the  distribution,  ac- 
cording to  the  decrees  of  legitimate  authority,  of  the  honors  or  burdens  to  which  the  citi- 
zen may  be  subject.  Comnmtativf  justice,  which  is  the  species  which  principally  engages 
the  attention  of  moralists.  Is  exercised  l)y  one  citizen  toward  another,  by  one  private  in- 
dividual toward  another  ;  and  its  ordinary  manifestation  occurs  in  contracts,  and  in  other 
relations  of  social  commerce.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  a  violation  of  legal  justice  is 
termed  iNcyoi  injusf ice  ;  a  violation  of  rii'-sfci/iKhiv  justice  is  an  exceiition  of  persoji.s; 
and  a  violation  of  commutative  is  styled  simply  an  iiijuru. 


380  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTOKY. 

cate  and  lieart-toucliing  question,  Zigliara  replied  that  in 
that  case  there  woukl  be  no  sin  against  strict  justice,  but 
that  there  might  be  a  sin  against  charity  or  natural  equity  ; 
and  he  thus  explained  his  answer  :  "  His  labor  is  the  per- 
sonal work  of  the  employee,  not  that  of  his  family  ;  said 
labor  has  relation  with  the  workingman's  family  only  subsid- 
iarily and  accidentally,  inasmuch  as  the  workingman  shares 
his  wages  with  his  wife  and  children  ;  just  as  the  fam  ilyhas 
not  contributed  to  the  labor,  so  justice  does  not  demand  that 
the  family  be  paid  for  the  labor.  But  there  is  a  question  of 
charity  in  this  case  ;  although  one  should  not  rashly  decide 
as  to  whether  charity  is  violated  in  this  or  that  particular 
instance."  The  third  difficulty  propounded  by  Cardinal 
Goossens  was  as  to  whether  an  employer  sins,  when  he,  with- 
out any  violence  or  deceit,  gives  smaller  wages  than  the 
work  would  merit,  and  smaller  than  decent  living  would  re- 
quire for  the  employee,  merely  because  there  are  many 
workingmen  who  would  be  glad  to  labor  for  starvation 
wages  ?  The  reply  o^^  Zigliara  is  :  "  Such  an  employer  sins 
against  commutative  justice,"  and  the  reason  is  clear :  "  When 
one  purchases  a  thing,  it  is  not  allowable,  properly  speaking,, 
to  give  less  for  it  than  it  is  worth,  according  to  common  esti- 
mation, circumstances  of  time  and  place  being  considered  ;, 
much  less  is  it  permissible  to  give  wages  which  are  less  than 
the  labor  merits,"  excepting,  of  course,  the  case  in  which 
the  employer  is  himself  making  no  profit. 

In  the  spring  of  1893,  three  hundred  representatives 
of  the  workingmen  of  Switzerland  held  a  Congress  at  Bienne  -^ 
more  than  half  of  the  participants  were  either  Protestants  or 
infidels,  and  very  many  were  avowed  Socialists.  During  one 
of  the  first  sessions.  Dr.  Gaspard  Decurtins,  a  national  coun- 
sellor, a  "  Democratic  Ultramontane,"  proposed  the  following 
resolution  :  "  The  Catholic  Associations  of  workingmen  are 
invited  to  exercise  an  international  propaganda  for  a  reali- 
zation of  the  principles  which  Leo  XIII.  enunciated  in  his 
Encyclical  on  the  Labor  Question."  The  motion  was  carried 
almost  unanimously,  despite  the  religious  differences  of  the 
members — a  convincing  proof,  remarked  the  very  unclerical 
Journal  des  Debats,  that  the  Swiss  workingmen  had  heard  of 


POPE  LEO   Xm.    AND   SOCIALISM-  381 

the  Encyclical,  that  they  no  longer  considered  the  Roman 
Church  as  an  instrument  of  oppression,  and  that  their 
immediate  aspirations  agreed  with  the  social  doctrines  of 
the  Pontiff.  Writing  to  Dr.  Decurtins  on  Aug.  0,  Leo  XIII. 
expresses  his  gratiticatiou  on  having  received  such  a  testi- 
mony to  the  effect  produced  in  Switzerland  by  his  words  ;  and 
amid  his  counsels  he  seems  to  foreshadow  the  future  insti- 
tution of  an  international  legislation  for  the  workingman. 
"  It  is  strange  and  very  imj^ortant,"  says  the  Journal  des 
Dihats,  "to  read  in  this  short  letter  an  expression  of  this 
pontifical  hope.  In  1887  M.  Decurtins  asked  the  Swiss 
Federal  Council  to  propose  certain  questions  on  labor  to 
the  various  States  of  Europe,  with  the  hope  of  arriving  at 
an  understanding  concerning  them  ;  and  Mgr.  Jacobiui  con- 
gratulated him.  In  1890,  the  appeal  of  M.  Decurtins  was 
heard  by  the  German  emperor,  and  Leo  XIII.  wrote  to  that 
sovereign  :  '  The  labor  question  must  be  settled  according 
to  all  the  rules  of  justice  ;  the  combined  action  of  the  powers 
would  contribute  to  the  desired  end.'  In  May,  1891,  the 
lengthy  Encyclical  on  this  question  appeared ;  but  it  was 
silent  in  regard  to  an  international  legislation  on  the  matter. 
This  silence  was  remarked  ;  in  certain  circles  it  was  thought 
that  Leo  XIII.,  deceived  by  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  had 
renounced  the  idea  which  he  had  cherished.  But  this  recent 
remark  to  M.  Decurtins  shows  the  falsity  of  that  conclusion : 
*  It  is  evident  that  the  workingmen  will  never  find  efficacious 
protection  in  the  laws  which  vary  in  the  different  States. 
The  very  moment  that  in  one  land  goods  from  various  others 
are  offered  for  sale,  a  diversity  of  labor-conditions  assures  the 
success  of  one  people,  and  the  failure  of  another.'  Similar 
phrases,  which  one  might  suppose  to  have  been  extracted 
from  some  treatise  on  economy,  abound  in  the  documents 
which  Leo  XIII.  has  consecrated  to  the  social  question." 
And  indeed  our  Pontiff  not  only  declared  with  precision  the 
reasons  for  his  desire  that  an  international  understandinsr 
concerning  labor  should  be  reached,  but  he  applauded  every 
step  toward  that  end  :  "  "We  have  learned  with  great  satis- 
faction that  the  Congress  of  Bienne  has  taken  measures  for 
the  meeting  of  a  still  more  important  Congress  of  Working- 


382  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

men,  tlie  object  of  which  will  be  to  draw  the  attention  of  the 
civil  authorities  to  the  necessity  of  equal  laws  which  will  jjro- 
tect  the  weak,  women,  and  children  from  excessive  toil."  The 
JoiiDial  dcs  Debats  rightly  observed  that  Leo  XIII.  is  not 
at  all  frightened  when  a  great  manifestation  of  workingmen 
occurs  ;  he  is  much  less  suspicious  of  these  indications  of 
vigor,  than  is  the  most  liberal  of  modern  governments.  "  De- 
fender of  true  order  and  of  social  harmony,"  says  the  per- 
spicacious journal,  "  the  Pontiff  wishes  the  workingmen  to 
organize ;  for  once  organized,  they  will  oppose  to  the  civil 
power,  not  a  violent  revolt  which  triumphs  by  force,  and 
whose  reason  is  force,  but  a  plain  expression  of  the  claims 
which  can  be  discussed  in  the  name  of  justice,  once  that 
they  are  formulated  "  (1). 

(I)  In  the  North  American  Review  for  April,  1899,  there  appeared  an  article  by  Prince 
Itiirbide,  which  must  Interest  the  student  as  showing  not  only  the  institution  of  Mexicaa 
pcunauc  in  a  very  unexpected  light  (if  the  student  is  an  average  '*  Anglo-Saxon  "  Ameri- 
can), but  also  the  curious  fact  that,  of  all  the  countries  of  the  New  World,  our  neighbor 
alone  has  settled  the  question  between  labor  and  capital  to  the  satisfaction  of  both.  Prob- 
ably the  reader  knows  that  Mexican  peonage  is  a  kind  of  bondage  for  debt;  but  it  is  not 
generally  known  that  this  bondage  is  sometimes  contracted  directly,  sometimes  by  volun- 
tary inheritance.  "  In  the  former  case,"  says  Prince  Iturbide,  "a  peon  seeking  employ- 
ment presents  himself  to  the  administrator  (by  which  title  the  manager  of  a  hacienda  is 
known)  and  asks  foranf  ((f/aoc/ie — that  is,  a  retainer,  the  amount  of  which  varies  between 
ten  and  thirty  dollars.  It  the  applicant  be  acceptable,  the  peon  becomes  part  of  the 
establishment.  His  contract  obliges  him  to  work  for  the  hacienda  until  his  debt  is  canceled. 
C»n  the  other  hand,  his  prerogatives  are  such  as  no  other  laborer  in  the  world  enjoys.  la 
the  first  place,  it  is  understood  that  while  the  peon  remains  in  the  employ  of  the  hacienda, 
his  debt  will  not  be  canceled,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  it  will  be  increased,  until,  if  ever, 
his  children  are  pleased  to  assume  it,  or  death  or  old  age  wipes  it  out.  The  debt  may  not 
be  sold  without  his  consent,  except  to  a  new  owner  of  the  hacienda.  The  peon  is  free,  how- 
ever, to  change  creditors  at  will.  Only  a  part  of  his  earned  wages  may  be  applied  each 
week  to  his  debt.  Each  week  he  receives  rations,  sufficient  for  his  maintenance  and  for 
his  family.  Each  year  he  and  his  family  receive  an  ample  supply  of  clothing.  Medical 
services  are  furnished  them  free  of  expense,  and  the  sums  of  money  that  they  may  require 
for  baptisms,  confli  mations,  marriages,  or  burials  are  advanced  to  them  regardless  of  the 
balance  that  the  peon's  account  may  show  against  him.  Haciendas  have  schools  to  which 
the  peon  may— and  often  must— send  his  children.  He  is  furnished  space  and  material  for 
the  construction  of  his  hut,  and  is  entitled  to  the  use  of  ground,  which  he  cultivates  for  his 
own  benefit,  with  hacienda's  stock,  implements,  and  seed.  Finally  there  are  two  days  in 
the  year  on  each  of  which  the  peon  receives  extra  wages  amounting  to  several  dollars. 
And  when,  through  age  or  accident,  the  peon  is  no  longer  able  to  work,  he  becomes  a 
charge  of  the  hacienda.  Prince  Iturbide  mentions  one  establishment  which  in  1887  had 
1,600  inhabitants  whose  indebtedness  to  the  owner  amounted  to  more  than  $26,000,  of 
which  one  peon  alone  owed  $1,500.  Several  of  the  peons,  however,  were  free  of  debt,  and 
a  few  of  them  were  even  the  hacienda's  creditors.  The  earnings  and  expenses  of  the 
women,  who  are  very  industrious,  are  entered  on  the  accounts  of  the  men  of  their  families. 
Sometimes,  at  the  end  of  a  day,  a  peon  is  credited  with  several  days'  extra  work  that  has 
been  done  by  the  women  of  his  family.  Prince  Iturbide  is  enthusiastic  in  his  praise  of 
the  system,  contrasting  it  with  the  labor  systems  of  other  lands  to  the  disparagement  of  the 
latter.  Of  the  condition  of  the  laborers,  he  says  :  "  There  is  a  numerous  class  of  human 
beings  who  are  born  not  only  in  poverty,  but  in  debt,  and  heirs  by  natural  law  to  all  the 


THE   "international"    AND   ANARCHISM.  383 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   "  INTERNATIONAL  "    AND  ANARCHISM. 

The  most  successful  propagator  of  Socialism  in  our  day 
has  been  the  society  termed  the  luteniatioual,  the  principal 
founders  of  which  were  Karl  Marx,  the  son  of  a  Jew  who 
liad  been  "converted"  to  Protestantism,  and  Frederick 
Engels.  It  is  not  true,  as  many  Catholic  and  other  conser- 
vative publicists  would  fain  imagine,  that  the  International  is 
now  dead— that  its  demise  was  a  consequence  of  the  Social- 
istic Congress  held  at  The  Hague  in  1872.  In  another 
Congress  of  the  Brethren  convened  in  Zurich  on  Aug.  6, 1893, 
Liebknecht,  one  of  their  chief  luminaries,  thus  avowed  the 
still  persistent  vitality  of  the  dread  organization :  "  A  gen- 
eral ought  to  change  tactics  according  to  the  movements  of 
the  enemy.  We  should  do  likewise.  Were  we  residents  of 
Russia,  we  would  act  as  the  Nihilists  act ;  but  we  have 
become  convinced  that  we  must  employ  against  the  modern 
State  every  one  of  the  means  which  the  State  can  furnish 
us."  In  confirmation  of  this  evidence  of  vitality,  Engels 
then  said  :  "  I  am  the  first  Socialist  of  Europe.  When  we 
taught  the  doctrines  of  'Collectivism'  in  184:3,  they  w^ere 

misery  of  the  proletariat— to  which  they  would  bea  prey  if  the  peon  system  were  not  there 
to  solve  their  problem  of  life.  As  it  is,  from  his  cradle  to  his  grave  the  peon  will  never 
lack  food,  raiment,  or  shelter.  His  wife  and  his  children  will  never  know  the  pinch  of 
hunger.  If  he  has  the  capacity  to  rise  above  his  class,  the  hacienda  will  aJford  him  the 
opportunity  to  do  so.  If  he  goes  through  life  an  insolvent  debtor,  still  at  the  hacienda  he 
will  have  an  open  credit,  and  not  only  his  needs,  but  in  a  measure,  his  limited  appetite  for 
the  superfluous  will  be  satisfied.  In  a  word,  he  will  be  above  the  proletariat,  and  that 
through  no  charity  of  his  employer  ;  for  all  that  is  done  in  his  interest  is  his  due.  "  The 
peon  system  affords  the  farmer  proportionate  advantages.  It  is  less  expensive  than  others 
—so  much  so  that  in  many  instances  peon  labor  competes  successfully  with  machinery. 
The  prerogatives  and  perquisites  that  it  secures  to  the  field  hands  could  not  be  replaced  by 
increased  wages  of  reasonable  amounts ;  hence  the  owner  secures  greater  satisfaction 
among  his  laborers  by  this  system  than  he  would  by  others  that  demand  larger  pecuniary 
disbursements.  Then  the  laborer  becomes  identified  with  the  hacienda.  It  is  his  home, 
and  he  takes  a  natural  interest  in  its  welfare.  "  Thi:^  xohdion  of  the  Inhor  qucxiUm  i» 
due  to  the  clergil  of  tlic  earlji  Mexican  Church,  who  perhaps  did  not  conceive  the  peon 
system  as  such,  but  whose  humanitarian  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  Aztec  race  constituted  one 
of  the  forces  of  which  the  system  in  question  is  a  resultant.  It  perhaps  presents  imperfec- 
tions, but  improvements  may  be  sought  in  keeping  with  its  principles:  for  it  is  an  excellent 
formula  that  has  stood  long  and  varied  tests,  with  the  result  that  Mcricati  hncieiidm 
roUcct  an  indigent  poiivlatinn  into  commnniticx  that  hnnw  jio  want,  while  they 
Ixirnii-h  the  mnut  remunerative  safe  invextment  to  he  found  in  thi>i  hemisphere.'''' 


3S4  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HLSTOIIY. 

pronoiTnced  a  claugerous  Utopia  ;  but  now,  after  a  period  of 
fifty  years,  those  doctrines  are  professed  by  a  party  whicli 
is  found  everywhere  on  earth,  and  which  holds  the  future 
in  its  hands.     Who  then  will  dare   to   say   that  the   Inter- 
national is  dead  ?     You  yourselves  have  proved  that  it  is 
more  alive  now  than  it  ever  was  "  (1).     Although  the  Inter- 
national was  founded   and   is   managed   by   men   in   close 
relations  with  the  powers  of  Masonry,  and  although  it  con- 
tinually breathes  a  spirit  of  impiety  that  is  truly   Masonic ; 
nevertheless,  the  average  Internationalist  heartily  curses  the 
Revolution  of  1789,  the  masterpiece  of  the  Brethren  of  the 
Three  Points,  as  having  been  of  benefit  only   to   the   hated 
middle  classes,  and  he  includes  the  Masonic  Lodges  in  his 
imprecations,  since  they  are  really  so  many  intrenchments 
for  the  security  of  his  capitalistic   enemy    (2).     We   must 
remember,  however,  that  this  antagonism  does  not  imply  any 
divergence  of  views  and  aims  between  the  leaders  of  the  two 
sects.     "The  International  and  the  various  Socialistic  organi- 
zations," says  Jannet,  "  have  hitherto  been  in  the  hands  of 
men  who  were  more  or  less  dependent  on  the  supreme  direc- 
tors of  the  secret  societies,  who  have  always  succeeded  in 
turning  the  revolutionary  ardor  of  the  proletariate  against 
the  Church.     The  Jacobin  element,   just   as  it  was   during 
the  Paris  Commune,  is  now  more  powerful  than  the  purely 
Socialistic   element.     But  this   policy   of   equilibrium  and 
intrigue   cannot   always  dominate  the  passions   which    it 
unchains ;  and  the  opposition  between  Freemasonry  and  the 
International,  between  Jacobinism  and  Socialism — if  we  may 
represent  the  diversity  of  the  sects  by  these  names— must 
always  be  real,  since  it  derives  from  the  very  nature  of  things, 
from  the  different  social  positions  of  the  members.     United, 
so  long  as  the  Christian  social  edifice  is  the  object  of  attack, 
the  different  secret  societies   try   to   throttle   one  another, 
as  soon  as  they  deem  their  work  finished  ;  and  by  this  pro- 
cedure they  often  undo   their   work,  thus   anticipating   the 
hour  of  divine  justice  "  (3).     Originally  the  Internationalists 

(1)  Bkchaux  :  Demands  of  the  Worklnomen  in  France,  p.  12.    Paris,  1894. 

(2)  The  Monde  Maconnique  of  Jan.,  1880,  says  that  iu  187U,  the  Radical  Committee  of 
Lyons  insistt^d  on  a  declaration,  on  the  part  of  its  candidates,  that  they  were  not  Masons. 
In  1870,  in  fiict,  the  International  of  Lyons  "  excommunicated  "  all  the  Masonic  Lodges. 

(3J  Introduction  to  the  Secret  Societies  of  Deschamps,  §  7. 


THE    "international"   AND  ANARCHISM.  385 

styled  themselves  Communists  ;  but  even  while  they  bore 
that  name,  their  association  had  already  become  international. 
At  the  head  of  their  manifesto,  issued  in  1851,  was  inscribed 
the  call,  "  Proletaires  of  every  laud,  unite!"  The  World's 
Fair  held  in  London  in  1862  gave  a  powerful  impetus  to  the 
International ;  and  on  Sept.  28,  1864,  the  name  was  officially 
adopted  and  promulgated  iu  a  public  meeting  in  St.  Martin's 
Hall,  at  which  there  were  present  delegates  from  every 
European  country  (1).  It  would  have  been  strange  indeed 
if  Mazzini,  the  champion  conspirator  of  modern  times,  had 
allowed  an  international  league  to  be  formed  without  his  in- 
tervention ;  hence  it  was  that  Wolif,  his  secretary,  presented 
to  the  meeting  of  1862  a  number  of  statutes  which  his  master 
had  prepared  in  accordance  with  the  centralizing  policy 
which  had  served  him  so  vvell  in  the  management  of  his 
Young  Italy  anc*  "^oung  Europe.  But  Marx  was  unwilling 
to  be  eclipsed  even  by  the  superior  talent  of  the  Italian ; 
his  influence  caused  the  adoption  of  a  set  of  statutes  which 
flattered  the  susceptibilities  of  the  particular  circles,  while 
at  the  same  time  they  strengthened  his  directing  hand  (2). 
The  supreme  authority  of  the  International,  according  to  the 
statutes  as  ratified  in  the  Congress  held  at  Geneva  in  1866, 
was  placed  ir.  Congresses,  one  of  which  was  to  be  assembled 
each  year.  The  time  and  place  for  the  meeting,  ;ind  the  sub- 
jects to  be  treated,  were  to  be  prescribed  either  by  the  Congress 
or  by  the  General  Council,  a  body  corresponding  to  tlie  Masonic 
Grand  Orient.  The  seat  of  this  Council  was  originally  in 
London  ;  but  in  1873  it  was  transferred  to  New  York.  Each 
section  was  to  be  free  to  appoint  its  correspondents  with  the 
General  Council.  The  General  Council  was  to  have  the 
right  of  granting  or  refusing  affiliation  to  any  new  society  or 
group,  saving  a  right  of  appeal  to  the  next  Congress.  The 
General  Council  was  to  have  the  right  to  suspend,  until 
the  meeting  of  the  next  Congress,  any  section  of  the  order  ; 
and  any  group  could  exc'ude  one  of  its  sections  from  its 
communion,  but  without  depriving  it  of  its  internationality. 
One  would    imagine   that   from    the    very   birth   of  tlie  In- 

(1*  FRiBOURfi  ;  The  Tntfrnntionnl  As!<nrinti(in  of  Workiugmeti,  p.  6.    Paris.  1K71. 
'.i,  See  the  apposite  article  of  Laveleye  in  the  Revue  fk«  Deux  Monties,  March  15,  188C 
■>nd  also  the  Cnntempnrary  Socialigm  by  Winterer. 


386  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

ternational,  its  sole  ostensible  reason  for  existence  Laving 
been  the  good  of  the  workiugmen,  none  but  workingmen 
would  have  been  admitted  to  its  membership ;  and  indeed  it 
was  this  proletarian  characteristic  that  caused  the  essentially 
democratic  Internationalists  of  the  European  rank  and  file 
to  detest  the  Freemasons,  among  whom  the  European  labor- 
ing man  seldom  or  never  enters.    But  if  this  had  been  the  rule, 
Marx  himself,  a  man  of  independent  fortune,  would  have 
been  excluded  from  the  house  that  he  had  built ;  and  the 
same  would  have  been  the  lot  of  a  horde  of  Jacobin  bourgeois — 
professors,  physicians,  clerks,  military  officers,  etc. — who  had 
joined  the  association  of  manual  laborers,  in  order  to  use 
them  for  their  own  or  for  the  purposes  of  some  other  organ- 
ization.    Therefore  it   was    that  the  German  group  of  the 
order,  entirely  devoted  to  Marx,  refused  to   listen   to   the 
demand  of  the  French  delegates  in  the  Congress  of  Geneva, 
that  the  International  should  be  closed  to  all  who  did  not 
live  by  their  own  manual  labor.     All  of  those  whom  the  Ger- 
man decision  benefited.    Soft-handed   Socialists   of  dubious 
sincerity,  were  Freemasons ;  and  hence  it  was  that  despite 
the   repugnance  of  the  least  impious  among   the   impious 
host,  the  Brethren  of  the  Three  Points  became  the  rulers 
of  the  International.     Among  the  notable  votaries   of   the 
Dark  Lantern  who  joined  this  "association  of  workingmen  " 
during  the  first  years  of  its  public  life,  we  may  mention  the 
famous  and  popular  historian,  Henri  Martin ;  Chaudey,  the 
collaborator  with  Proudhon,  who  fella  victim  of  Kigault,  dur- 
ing the  Commune  ;  Corbon,  who  had  been  vice-president  of  the 
Constituent  in  1848  ;  and  strange  to  say,  Jules  Simon,  who 
was  certainly   far  from   suspecting   that  his  new  comrades 
would  soon  try  to  burn  Paris,  and  that  he,  the  bitter  enemy 
of  standing  armies,  would  help  Thiers  to  crush  those  comrades 
to  earth.     Like  many  others  of  his  party,  this  naturally  well- 
meaning  man    was  the  victim  of  the  first  principles  of   a 
philosophy  which  starts  from  man's  absolute  independence 
of  all  divine  positive  law  ;  and  when  he  finally  realized  the 
necessity  for  that  law,  he  abandoned  the  International  and 
Freemasonry  for  Christianity. 

The  religious  and  social  doctrines  of  the  International  are 


THE    "international"    AND   ANARCHISM.  387 

public  property,  siuce  each  oue  of  its  Congresses  published 
expositions  of  those  teacliings.  At  the  Peace  Congress  held 
in  Geneva  iu  18GG,  the  French  member  of  the  General 
Council,  Eugene  Dupont,  thus  perorated  :  "  The  workingmau 
is  certainl}'  the  warmest  advocate  of  2)erpetual  peace ;  but 
do  you  think  that  you  will  attain  it  by  means  such  as  were 
proposed  to  you  yesterday — the  creation  of  a  new  religion 
(that  of  the  God-Reason,  suggested  by  Garibaldi)  ?  Well, 
far  from  creating  a  new  religion,  you  ought  to  destroy  all 
those  that  now  exist.  Every  religion  is  a  despotism  that 
has  its  standing  armies — the  priests  ;  and  those  armies 
have  inflicted  far  worse  wounds  on  the  people  than  are  ever 
received  on  the  field  of  battle.  Those  armies  have  travestied 
right ;  they  have  atrophied  reason.  Do  not  change  a  barrack 
into  a  church  ;  pull  them  both  down."  Among  the  toasts 
which  were  given  at  the  banquet  which  followed  this  Con- 
gress, that  of  the  Russian  delegate,  the  enigmatical  Bakunine, 
prognosticated  a  glorious  future  for  humanity,  when  "  true 
democracy  would  be  attained,  by  means  of  Federalism, 
Socialism,  and  A  nti-Theologism"  (1).  At  the  Congress  of 
Lausanne,  held  in  1867,  a  certain  Albert  Richard  advocated 
a  study  of  the  careers  of  "  useful  men,  instead  of  the  immoral 
study  of  the  Bible  ";  and  one  Murat  endorsed  the  plea  with  the 
assertion  that  "  The  Bible  is  a  code  of  immoral  it  y^  At  this 
same  Congress,  notice  was  given  by  Aristide  Rey,  one  of 
the  students  who  had  infamously  distinguished  themselves 
at  the  Congress  of  Liege  in  1865,  that  recently  there  had 
been  formed  an  organization  entitled  au  "  Act  as  You  Please 
Society,"  the  members  of  which  were  sworn  to  insert  the 
following  clause  in  their  last  wills  :  "  It  is  my  final  desire 
that  I  be  not  buried  with  the  rites  of  any  religion  whatsoever, 
audi  appoint  N.  ...  to  represent  me  at  my  funeral,  charging 
him  to  see  that  my  body  be  not  profaned  by  such  ceremon- 
ies." This  Congress  of  Liege  deserves  more  than  a  passing 
notice.  It  was  a  reunion  of  more  than  a  thousand  students 
of  the  irreligious  stamp,  who  had  come  from  England,  France, 
Spain,  Germany,  Russia,  and  Holland,  in  order  to  encourage 
the  youth  of  Belgium  to  oppose  religious  education.     The 

(1)  Annals  of  the  Congress  of  Geneva.    Geneva.  1868. 


388  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

sessions  were  appropriately  held  in  the  Casino   Gretry,  a 
dance-hall  and  cafe,  chantant.     In  the  work  of  Deschamps 
the  reader  will  find  copious  extracts  from  the  orations  with 
which  the  young  men  were  enlightened ;  and  if  he  peruses 
them  attentively,  he  will  find  that  it  was  quite  natural  that 
many  of  the  auditors  should  have  afterward  become  eminent 
in  the  councils  of  the  International,  of  Freemasonry,  of  the 
Commune,  and  of  the  Gambettist  administration  in  France. 
We  submit  a  few  of  the  j)recious  morsels.      Arnould,  the 
editor  of   the  Precurseur,   the  most   important   among  the 
Liberal  journals  of  Belgium,  said  that  in  the  present  con- 
dition of  society,  "  there  were  not  two  institutions,  whose 
reason  for  existence  was  based  on  justice."     As  for  the  moral 
order,  said  Arnould,  "  we  have,  in  spite  of  ourselves,  a  Cath- 
olic morality,  and  that  is  all "  ;  how,  therefore,  could  there 
be  "  any  serious  and  complete  education  in  a  society  which 
is  governed  by  ideas  that  have  come  from — goodness  knows 
where  ?  "     A  certain  Fontaine,  a  lawyer  and   an   editor  of 
Brussels,  took  care  to  remind  his  hearers  that  "  although  he 
liad  been  bajDtised  a   Belgian  by   the  Civil   Code  and  the 
Catholic  clergy,  nevertheless,  he  had  no  country  ;  for  him, 
his  country  was  every  land  where  there  was  liberty."     Then 
he  proceeded  to  demonstrate   the  object  of  the  education 
which  his  party  proposed  to  make  obligatory  in  Belgium, 
"in  the  name  of  freedom  of  education."     The  Socialists  in- 
sisted, said  Fontaine,  on  "  an  annihilation  of  every  prejudice 
derived  from  religion  or  Church,  an  annihilation  which  will 
produce  a  denial  of  a  God,  and  entire  freedom  for  investiga- 
tion."    In  fine,  concluded  Fontaine,  "we  expect  to  procure, 
by  means  of  the  enfranchisement  of  the  workingman  and 
of  every  citizen,  the  abolition  of  every  authoritative  system." 
Shortly  after  the  explosion  of  the  cerebellum  of  Fontaine,  a 
certain  Georges  Janson  called  on  the  youth  of  Europe  and 
America  "  to  seek  for  models  in  their  political  lives,  among 
the  Dantons,  the  Saint-Justs,  the  Camille  Desmoulins,  and 
the  Marats."      It  should  be  noted  that  the  Masonic  organ, 
the   Chaiiie  dt  Union  (1878,  p.  147),  said  that  Janson   here 
expressed  the  "  present  view "  of  Freemasonry.     After  the 
ebullition  of  Janson,  a  French  educationalist  named  Eegnard 


THE  "  INTERNATION.\L  "  AM)  ANARCHISM,        389 

told  the  assembled  students  tli.it  "  if  success  Iiad  attended 
the  eftbrts  of  the  man  who  is  termed  Julian  the  Apostate,  the 
fifth  century  would  have  seen  all  the  good  which  has  been 
accomplished  in  the  nineteenth."  A  sage  named  Lafargue 
told  the  boys  to  remember  that  "  human  affairs  are  regulated 
by  no  divine  intelligence  "  ;  but  that  they  ought  not  to  forget 
that  "  Catholicism  is  the  great  weapon  of  the  spiritualists  ; 
that  during  the  last  four  centuries  men  have  tried  to  destroy 
it,  and  that  it  is,  unfortunately  for  us,  as  strong  now  as  ever 
it  was."  A  few  days  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Congress 
of  Liege,  this  same  energumen,  Lafargue,  bidding  farewell 
to  the  lads  in  Brussels,  concluded  his  address  with  :  "  JVar 
on  God  f  Hatred  for  God  !  In  those  sentiments  all  progress 
consists  !  Yon  must  demolish  heaven  as  though  it  luere  a  ceil- 
i)ig  of  paper  !  "  One  of  the  French  boys,  Germain  Casse, 
who  afterward  made  some  noise  as  a  deputy,  called  on  his 
comrades  to  vote,  as  soon  as  they  were  able,  for  "  the  abso- 
lute withdrawal  of  the  right  of  teaching  from  every  individual 
who  represents,  in  the  slightest  degree,  the  religious  idea  "  ; 
and  he  added  :  "  When  you  leave  this  hall,  you  belong  either 
to  Paris  or  to  Eome  ;  you  will  be  either  Jesuits  or  Revolu- 
tionists." In  the  following  year,  another  crowd  of  students, 
assembled  in  Brussels  under  the  auspices  of  the  editors  of 
the  Liberie,  applauded  the  following  utterances  of  a  Citizen 
Sibrae  :  "  I  see  before  me  a  number  of  women,  and  I  thank 
them  for  their  presence.  They  will  not  be  wanting  in  our 
revolutionary  movement.  Eve  was  the  first  to  emit  the  cry  of 
revolt  against  God!  " 

In  July,  1869,  the  General  Council  of  the  International, 
sitting  in  London,  admitted  as  a  section  the  International 
Alliance  of  the  Social  Democracy,  the  programme  of  which 
had  been  prepared  by  Bakunine  and  Becker,  and  was  couched 
in  these  terms  :  "  The  Alliance  avows  itself  atheistic.  It 
demands  the  abolition  of  all  worship  of  God  ;  the  substitu- 
tion of  science  for  faith  ;  and  a  recognition  of  human,  in  the 
place  of  divine  justice  "  (1).  In  the  memorial  addressed  to 
the  Congress  of  Geneva  by  the  French  delegates,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  ratification  of  the  statutes  of  the  Internation- 

(1)  Friboirg  ;  /of.  (if.,  p.  129. 


390  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

al,  a  memorial  vvliicli  the  English  and  German  delegates  con- 
demned as  not  sufficiently  advanced,  we  read  the  following 
theory,  which  is  in  last  analysis  a  perfect  summary  of  the 
teaching  of  Cousin  and  of  Masonry  :  "  Labor  is  an  act  by 
which  man  manifests  his  worth,  his  strength,  and  his  morality. 
By  labor  man  dominates  nature,  acquires  new  knowledge, 
and  arrives  at  a  deification  of  himself,  if  we  may  use  such  an 
expression  (superstitious,  in  the  sense  of  the  memorialists) ; 
for  the  Divinity  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  anything  else  than  an 
ideal  of  the  perfection  totvard  ivhich  humanity  invincibly 
tends."  If  the  English  and  German  Internationalists  found 
this  manifesto  too  tame,  they  should  have  been  satisfied  with 
the  concluding  concession  of  the  French  brethren :  "  Keligion 
is  one  of  those  manifestations  of  human  conscience  which 
may  he  respectable,  like  so  many  others,  so  long  as  it  remains 
an  individual  and  thoroughly  private  matter.  We  believe  that 
all  religious  ideas,  and  all  a  priori  ideas,  can  form  the  sub- 
jects of  no  useful  discussion.  Let  each  person  think  as  he 
deems  proper  on  such  matters,  providing  that  he  does  not 
introduce  Ins  God  into  the  affairs  of  society."  No  wonder 
that  in  the  grand  Masonic  reunion  which  was  held  in  Paris 
on  April  26,  1871,  in  order  to  prepare  for  the  Communistic 
explosion  of  the  29th,  one  of  the  chief  Communists,  Lefran- 
9ais,  exclaimed  :  "  When  I  was  received  into  Lodge  No.  133, 
my  heart  was  with  Masonry  ;  for  I  was  assured  that  the 
object  of  Masonry  was  identical  with  that  of  the  Com- 
mune "  (I).  In  regard  to  the  tenets  of  the  International  on 
the  subject  of  the  ownership  of  land,  it  is  necessary  merely 
to  state  that  the  Congress  of  Bale,  held  in  1869,  proclaimed, 
firstly,  that  society  "  has  the  right  to  abolish  individual 
ownership  of  land,  and  to  give  the  land  to  the  community  "  ; 
and  secondly,  that  "  there  is  a  necessity  for  a  collective  pro- 
prietorship of  the  soil."  Carteret,  a  prominent  member  of 
Bakunine's  International  Alliance  of  the  Social  Democracy, 
was  wont  to  defend  this  curious  proposition:  "When  an 
owner  wishes  to  rent  a  piece  of  immovable  property,  he 
shows  that  he  does  not  need  it ;  therefore  it  should  be  con- 
fiscated."    There  is  no  reason  for  our  descanting  on  the  differ- 

(1)  Deschamps  ;  loc.  cit.,  Bk.  ii.,  ch.  14, 6, 


THE  "  INTERNATIONAL  "  AND  ANARCHISM.       391 

ences  which  have  divided  tlie  men  of  the  luternationul  into 
Collectivists  aud  Comniuuists.  This  division  was  merely  a 
result  of  personal  rivalry  ;  and  both  parties  aim  at  a  destruc- 
tion of  the  existing  order  of  society,  at  an  abolition  of 
individual  property,  aud  at  some  kind  of  an  omnipotence  of 
the  State.  Again,  when  there  was  question  of  establishing 
the  Paris  Commune  of  1871,  all  the  Internationalists — 
Marxists,  Anarchists,  Jacobins,  and  Mazzinians — forgot  their 
rivalries  ;  and  now,  after  some  years  of  another  division,  all 
seem  to  be  reunited  in  a  compact  organization. 

No  account  of  the  International  would  be  complete,  did  it 
not  contain  some  particulars  concerning  Michael  Bakunine, 
the  famous  Pan-Slavist  who,  together  witJx.  flerzen,  another 
Russian,  had  a  principal  part  in  the  fourdation  of  the  chief 
Socialistic  organization.  Thanks  to  the  investigations  of 
Rudolph  Meyer,  a  famous  German  wiiter  whom  Bismarck 
honored  with  a  particular  hatred,  and  to  the  judicious  re- 
flections of  the  Abbe  Winterer,  whose  Contemporary  Social- 
ism has  shed  so  much  light  on  a  subject  which  courts  dark- 
ness, we  are  able  to  perceive  that  both  Bakunine  and  Herzen 
were  merely  Russian  agents  of  Pan-Slavism  at  the  time  when 
they  posed  as  agitators  for  the  Socialism  of  the  International. 
It  is  certain  that  Karl  Marx  and  his  immediate  followers 
came  in  time  to  regard  Bakuniiie  as  a  Russian  agent ;  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Herzen  was  an  apostle  of  Pan- 
Slavism  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  connection  with 
Western  Europe.  Undoubtedly,  Herzen  was  a  Socialist ; 
but,  remarks  Winterer,  Pan-Slavism  is  also  Socialistic. 
"The  dream  of  Pan-Slavism  is  to  dominate  Europe,  and 
then  the  world  ;  it  expects  to  reign  over  the  ruins  of  the 
present  social  order,  having  planted  thereon  the  Russian 
social  organization.  It  is  not  sufficiently  well  understood 
that  the  basis  of  this  organization  is  Agrarian  Communism. 
This  constitution  of  the  commune  is  the  foundation  of  all 
the  social  dreams  of  Pan-Slavism  ;  its  apostles  despise  the 
proletariate  of  Western  Europe,  and  they  proudly  assert 
that  the  Russian  communes  have  prevented  their  country 
from  being  afflicted  by  such  a  proletariate.  Alas!  they  for- 
get that  Russia  suffers  from  wounds  which  are  no  less  cruel.' 


392  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Mejer  and  Winterer  agree  in  terming  Bakunine  an  agent  of 
the  Pan-Slavic  party,  although  they  seem  to  hesitate  as  to 
the  direct  complicity  of  the  Russian  government  in  his  an- 
archistic enterprises.  Before  his  arrival  in  Germany,  Baku- 
nine  had  been  an  officer  of  artillery  in  the  Russian  army. 
The  year  1848  found  him  in  Bohemia,  where  he  published  a 
Pan-Slavist  manifesto  in  the  name  of  the  Slavic  Congress 
which  was  then  held  in  Prague  ;  whereupon  the  Neiv  Bhenish 
Gazette  denounced  him  as  a  Russian  emissary,  and  when  his 
friends  demanded  proofs  of  his  guilt,  the  editor  told  them 
"  to  apply  to  George  Sand,  who  had  furnished  said  proofs  to 
the  journal."  Soon  after  this  contretemps,  Bakunine  was 
arrested  at  Chemnitz,  and  he  was  condemned  to  death  by 
the  governments  of  Austria  and  Saxony ;  but  the  Czar  Nich- 
olas I.  demanded  his  person,  and  having  obtained  the  extra- 
dition, sent  him  to  Siberia,  not  as  a  convict,  but  as  a  simple 
exile  under  the  tutelage  of  his  cousin.  Count  Murawieff,  who 
was  then  governor-general  of  Russian  Asia.  After  a  few 
years  of  merely  nominal  restraint,  Bakunine  was  sent  "  on  a 
mission  to  the  Pacific  coast ";  of  course  he  embarked  for 
Japan,  then  proceeded  to  America,  and  in  1861  he  appeared 
in  London  as  "  one  who  had  dedicated  his  life  to  the  free- 
dom of  the  Russians,  the  Poles,  and  all  the  Slavs.''  So  he 
declared  in  a  manifesto  in  which  he  asserted  that  Nicholas 
I.,  just  before  his  death,  had  conceived  the  idea  of  declaring 
war  on  Austria,  and  of  inciting  the  Austrian  and  Turkish 
Slavs  to  rebellion.  Here  then  we  find  in  1862  a  war  of 
races  preached  by  the  man  who,  in  1868,  was  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  the  International.  At  this  time  the  revolutionists 
of  Western  Europe,  not  contented  with  the  emancipation  of 
the  Russian  serfs,  tried  to  induce  Herzen  and  Bakunine  to 
pronounce  against  the  government  of  St.  Petersburg ;  but 
neither  would  yield  to  the  pressure.  On  the  contrary,  Baku- 
nine  published  a  pamphlet  in  which  he  called  on  Alexander 
II.  to  head  a  Pan-Slavic  revolution.  To  this  programme 
Bakunine  remained  faithful  to  the  end  of  his  life  ;  the  fiery 
talker  of  the  Peace  League  and  of  the  International  never 
ceased  to  be  a  Pan-Slavist,  although  his  sentiments  were 
sometimes  veiled.     He  never  would  admit,  with  the  Western 


THE  "international"  AND  ANARCHISM.       393 

Socialists,  that  Russia  was  reactionary ;  when  tliose  gentry 
would  have  entered  into  active  politics,  he  counselled  "com- 
plete abstention,"  although  he  was  then  calling  on  all  the 
Slavs  of  Europe  to  enter  the  political  arena.  In  fact,  Baku- 
nine  did  not  wish  the  International  to  become  a  dominating 
power  in  the  West ;  he  wished  to  use  it  as  a  means  of  weak- 
ening the  West  through  the  forces  of  revolution  and  anar- 
•cliy,  so  tliat  Pan-Slavism  would  find  its  triumphant  march 
an  eas}'  one.  Meyer  finds  a  convincing  argument  for  the  Pan- 
Slavic  apostolate  of  Bakunine  in  the  fact  that  the  last  years 
of  the  agitator's  life  were  passed  in  luxury  in  one  of  the 
most  delicious  villas  in  Switzerland.  No  pension  from  the 
International,  no  contributions  from  the  workiugmen  of  Eu- 
rope and  America,  could  have  enabled  him  to  lead  this  happy 
existence.  He  had  no  private  fortune  ;  his  money  must  have 
come  from  the  Pan-Slavist  treasury — a  rich  one,  or  from  the 
government  of  the  czar.  Nor  can  it  be  urged  that  Bakuuine's 
Pan-Slavic  mission  was  incompatible  with  the  Socialism 
that  he  propagated  in  Spain,  Switzerland,  and  other  lands ; 
for,  as  we  have  already  said,  this  Socialism  was  in  reality 
the  Agrarian  Communism  on  which  the  rural  communes  of 
Bussia  are  based.  Certainly  the  czar  and  his  government 
were  frequently  objects  of  bitter  invective  on  the  part  of 
Bakunine  ;  but  such  eloquence  could  easily  have  been  a  trick 
of  his  trade.  And  how  are  we  to  account  for  the  czar's  inter- 
ference in  order  to  save  Bakunine  from  a  merited  Austrian 
scaffold?  Why  did  the  culprit  receive  merely  a  nominal 
punishment  from  the  imperial  intercessor,  and  why  was  he 
afforded  an  easy  method  of  escaping  from  even  that  penalty  ? 
But  more  recent  events  show  the  cabinet  of  St.  Petersburg 
in  a  liglit  that  would  indicate  tliat  much  of  the  guilt  of  Bak- 
unine is  to  be  laid  at  its  door.  "  Did  not  Tchernaieff,"  asks 
Winterer,  "  accomplish  a  Pan-Slavic  mission  very  similar  to 
that  of  Bakunine  ?  Did  not  the  Revolution  applaud  this 
Russian  commander  of  the  Servian  army  ?  Was  not  Servia 
then  (and  is  it  not  now)  harrassed  by  conspiracies  of  a 
nature  at  once  Pan-Slavic  and  revolutionary?  Did  not 
Garibaldi  shout  for  that  cause  ?  Did  not  Tchernaieff  with- 
draw at  a  convenient  moment,  with  all  the  blessings,  or  at 


394  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

least  with  tlie  favor  of  the  Czar  Alexander  ?  But  if  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  Bakunine  had  any  positive  relations 
with  the  government  of  St.  Petersburg,  it  is  impossible  to 
doubt  concerning  the  intimate  relations  of  the  agitator  with 
the  Pan-Slavic  party  of  Russia,  a  party  which  enjoys  all  the 
favors  of  the  government.  Hideous,  indeed,  are  the  designs 
of  this  Pan-Slavism  ;  the  lethargic  barbarism  of  the  Crescent 
is  much  to  be  preferred.  To  corrupt,  to  lacerate,  to  enfeeble 
Europe  by  revolution,  anarchy,  and  war  ;  to  hurl  the  innu- 
merable Slavic  hordes  on  a  Europe  in  ruins  ;  to  offer  to  the 
insurgent  proletariate  of  Western  Europe  the  allurement  of 
Agrarian  Communism ;  such  is  Pan-Slavism,  the  monstrosity 
which,  in  company  with  the  International,  now  menaces 
civilized  Europe."  Reichenbach,  in  his  valuable  Socialism 
and  the  Reformation  in  Germany  (Paris,  1878),  thus  speaks  of 
Bakunine  :  "  This  agitator  played  so  extraordinary  a  part, 
that  one  is  tempted  to  agree  with  the  veteran  International- 
ists who  insisted  that  he  was  a  Russian  agent.  Certainly 
his  exile  to  Siberia  was  a  veritable  joke.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  phases  of  his  career  will  be  better  comprehended, 
when  there  will  appear  a  true  history  of  the  Communes  of 
Paris,  Marseilles,  Carthagena,  etc.  Karl  Marx  would  be  the 
man  for  this  task,  just  as  he  would  be  the  man  to  tell  us  all 
that  he  ought  to  know  concerning  Privy  Councillor  Ham- 
burger, that  personage  of  German  nationality  and  of  Jewish 
blood  who  received  from  Prince  Gortschakoff  the  same  con- 
fidence that  Bismark  felt  for  Bucher." 

The  fall  of  the  Commune  of  Paris  was  ascribed,  in  great 
measure,  to  Karl  Marx  by  many  of  his  hitherto  docile  dis- 
ciples ;  they  insisted  that  he  had  been  bought  by  Bismarck 
— a  foolish  charge,  since  it  was  the  interest  of  the  German 
chancellor  to  prolong  the  career  of  an  institution  that  prom- 
ised to  annihilate  the  French.  However,  the  dominating 
influence  of  Marx  remained  unshaken  ;  and  at  its  Congress 
of  1872,  held  at  The  Hague,  the  International  voted  compli- 
ance with  his  suggestion  to  transfer  the  seat  of  the  General 
Council  to  New  York.  The  cosmopolitan  character  ot  the 
American  metropolis,  and  the  all  but  absolute  freedom 
accorded  to  nearly  every  conceivable  species  of  organization 


THE   "  I>fTERNATIONAL  "   AND   ANARCHISM.  395 

by  the  great  republic,  together  with  the  i^henomenal  prev- 
alence of  Freemasoury  amoug  the  Americans,  seemed  to 
form  a  guarantee  for  such  a  development  of  the  Inter- 
national, that  the  destinies  of  the  world  would  soon  be  in 
its  hands.  But  the  General  Council  had  scarcely  been 
established  in  its  new  residence,  when  the  order  was  afflicted 
by  a  schism  which  for  a  while  menaced  its  existence.  A 
large  number  of  the  brethren,  principally  Belgians  and 
Spaniards,  disgusted  with  Marx,  proclaimed  themselves 
followers  of  Bakuuine,  and  called  for  a  Congress  at  Geneva. 
The  meeting  was  held  on  Sept.  8,  1873,  and  besides  the 
Belgian  and  Spanish  sections,  those  of  France,  England, 
Holland,  and  Switzerland  were  well  represented,  wdiile  the 
Lasalle  wing  of  the  German  bretlireu  telegraphed  that  it 
would  accept  the  Genevan  decisions.  A  new  international 
association,  a  federation  of  national  sections  without  any 
central  direction,  was  now  formed  ;  annual  Congresses  were 
to  be  the  sole  connecting  link  for  the  sections,  and  during 
the  intervals  between  those  assemblies  the  sections  of  each 
nationality  were  to  be  guided  by  the  Federal  Council  of 
each  country.  The  secessionists  assumed  the  name  of 
Anarchists,  and  their  plans,  as  detailed  by  the  famous 
Spanish  revolutionist,  Py  y  Margall,  in  his  work  entitled 
XationaUties,  were  based  on  the  two  fundamental  dogmas  of 
absolute  atheism  and  the  absolute  autonomy  of  the  individ- 
ual. On  the  score  of  atheism,  the  palm  of  wickedness  could 
not  well  be  accorded  to  the  Bakunists,  rather  than  to  the 
Marxists  ;  and  each  faction  vied  with  the  other  in  proclaim- 
ing hatred  of  iudividnal  property  and  of  all  existing  govern- 
ments. But  while  Marx  proposed  to  preserve  an  omnipo- 
tent State,  under  the  form  of  a  General  Council  composed 
of  delegations  from  every  country,  the  Anarchists  desired 
to  abolish  every  social  tie  ;  their  reformation  of  society  was 
to  be  founded  on  the  autonomy,  not  only  of  every  commune, 
but  also  of  every  corporative  group.  These  first  Anarchists, 
all  partisans  of  Bakunine,  were  for  some  years  almost  the 
sole  representatives  of  the  International  in  Spain,  Belgium, 
and  the  Italian  and  French  Cantons  of  Switzerland ;  but 
before  his  death  in  1877,  the  Russian  agitator  had  lost  all 


396  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

his  influence.  The  woikingmen  chafed  under  his  order 
that  they  should  abstain  from  political  matters  in  their  re- 
spective countries  ;  that  they  should  reserve  themselves 
for  the  imminent  revolutionary  outbreak.  And  they  bore 
with  ill  grace  the  j^resence  of  many  members  of  the  hated 
middle  class  in  their  groups.  Bakunine  had  promised  that 
no  bourgeois  should  contaminate  their  delicacy  by  his  pres- 
ence ;  and  nevertheless,  the  effective  direction  of  the  organi- 
zation was  entrusted  to  the  class  which  they  hated  with  a 
hate  which  they  had  never  felt  for  the  aristocrats.  These 
two  causes  of  complaint  combined  to  lead  the  Anarchistic 
proletariat  to  a  belief,  encouraged  by  the  Marxists,  that 
Bakunine  was  employed  by  certain  governments  to  foster 
dissension  among  the  workingmen  ;  and  they  soon  mani- 
fested a  desire  for  a  reunion  of  the  entire  Internationalist 
family.  The  first  step  toward  this  reunion  was  taken  at  the 
Congress  of  Gotlia  in  1873,  when  the  two  factions  of  German 
Socialism  united  to  form  the  Social  Democratic  Party,  the 
disciples  of  Lasalle,  hitherto  allies  of  Bismarck,  having 
shaken  hands  with  the  Marxists.  The  final  step  was  taken 
in  1877,  at  the  Congress  .of  Ghent,  when  an  "  agreement  of 
solidarity  "  was  adopted  by  the  representatives  of  nearly 
all  the  Socialistic  organizations.  This  "  agreement "  was 
afterward  accepted  by  the  German  Social  Democratic  Party, 
which  had  ostensibly  kept  aloof  from  the  International, 
on  account  of  the  prohibitive  German  laws.  From  this 
time  the  International,  as  the  prime  association  of  the 
Anarchists,  has  been  a  solid  organization,  united  for  that 
preparation  for  its  millenium,  during  which,  as  Kropotkine 
said,  "  much  blood  must  be  shed,  but  this  blood  will  be  only 
an  incident  in  the  struggle."  In  the  Congress  of  Fribourg, 
held  in  1878,  it  was  declared  that  Anarchism  demands 
the  "collective  appropriation  of  social  wealth,"  and  the  abo- 
lition of  the  State  under  all  forms  (1).     The  Congress  ap- 

(1)  The  admirers  of  Ibsen  are  perhaps  not  all  aware  that  in  a  letter  written  to  Dr. 
Brandes  on  Jan.  17.  1871,  the  novelist  gave  vent  to  the  following  Anarchistic  sentiments  : 
"  Yes,  to  be  sure.  It  may  be  a  good  thing  to  possess  liberty  of  suffrafre,  liberty  of  taxation, 
etc.,  but  for  whom  is  it  a  good  thing?  For  the  citizen ;  not  for  the  individual.  But  there 
is  no  rational  necessity  why  the  individual  should  be  a  citizen.  On  the  contrary,  the 
State  is  the  banishment  of  individuality.  How  has  Prussia  bought  her  strength  as  a  Slate? 
By  the  absorption  of  the  individual  in  the  political  and  geographical  conception.    The 


THE  "  INTERNATIONAL "  AND  ANARCHISM.       397 

proved  theoretical  propajrauda  aud  insurrection  as  means  for 
the  actuation  of  its  programme ;  but  it  condemned  the  use 
of  universal  suifrage  as  a  frequently  dangerous  weapon.  Im- 
mediately after  this  Congress,  the  attem})ts  on  tiie  life  of 
William  I.  of  Germany  were  made  by  Nobiling  and  H(jedel, 
the  latter  proclaiming  himself  an  Anarchist ;  Moncasi  tried  to 
kill  Alfonso  XII.  of  Spain  ;  and  Passauante  attacked  Hum- 
bert of  Savoy,  In  1879,  the  Anarchists  held  their  Congress 
of  Chaux-de-Fonds,  and  their  Kropotkine  insisted  on  the 
propaganda  of  ideas  "  by  means  of  acts  "  ;  and  in  the  follow- 
ing year  Ottero  Gonzalez  made  a  second  attempt  on  the  life 
of  Alfonso  XII.  In  the  Congress  of  London  in  1881,  appeals 
to  violence  were  made,  and  in  the  ensuing  year,  the  insurrection 
of  Monceau-les-Mines  occurred  ;  the  walls  of  Marseilles  were 
covered  with  incendiary  placards  ;  hidden  stores  of  dynamite 
were  discovered  throughout  France  ;  explosions  occurred  at 
the  Bellecour  Theatre  and  at  the  Custom  House  of  Lyons ; 
and  Louise  Michel  preached  the  gospel  of  Anarchy  without 
hindrance.  In  188-1,  a  number  of  "  comrades,"  as  the  Anar- 
chists had  begun  to  style  each  other,  being  out  of  work,  held 
a  public  meeting  at  the  Salle  Levis,  and  proclaimed  their 
right  to  attack  private  jDroperty,  that  they  might  obtain  all 
that  they  needed.  In  1886,  to  say  nothing  of  minor  outrages, 
an  Anarchist  named  Gallo  fired  into  the  crowd  assembled  at 
the  Bourse  in  Paris  ;  at  Charleroi  workshops  and  convents 
were  sacked  aud  burnt ;  and  in  Chicago  the  Anarchist  feast 
of  May  1  was  signalized  l)y  the  explosion  of  a  bomb  which 
wounded  eighty  jDersons.  In  1889,  the  chief  streets  of  Kome 
were  filled,  on  one  occasion,  with  men  who  either  sincerely 
or  hypocritically  declared  that  they  were  starving,  and  then 

waiter  makes  the  best  soldier.  On  the  other  hand  look  at  the  Jews— the  nobility  of 
humanity.  How  have  they  preserved  their  identity  in  isolation,  in  poetry,  in  spite  of  all 
vulgarity?  Thereby  that  they  have  had  no  State  to  drag  ulons  with  them.  If  th»y  had 
remained  in  Palestine,  they  would  long  since  have  perished  In  their  own  construe  ion 
like  all  other  nations.  Away  with  the  State  !  I  would  like  to  take  a  hand  in  that  revolu- 
tion. Undermine  the  idea  of  the  State  ;  put  in  its  place  free-will  and  spiritual  nfflnity  as 
the  one  decisive  reason  fur  a  union  ;  that  would  he  the  ben-inning  of  a  freedom  thnt  would 
be  worth  something.  Changes  in  the  form  of  government  are  nothing  but  Addling  with 
degrees — a  little  more  or  a  little  less— fooling  altoirether.  .  .  .  The  State  has  its  root  In 
the  age  ;  it  will  have  its  crown,  too,  in  the  a.se.  Greater  things  than  it  will  perish  .... 
Neither  our  moral  conceptions  nor  our  artistic  forms  have  an  eternjty  before  them.  How 
muc!i  are  we  really  in  dutv  found  to  hold  on  to  ?  Who  can  afford  rae  a  guarantee  that  up 
yonder  on  Jupiter  two  and  two  do  not  make  five?  " 


398  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

proceeded  to  demolish  windows,  aud  to  plunder  shops.  In 
1890  Kropotkine  published  his  Anarchist  Morality  and  his 
Indicator,  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  the  brethren  the 
method  of  preparing  high  explosives.  In  1891,  explosions 
of  dynamite  frequently  occurred  in  Charleville  and  Nantes  ; 
at  Clichy  the  desperate  Ravachol  tried  to  destroy  the  Com- 
missariat of  Police,  and  the  houses  of  many  magistrates ;  an 
Anarchical  propaganda  was  started  in  the  French  army.  It 
was  also  in  1891  that  the  literary  bureau  of  the  comrades 
caused  to  be  printed  in  London  a  manifesto  purporting  to 
be  a  "  Declaration  of  the  Anarchist  Soldiers  of  France,"  in 
which  we  read  :  "  If  we  remain  in  this  hell,  we  remain  with 
enraged  hearts,  and  tortured  by  the  wearers  of  filagree  who 
threaten  to  shoot  us.  We  must  remain  ;  but  our  hatred  for 
authority  is  invincible,  aud  we  yearn  for  the  day  when  we 
may  turn  our  weapons  against  our  tormentors.  Remember 
how  our  predecessors,  on  March  18,  1871  (  on  the  explosion 
of  the  Commune  ),  nailed  those  two  generals  to  the  walls  ! 
We  also,  when  we  receive  the  proper  order,  wall  turn  our 
rifles  against  the  lace-bedizzened  vultures  who  now  feed  on 
us."  In  1892,  dynamitic  outrages  became  more  frequent. 
Several  occurred  in  the  palaces  and  houses  of  Rome.  In 
Paris  they  were  effected  at  the  residence  of  the  Princess  de 
Sagan ;  at  that  of  the  Councillor  Benoit  ;  in  the  Boulevard 
Saint-Germain  ;  at  the  Lobau  barracks  ;  at  the  Restaurant 
Very ;  and  at  the  Commissariate  of  Police  in  the  Rue  Bons 
Enfants.  In  1893,  Vaillant  threw  a  bomb  into  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  and  many  disturbances  occurred  in  the  Quartier 
Latin  ;  many  explosions  took  place  in  Marseilles ;  thefts  of 
dynamite  al)ounded  in  Berlin,  Lyons,  Saint-Denis,  and  Rou- 
baix  ;  Austria  experienced  many  troubles  ;  in  Madrid  a  bomb 
was  hurled  against  Martinez  Campos  by  Pallas,  and  an 
explosion  was  effected  at  the  theatre  Liceo.  In  1894,  Bar- 
cellona  witnessed  an  attempt  on  the  life  of  its  prefect ;  in 
front  of  the  House  of  Parliament  in  Rome  a  tin  of  dynamite 
was  exploded  ;  Paris  had  her  explosions  at  the  Cate  Terminus, 
at  the  Hotel  Saint-Jacques,  in  the  suburb  of  Saint-Martin, 
and  in  front  of  the  shops  of  the  Priutemps  ;  at  Lyons  the 
president  of  France,  Sadi-Carnot,  was  slain  by  Caserio  :  in 


THE  "international"  AND  ANARCHISM.       399 

Rome  Lega  fired  two  shots  at  Crispi,  tlieu  President  of  the 
Council ;  aud  Yieuua  aud  Loudou  also  experienced,  though 
in  a  minor  degree,  the  dread  fact  that  the  International  was 
not  dead,  although  it  might  now  be  more  properly  desig- 
nated as  the  Universal  Society'  of  Anarchy.  During  the  last 
five  years,  if  we  except  the  murder  of  Canovas  y  Castillo  iu 
1897,  the  Anarchists  have  been  apparently  satisfied  with 
their  newspaper  propaganda  (1),  probably  regarding  it  as 
promising  the  greatest  measure  of  success  for  the  grand 
coup  against  society,  with  which  many  of  their  publicists 
propose  to  signalize  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century. 
But  just  as  this  dissertation  is  about  to  go  to  the  press 
(Aug.,  1899),  we  read  that  the  deluded  wretches  have  sacked 
and  gutted  the  church  of  St.  Joseph  in  the  Rue  Saint  Maur 
in  Paris,  thrown  the  Blessed    Sacrament  to  the  pavement 


(1)  Probably  the  most  influential  of  the  Anarchist  organs  is  the  Internationale  ;  and  as 
a  specimen  of  its  style  we  subtnit  the  following  passage  :  "  Side  by  side  with  theoretical 
propajrauda,  which  is  carried  on  without  truce  and  which  we  aie  delighted  to  applaud,  it  be- 
comes indispensable  to  proclaim  aloud  all  that  science  has  placed  at  our  disposal.  Useless 
to  say  that  we  understand  the  urgent,  logical  necessity  of  expropriating  i»i  a?J  pos8i7)?e 
ica\is  the  middle  class,  the  common  object  of  our  implacatAe  hatred.  Thus  by  the  side  of 
theft,  murder,  and  ineendiarissm,  which  become  naturaUyimr  Zfyaf  means,  we  shall  not 
hesitate  to  place  chemistry,  whose  pi(i><mnt  voice  may  become  obsolutelu  (iccessarj/ to 
guide  the  social  uprising  and  to  make  by  violent  means  fall  into  our  hands  the  wealth  of 
the  enemy,  without  spilling  the  blood  of  our  own  people.  It  is  necessary  to  demolish  all 
political,  military,  and  religious  authority,  it  is  absolutely  needful  to  burn  the  chierches 
palaces,  convents,  barracks,  town-halls,  maynralties,  fortresses,  prisons,  and  Anally  to 
take  possession  of  everything  that  up  to  this  day  has  been  able  to  thrive  on  human  labor 
without  Joining  in  it."  The  titles  of  the  other  principal  Anarchist  journals  are  sufficiently 
eloquent.  We  have  the  Insurije  ;  L'Affame;  La  Revolution  Socialc  ;  L'Emeute  ;  Le 
Droit  Anarchique  ;  Der  Socialist ;  Die  Zukunft  ;  Dcr  Anarchist  ;  The  Commonweal  ; 
Liberty  ;  Freedom  ;  El  Corsario  ;  Volne  Listy ;  Demoliamo  ;  VFJguaoUanza  Sociale. 
In  addition  to  the  newspapers  there  are  manifestoes  printed  secretly.  These  are  inserted 
within  the  folds  of  an  unsuspected  paper,  andare  thus  expedited  to  the  members.  Next  come 
the  novel-writers,  orators,  and  poets  of  the  party.  Their  elucubrations  generally  appear 
In  Anarchist  Reviews,  such  as  L'en  Dehors,  La  Revue  Libeiiaire,  La  Societr  Nouvelle, 
etc.,  wherein  they  insert  the  best  formulas  for  the  manufacture  of  dynamite,  bombs,  and 
other  explosives,  where  finally  thev  glorify  their  great  Anarchists,  Ravochol,  Henry,  Vail- 
lant,  etc.,  whom  they  make  "  martyrs  "  and  "  saints."  There  is  besides  a  large  sale  of 
almanacs,  and  of  prints  representing  scenes  fitted  to  awaken  either  wrath  against  the 
middle  class  or  pity  and  admiration  for  some  Anarchist.  Thus  when  Ravachol  was  execut- 
ed, many  of  his  photographs  were  seen  with  these  lithograped  inscriptions  :  "  Anarchy 
is  the  future  of  humanity,  property  ui  robbery."-  ''''  If  y(n(  trant  to  be  happy,  hang 
your  latuUord."  There  are,  finally.  Anarchic  circulating-libraries,  which  contain  mainly 
Anarchic  writings,  or  works  non-Anarchic,  but  which  are  thought  fitted  to  produce  con- 
fusion in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  readers.  Amongst  these  works  the  principal  are  : 
\Vords  of  An  In.surgent  and  The  Conque^'tt  of  Bread,  by  Kropotkiue;  the  works  of  Tolstoi 
Dostoiewski,  Tschernichewsky,  Ibsen,  LethomlnofI,  etc.  On  every  volume  are  printed, 
ihese  words  :  "  Read  and  Circulate."    Soderini  :  Inc.  cit.,  p.  83. 


400  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

and  trampled  on  it,  and  made  bonfires  of  the  crucifixes  and 
sacred  pictures. 


CHAPTEE  XVIIL 

THE  VAGARIES  OF  FA^'HEIi  CURCI,  S.  J. 

When  the  future  demi-god  of  Young  Italy,  the  quasi- 
pantheistic  philosopher  and  semi-rationalistic  theologian, 
Giobarti,  gave  to  the  world  his  grand  but  subversive  Moral 
and  Civil  Primacy  of  the  Italians  (1),  very  many  of  the  more 
generous  among  the  Catholic  clergy  of  Europe,  less  clair- 
voyant than  the  foes  of  the  Pope-King,  momentarily  suc- 
cumbed to  the  specious  arguments  of  him  who  was  then 
the  most  brilliant  although  the  sole  dishonest  one  of  the 
Neo-Guelphs  (2).  Even  the  Jesuits,  generally  regarded  as 
animated  by  phenomenal  astuteness,  were  so  far  deceived  as 
to  acclaim  Gioberti  as  their  friend  ;  and  one  of  their  Society, 
the  Father  Curci  who  was  soon  to  become  famous  as  the 
most  pronounced  of  all  the  adversaries  of  the  Sub-Alpine 
enthusiast,  published  an  edition  of  the  Primacy  in  the 
pontifical  Duchy  of  Benevento  (3).  But  two  years  had 
scarcely  passed,  when  Gioberti,  having  found  it  to  his  inter- 
est to  repel  the  charge  that  he  was  a  "  Jesuitizer,"  published 
his  venemous  Prolegomeni,  a  worthy  forerunner  of  his  Modern 
Jesiiif.  It  was  evident  that  the  Society  could  not  be  silent 
in  the  face  of  the  accusations  which  formed  the  very  essence 
of  the  Prolegomeni — charges  which  were  very  different  from 
those  which  constitute  the  arsenal  of  the  ordinary  Jesuit- 
ophagus,  a  creature  who  ought  never  to  be  honored  with  a 
reply.  No  less  evident  was  it  that  the  Society  should 
entrust  to  no  ordinary  champion  its  defence  against  alle- 
gations proffered  by  the  latest  and  worthiest  apologist  of 

rl)  Brussels,  1843.  The  future  prime-minister  of  Charles  Albert  of  Sardinia  was  then 
living  In  the  Belgian  capital,  his  liberal  opinio  as  having  entailed  his  exile  from  Piedmont 
in  1833. 

(2)  See  our  remarks  on  Gioberti  and  his  works,  in  Vol.  iv.,  p.  442  :  Vol.  v.,  p.  341,  388. 

(3)  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Curci,  having  desired  to  publish  this  edition  iu  Naples, 
and  having  applied  for  authorization  to  Santangelo,  the  royal  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
received  the  following  reply  :  "  You  are  still  a  young  man ;  but  I,  a  man  of  greater 
experience  than  yours,  find  in  this  Primacy  the  seeds  of  the  Revolution  and  of  all  its 
consequences." 


THE   VAGARIES   OF   FATHER   CURCI,  S.  J.  401 

the  Revolution.  On  the  side  of  Gioberti  there  was  "the 
prestige  of  science,  the  halo  of  patriotism,  and  the  fanatical 
devotion  of  (very  many  of)  the  Italians  ;  if  Gioberti  were 
attacked,  but  not  vanquished,  the  remedy  would  be  worse 
than  the  evil  "  (1).  In  this  emergency.  Father  llothaan,  the 
general  of  the  Society,  confided  the  task  to  Carlo  Curci,  one 
of  the  most  impassioned  natures  whom  passionate  Naples 
has  ever  produced,  but  whose  ecclesiastical  reputation  had 
hitherto  been  based  solely  on  an  extraordinary  success  in 
the  pulpit.  At  this  time  Curci  had  never  manifested  any 
talent  as  a  writer  ;  indeed,  not  a  line  from  his  pen  had  ever 
been  printed.  But  the  event  proved  that  Father  llothaan 
had  discerned  a  born  polemic  in  his  fiery  Neapolitan  subject 
Two  months  after  he  had  received  the  generalitial  command, 
Curci  sent  his  Facts  and  Arguments  to  the  printers  (2) ;  and 
in  a  few  weeks  Gioberti  perforce  comprehended  that  no  sane 
and  candid  mind,  after  a  perusal  of  their  refutation,  would 
attach  any  value  to  his  cherished  Prolegomeni  But  the 
consequences  of  this  refutation,  the  work  of  a  Jesuit,  and  of 
one  who  was  a  master  in  a  sphere  where  he  thought  that  he 
reigned  alone,  penetrated  to  the  very  soul  of  Gioberti ;  and 
from  that  moment  he  devoted  an  implacable  ire  and  an  in- 
domitable energy  to  an  annihilation  of  both  Curci  and  the 
Society.  The  first  and  principal  fruit  of  iiis  wrath  was  that 
famous  work  which,  wdth  little  exaggeration  has  been  styled 
infernal — the  Modern  Jesuit.  No  production  of  human  pen 
was  ever  so  adapted  to  the  purpose  of  Masonry  in  Catholic 
countries  as  this  diatribe  ;  and  to  it  alone  might  be  ascribed 
those  "  popular  "  effervescences  which  forced  all  the  govern- 
ments of  the  peninsula  to  again  expel  the  Jesuits  from  their 
dominions,  even  before  the  days  of  1 848.  When  this  natu- 
ral manifestation  of  modern  Liberalism  occurred  in  Naples, 
Curci  was  one  of  the  146  Jesuits  of  that  kingdom  who  took 
the  road  of  exile.     Malta  became  his  first  abiding  place,  and 

(1)  Kannengikser  :  The  Advermrics  of  the  Temporal  Power  and  the  Triple  Alli- 
ance, p.  254.     Paris.  1893. 

(2)  In  order  to  obtain  the  funds  for  the  publication  of  his  book,  Curci  asked  for  the  loan 
of  .500  ducats  from  a  friend.  The  favor  was  granted  ;  but  when  handing  the  money,  the 
Mecasnas  remarked  that  it  would  be  better  to  Rive  a  hundred  to  some  rascal  who  would 
enpape  to  administer  a  (rood  beating  to  Gioberti.  By  some  means  this  hee<)!ess  observa- 
tion reached  the  ears  of  Gioberti ;  and  the  rei^der  ipay  imaffine  the  use  to  which  he  put  it 


402  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

there  lie  began  a  refutation  of  the  Modern  Jesuit  which  he 
completed  in  Paris  after  ten  months  of  labor.  The  original 
edition  of  Gioberti's  diatribe  (Lausanne)  consisted  of  no  less 
than  five  volumes  ;  to  its  refutation  which  he  termed  a 
Divinazione,  because  he  proposed  to  conjecture  (divinare) 
the  real  object  of  Gioberti's  enterprise,  Curci  devoted 
two  volumes,  showing  that  the  Piedmontese  had  really 
attacked  the  Catholic  Church  when  he  assailed  the  So- 
ciety which  he  foolishly  presented  as  a  personification  of 
the  Church  as  she  had  been  illustrated  by  the  Council  of 
Trent.  "  The  thesis  of  Curci  was  incontestable,"  observes 
Kannengieser  ;  "  the  duel  between  Curci  and  Gioberti  was 
really  a  duel  between  Catholic  doctrine  and  Rationalist 
philosophy,  involving  all  that  derives  from  the  one  and  the 
other ;  Curci  had  divinato  correctly."  Gioberti  and  Curci 
never  met  in  this  world  (1) ;  and  three  years  after  the 
commencement  of  their  controversy,  a  fatal  stroke  of  apo- 
plexy carried  off  the  former  in  the  midst  of  his  political  and 
literary  glory,  leaving  us  to  consider  whether  he  would  have 
ultimately  acted  as  the  latter  was  fortunately  destined  to  act, 
after  many  years  of  a  similar  estrangement  from  the  centre 
•of  Catholic  authority.  When  the  defeat  of  the  revolutionary 
forces  of  1848-'49  enabled  the  Jesuits  to  return  to  Italy,  the 
author  of  the  Facts  and  Arguments  besought  his  superiors 
ior  permission  to  found  a  "  Review  "  of  the  first  class,  the 
special  mission  of  which  would  be  the  defence  of  the  right 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff  to  his  temporal  dominion  in  the  States 
of  the  Church.  Accordingly,  the  year  1850  saw  the  beginn- 
ing of  the  Civiltd  Cattolica,  which  was  the  first  of  all  the 
Jesuit  "  Reviews,"  and  which,  published  originally  in  Naples, 
was  soon  transferred  to  Rome,  and  has  ever  easily  held  the 
first  place  among  the   Catholic   periodicals   of  the   world. 

(1)  On  one  occasion,  and  shortly  after  the  appearance  of  the  Divinazione^  the 
:adversaries  barely  escaped  a  meeting  which  would  certainly  have  been  interesting. 
During  the  exile  of  Curci  in  Paris,  he  often  visited  Mgr.  Fornari,  the  papal  nuncio  to 
France  ;  and  one  day,  as  he  entered  the  courtyard  he  passed  the  sumptuous  carriage  of 
«ome  member  of  the  diplomatic  body  who  had  evidently  just  left  the  salon  of  the  prelate. 
The  Jesuit  and  the  diplomat  exchanged  a  flxed  but  an  unrecognizing  glance  ;  and  when 
the  former  entered  the  nuncio's  apartment,  His  Excellency  asked  :  "  Did  you  notice  the 
beautiful  equipage  which  just  left  the  palace?"  Curci  replied  :  "Certainly;  that  of  a 
colleague,  probably  ?  "  And  Fornari  smilingly  said:  "  It  was  the  carriage  of  the  Minister- 
Plenipotentiary  of  His  Sardinian  Majesty— the  carriage  of  the  Abbate  Gioberti." 


THE   VAGARIES   OF  FATHER   CURCI,  S.  J.  403 

Encouraged  by  tlie  success  of  their  Italian  brother,  the  Jes- 
uits of  France  soon  founded  tlieir  Eftulcs,  those  of  England 
their  Mo)dJi,  and  even  those  of  Germany  ventured  to  estab- 
lish their  Sfimmen  ai(s  Maria  Laach.  All  of  these  organs 
of  the  Society  soon  demonstrated  that  the  older  period- 
icals of  the  Catholic  world  could  advance  no  stronger  claims 
to  the  gratitude  and  support  of  the  faithful  children  of 
Christ's  Yicar  on  earth;  but  none  of  them  ever  attained 
to  the  scientific  and  literary  consequence,  with  which  our 
fiery  but  judicially-minded  Neapolitan  endowed  the  creature 
of  his  own  prolific  brain,  the  Civilfd  Catfolica.  During  his 
twenty-four  years  of  journalistic  combat  against  the  united 
forces  of  the  cosmopolitan  Revolution  and  of^Masonic  impiety, 
Curci  was  true  to  the  motto  which  he  had  chosen  for  his 
periodical,  "  Bcatiis poptdus,  cujiis  domimis  Deus  ejus.''  And 
when,  in  1870,  tlie  Savoyard  usurper  feigned  to  consecrate 
the  crime  of  the  Porta  Pia  by  a  pretended  vote  of  the  Roman 
people,  it  was  Curci  who  initiated  the  immense  petition 
which  was  destined  to  manifest  the  true  sentiments  of  the 
veritable  Quirites  ;  it  was  Curci  who  founded  a  new  journal 
for  the  purpose  of  seconding  the  Catholic  and  truly  patriotic 
efi'orts  of  the  Ciuilth  CattoUca ;  and  it  was  Curci  who  was 
the  animating  force  of  the  many  associations  of  faithful 
Christians  who  endeavored  to  impede  the  dedication  of  the 
Eternal  City  to  the  powers  of  hell.  Such  was  the  picture 
presented  by  the  great  Jesuit  polemic  until  1874,  when  he 
suddenly  changed  his  cry, "  Restore  Rome  to  its  Pope-King,'* 
to  an  affectation  of  the  pious  avowal,  "  We  must  bow  to  the 
will  of  God." 

Strange  to  say,  for  the  proclamation  of  his  change  of  views 
Curci  seized  the  occasion  of  the  publication  of  the  first  two 
volumes  of  his  Exegetlc  and  Moral  Lessons,  a  collection  of 
certain  instructions  which  he  had  already  delivered  from 
the  pulpit,  and  which  naturally  afforded  few,  if  any, 
opportunities  for  an  invocation  of  the  blessing  of  God  on 
"  United  Italy."  It  was  the  preface,  however,  which  served 
to  warn  tlie  Catholic  world  that  it  erred  egregiously,  when 
it  regarded  the  destruction  of  the  Temporal  Power  as  an 
injury   to  the   Church.     Affecting   to  penetrate   the   secret 


404  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

designs  of  the  Most  High,  the  recreant  said  :  "  God  gave  a 
great  proof  of  His  mercy  to  the  Church  when  He  deprived 
her  of  this  temporal  domain,  and  thus  took  from  her  the 
possibility  of  making  a  bad  use  of  it. . .  .  God  permitted  this 
spoliation  in  order  to  sanctify  His  Church,  and  it  is  toward 
this  sanctification  that  the  efforts  of  the  desi:)oiled  ought 
to  be  directed.  ...  It  is  incomprehensible  how  there  can  be 
so  much  lamentation  at  the  moment  when  we  ought  to  be 
thanking  God  for  His  mercy ;  and  least  of  all  do  I  under- 
stand the  efforts  (put  forth  by  the  Holy  See)  to  promote 
a  confidence  in  an  ultimate  return  to  that  past  which  has 
been  destroyed  by  the  permission  of  God We  must  aban- 
don all  illusion,  and  bow  to  the  will  of  God. .  .  .The  pres- 
ent situation  being  merely  a  consequence  of  the  past,  we 
should  recognize  the  goodness  of  God  in  His  accomplish- 
ment of  these  changes  in  the  external  conditions  of  His 
Church,  and  because  of  His  having  forced  us,  in  spite  of  our- 
selves, to  become  detached  from  the  goods  of  earth."  In  the 
3Iode)'n  Dissension  which,  he  published  in  1877,  Curci  tells  us 
that  while  he  was  engaged  in  preparing  the  last  volumes  of 
his  Lessons  for  the  press,  he  was  not  so  ill-informed  con- 
cerning outside  events,  as  not  to  see  reason  for  affliction  on 
account  of  the  persistent  efforts  of  the  Pope  to  hide  the  truth 
from  the  Catholic  world.  Therefore  it  was,  adds  Curci,  that 
he  conceived  the  idea  of  developing  the  thoughts  then  ani- 
mating him  in  a  Preface  to  the  third  volume.  He  communi- 
cated  his  design  to  "  an  eminent  prelate"  ;  but  that  person- 
age advised  him,  he  says,  to  lay  his  developed  theories  at 
the  feet  of  the  Pontiff  before  he  presented  them  to  the  pub- 
lic. In  accordance  with  this  advice,  the  self-appointed 
counsellor  of  the  Holy  See  sent  to  His  Holiness,  in  June, 
1875,  a  Memorial  which  Pius  IX.  afterward  qualified  as  "  a 
piece  of  impertinence."  We  select  the  following  passages 
from  this  document :  "  We  must  admit  at  once  that  Italy 
will  never  return  to  the  olden  conditions,  least  of  all  to  the 
recognition  of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  as  it  existed 
until  Sept.  20,  1870.  This  truth  begins  to  penetrate  even 
those  minds  which  would  prefer  to  hope  to  the  contrary." 
As  for  the  opinion  that  the  temporal  power  is  necessary  for 


THE   VAGARIES  OF  FATHER  CURCI,  S.  J.  405 

the  pontifical  indepeudeuce,  Curci  insisted  that  "  although 
men  have  tried  to  make  it  dogmatically  certain,  using  every 
kind  of  fallacy  and  irrelevancy,  it  is  the  real  cause  of  all  the 
present  troubles  of  the  Church."  And  he  asks  :  "  Why 
should  Italy  be  allowed  to  perish  morally,  simply  because 
great  wickednesses  have  contributed  to  her  modern  restora- 
tion  ?  "  Nor  does  the  new  apologist  of  the  Revolution  hesi- 
tate to  say  that  "  United  Ifnhj  has  been  made  partbj  hij  God, 
and  partly  by  the  permission  of  God."  Finally  the  Pontiff  is 
approached  on  his  weak  side,  that  of  his  Itahan  patriotism  and 
of  his  hatred  of  a  German  presence  on  Italian  soil.  If  the 
Pope  does  not  compromise  with  his  despoilers,  renouncing  the 
imprescriptible  rights  of  the  Holy  See,  sanctioning  sacrilege 
and  brigandage,  closing  the  sole  mouth  on  earth  which  can 
protest  authoritatively  against  injustice,  then  Italy, "  enervated 
and  sapped  from  within,  separated  from  her  natural  ally,  will 
be  in  danger  of  falling  once  more  a  prey  to  the  Germans.  For 
Italy  will  help  Germany  to  crush  France,  only  to  be  crushed 
in  her  turn  by  Germany."  Let  the  Pontiff  extend  the  hand 
of  friendship  to  the  Savoyard  in  the  Quirinal,  proclaiming  a 
policy  which  is  "reasonable,  grand,  and  useful,  and  so 
necessary  for  the  preservation  and  prosperity  of  Italy."  Let 
the  pontifical  ear  be  closed  to  the  suggestions  of  "  a  press 
which  calls  itself  Catholic,  while  it  imposes  its  system  on 
imbeciles  by  manoeuvres  the  most  ignoble,  and  while  it  tries  to 
reduce  the  wise  to  silence."  There  is  but  one  way  of  sal- 
vation for  the  Pontiff  and  for  Italy — a  hearty  and  thorough 
acceptation,  on  the  part  of  the  once  Poj^e-King,  of  the 
"  glorious  "  results  of  the  "  grand  "  Italian  Revolution.  If 
the  Holy  See  continues  in  its  obstinacy,  then,  predicts  Curci, 
''  the  Almighty  will  use  the  mistakes  of  the  good  and  the  in- 
iquities of  the  wicked  to  inflict  on  the  Church  along  course  of 
suffering — suffering  which  will  strengthen  her  by  a  recourse 
to  the  evangelical  principles  which  now  seem  to  have  been 
forgotten."  The  world  was  not  astonished  when  it  learned 
that  the  author  of  this  mixture  of  absurdities,  sophisms,  and 
lies,  all  diametrically  opposed  to  the  doctrine  and  policy 
professed  by  the  Holy  See,  had  been  expelled  from  that  So- 
ciety of  Jesus  into   which   he  had   entered   fifty-two  years 


406  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

previously.  We  are  dispensed  from  any  obligation  of  now 
refuting  the  ravings  wliicli  entailed  this  catastrophe,  since 
they  are  merely  manifestations  of  the  revolutionary  princi- 
ples which  engaged  so  much  of  our  attention  when  we  treat- 
ed of  the  pontificates  of  Pius  YL,  Pius  VIL,  Gregory  XVI., 
and  Pius  IX.  ;  but  the  reader  may  not  object  to  a  succinct  no- 
tice of  the  other  works  with  which  the  quondam  champion 
of  the  triple  crown  illustrated  his  otherwise  inexplicable 
change  of  front. 

The  Modern  Dissension  Between  the  Church  and  Italy 
appeared  in  December,  1877  ;  and  the  author  informed  his 
readers  that  his  intention  had  been  "  to  write  a  useful,  not  a 
scandalous  book."  He  congratulated  himself  on  the  pre- 
sumed fact  that  all  who  knew  him  would  not  expect  a  scan- 
dalous work  from  his  pen  ;  they  would  "  not  be  deceived  by 
those  journals,  in  regard  to  which  he  was  about  to  adminis- 
ter severe  justice."  He  was  entirely  "  confident  that  the 
present  work  would  be  more  beneficial  to  Italy  than  any  thing 
he  had  ever  written  "  ;  for  it  would  be  seen  that  he  had  demon- 
strated that  "  all  the  obstacles,  iuterposed  by  the  Church 
between  the  Italians  and  a  love  of  the  motherland,  were  rub- 
bish contrived  by  ignoramuses  who  posed  as  doctors  in 
Israel  and  as  paladins  of  Catholicism."  Then  he  declared 
that  the  temporal  dominion  of  the  Popes  was  irrevocably 
vanished,  and  that  probably  the  loss  was  all  for  the  best. 
But  who  was  responsible  for  the  miseries  which  afflicted  Italy 
because  of  that  everlasting  "  Roman  question  "  which  no 
man  could  bury  ?  All  these  miseries,  according  to  Curci, 
were  due,  ''  not  to  the  new  government,  which  in  spite  of  its 
faults  might  have  been  made  good  as  easily  as  it  has 
been  made  bad  ;  the  responsibility  belonged  to  the  weaklings 
and  cowards  who  despoiled  themselves  of  their  rights  in 
favor  of  the  enemies  of  moralit}-  and  religion,  and  neverthe- 
less have  the  audacity  to  term  themselves  Catholics."  These 
weaklings  and  cowards  are  those  Italian  Catholics  who, 
following  the  counsels  (not  the  orders)  of  the  Pontiff,  take 
part  indeed  in  municipal  affairs,  but  refuse  to  recognize  the 
powers  of  the  Quirinal  by  any  participation  in  parliamentary 
elections  ;  and  Cuvci  feels  nausea  when  he  thinks  of  "their 


THE  VAGARIES  OF  FATHER  CURCI,  S.  J.         407 

mystical  and  arrogant  inertness,  as  well  as  of  their  torpiil 
Catholicism."  The  sons  of  these  papaVun  are  all  "  pnny 
and  almost  rickety  creatures,  while  the  })rogeny  of  those  who 
have  left  the  pale  of  the  Church  is  blooming  and  \igorous." 
As  for  those  who  devote  their  pens  to  the  cause  of  the  Pope- 
King,  "  that  party  without  a  name,  they  are  a  handful  of 
fanatics  who  unceasingly  croak  against  those  who  decline  to 
obey  their  orders  "  ;  and  they  may  be  styled  "  little  snakes 
disguised  as  journalists,"  whose  weapons  are  "  insipid  epi- 
grams and  every  kind  of  uncouthness,"  and  who  are  capable 
of  descanting  fittingly  "  only  upon  triduums  and  novenas." 
The  perverted  Curci  has  no  good  words  for  Catholic  France, 
whatever  he  may  think  of  Masonic,  infidel  France ;  the 
quondam  decrier  of  the  German,  like  his  leaders  at  Monte 
Citorio  and  in  the  Quiriual,  finds  gratitude  for  services 
received  a  bitter  thing,  and  therefore  he  now  flatters  the 
German,  and  unblushingly  sneers  at  "  iliat  famous  Eldest 
Daughter  of  the  Church,"  a  pitiful  victim  of  her  own  *'  phan- 
tasmagorias." After  the  publication  of  the  Modern  Dissen- 
sion, Curci  retired  to  a  suburb  of  Florence  for  the  pursuit  of 
exegetical  study ;  but  in  1881,  he  proved  that  he  had  by  no 
means  abandoned  the  political  arena,  as  many  of  his  well- 
wishers  had  fancied.  The  pamphlet  which  he  now  issued  was 
attractively  entitled  The  Neio  Italy  and  the  Old  Zealots  :  but 
it  was  not  received  by  the  Italian  revolutionary  public  with  the 
acclamations  which  had  been  given  to  the  Dissension.  The 
curiosity  of  the  reading  masses  had  been  satisfied  ;  and  what 
was  more  conducive  to  a  neglect  of  the  unfrocked  religious, 
the  foes  of  the  Vatican  were  disgusted  with  his  persistency 
in  professing  the  Catholic  faith.  Nor  was  this  discouraging 
indifference  lessened  when  the  year  1883  witnessed  the  ap- 
pearance of  The  Royal  Vatican,  the  Surviving  Devouring 
Worm  of  the  Catholic  Church  (1),  although  the  title  was 
indicative  of  a  feast  for  the  cleric -baiters,  and  although  the 
author  had  dished  up  for  their  delectation  all  the  alleged 
scandals  concei'uing  the  papal  court  which  Liberalism  had 
either  concocted  or  exaggei-ated.     The  Rassegna  indicated 

(n  When  an  experience  of  several  months  had  taupht  the  booksellers  that  the  Orst  edi- 
tion was  in  danger  of  never  being  exhausted,  they  announced  in  their  eataloeues  :  "  Price 
reduced  tro;n  six  to  three  Ure.''' 


408  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

to  Curci  the  estimation  iu  which  the  Royal  Vatican  was 
hekl  by  the  Liberal  party,  when,  commenting  on  the  basic 
and  pet  idea  of  the  author,  it  entitled  its  article  "  Illusions 
Kegarding  a  Reconciliation,"  and  placed  among  those  illu- 
sions "  the  Curcian  theory  of  a  complete  distinction  between 
the  royal  and  the  sj^iritual  Vatican."  And  the  journal  add- 
ed :  "  Let  us  suppose  that  Leo  XIIL  fully  resigned  himself 
to  accomplished  facts,  and  that  he  dreamed  no  more  about  a 
restoration  of  the  temporal  power.  Would  that  fact  neces- 
sarily entail  a  reconciliation  between  the  Church  and  the 
State  ?  By  no  means."  In  fact,  Curci  was  then  made  to 
realize  the  Liberal  demand  which  we  have  heard  Crispi  ex- 
pressing when  he  said  to  King  Humbert :  "  Our  work  is  still 
incomplete  ;  we  must  now  prevent  the  Vatican  from  ruling 
the  consciences  of  men." 

After  the  comparative  failure  of  the  lioyal  Vatican,  Curci 
published  only  one  incendiary  pamphlet,  the  Scandal  of  the 
lioyal  Vatican  ;  and  then  he  devoted  his  remaining  days  al- 
most entirely  to  the  composition  of  his  Memoirs.  It  was  to 
the  two  last  ebullitions  of  Curci  that  Leo  XIII.  alluded  on 
Christn^as  Eve,  1883,  when  he  said  to  the  assembled  cardin- 
als :  "  To  the  troubles  caused  us  by  external  enemies  we  may 
add  those  which  we  have  suffered  from  some  of  our  own  flock  ; 
some  of  whom  have  woefully  wandered,  while  others,  by 
means  of  insidious  artifices  and  ignoble  writings,  have  played 
the  part  of  forgetful  and  ungrateful  sons,  endeavoring  to 
render  their  Mother,  the  Church,  responsible  for  the  evils 
which  afflict  her  so  cruelly,  instead  of  ascribing  the  guilt  to 
those  whose  sole  object  is  to  outrage  and  vilify  her."  From 
the  day  that  Curci  was  expelled  from  the  Society,  he  had  lived 
as  a  secular  priest,  of  course  unbeneficed,  but  celebrating 
the  Holy  Sacrifice,  the  small  and  unfrequent  honoraria  for 
which  function,  together  with  some  pitiful  remuneration  for 
hack  literary  work,  if  we  are  to  credit  his  assertion,  alone 
enabled  him  to  exist ;  but  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  received 
considerable  assistance  from  those  whose  cause  he  was  serv- 
ing. Be  this  as  it  may,  until  the  culmination  of  his  self- 
inflicted  misfortunes,  his  expulsion  from  the  Society  had  not 
compromised  his  good  standing  as  an  ecclesiastic ;   and  the 


THE    VAGAini'S    OF   FATHElt    CUUCI,  S.  J,  409 

frieuclsliip  of  the  archbishop  of  Florence  was  always  an  as- 
surance that  comfort  aucl  houor  would  be  at  his  commaucl, 
whenever  he  chose  to  return  to  the  right  path.  But  his  respect- 
able ecclesiastical  status  was  dependent  entirely  upon  the 
mercy  of  the  Holy  See  which  he  had  outrajjjed  ;  and  although 
Irom  the  beginning  of  the  pontificate  of  Leo  XIII.  the  leniency 
of  Pius  IX.  had  beeu  more  than  imitated  in  his  regard,  Curci 
was  eventually  made  to  feel  in  his  own  person  what  he  had 
often  taught  to  others,  that  pontifical  mercy  must  be  guided 
by  pontifical  duty.  In  the  early  days  of  1884,  he  learned 
that  all  of  his  recent  works  had  been  condemned  publicly  by 
the  Holy  See,  and  in  a  few  mouths  he  learned  that  he  was 
not  only  suspended  a  divin  is,  but  even  excommunicated.  In  a 
letter  which  the  Pontiff  wrote  to  the  archbishop  of  Florence, 
His  Holiness  recapitulated  for  the  benefit  of  the  prelate  the 
entire  history  of  the  aberrations  of  his  protegee — aberrations 
which  "  frightened  the  Pontiff,  because  of  their  fatal  influ- 
ence on  inconsiderate  youth."  Having  pronounced  the  sent- 
ence in  very  energetic  terms,  the  Pope  concluded  :  "  We  re- 
ject and  condemn  all  these  ill-timed  and  false  ideas,  as  well 
as  all  this  author's  abominable  assaults  on  this  Apostolic 

See  and  on  our  Holy  Congregations However,  our  charity 

impels  us  to  trust  that  his  repentance  may  atone  for  all  that 
his  rashness  has  effected  ;  and  we  shall  continue  to  beg  God 
to  enlighten  his  understanding,  and  to  strengthen  his  will." 
The  archbishop  immediately  communicated  the  contents  of 
this  letter  to  his  clergy  in  an  apposite  circular,  beseeching 
all  to  implore  of  heaven  that  "  the  diocese  of  Florence,  which 
had  been  made  the  theatre  of  so  great  a  scandal,  might  be- 
come the  theatre  of  a  much  needed  reparation."  Curci  re- 
ceived official  information  of  his  excommunication  in  the  be- 
ginning of  September ;  and  on  the  loth,  he  sent  to  the  Abbate 
Margotti,  the  intrepid  editor  of  the  Unitd  Caffolica  whom 
he  had  for  years  so  ferociously  assailed,  a  request  for  the 
publication  of  the  following  retractation  :  "  I  have  read  the 
letter  which,  under  date  of  Aug.  27,  the  Sovereign  Pontiflf 
addressed  to  His  Lordship,  the  archbishop  of  Florence,  and 
which  was  transmitted  to  me  on  the  fifth  of  this  month.  By 
this  letter  I  have  been  fully  informed  that  the  legitimate 


4:10  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTOEY. 

authority  of  the  Church  has  I'ouud  things  worthy  of  censure 
in  those  three  works  of  mine  which  have  already  been  placed 
on  the  Index.  Therefore  I  believe  that  duty  calls  on  me  to 
make  the  following  declaration,  and  I  request  that  it  be 
made  public.  Impelled  by  the  respect  which  I  profess,  and 
which  I  have  always  professed,  for  the  Catholic  Church  and 
for  her  visible  Head,  I  reject  and  condemn  everything  that 
my  last  writings  present  in  contradiction  of  the  faith,  morals, 
discipline,  and  rights  of  our  Holy  Church.  And  this  my  re- 
tractation must  be  regarded  as  covering  not  only  all  that  I 
myself  perceive  to  be  reprehensible  in  my  works  (for  I 
cheerfully  renounce  my  own  judgment  in  the  matter),  but 
also  all  that  has  been  condemned  by  those  whom  the  Holy 
Ghost  instituted  for  the  government  of  the  Church  of  God. 
I  trust  that  this  sincere  expression  of  my  sentiments  will  con- 
tribute to  a  reparation  of  the  scandal  which  I  have  given  ; 
and  I  hope  that  in  consideration  of  this  my  submission,  our 
Holy  Father  will  deign  to  receive  me  once  more  as  the  last 
of  his  sons  in  Jesus  Christ !  "  So  unreserved  a  manifesta- 
tion of  obedience  could  produce  but  one  effect ;  and  in  a  few 
days,  His  Grace  of  Florence  had  the  happiness  of  announc- 
ing to  his  diocesans  that  the  Abbate  Curci,  "  his  dearly- 
beloved  brother,  having  been  duly  absolved  and  rehabilitated, 
again  offers  among  us  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass."  How- 
ever, the  edification  consequent  on  this  act  of  proper  humility 
was  of  brief  duration  ;  the  retractation  had  scarcely  been 
welcomed,  when  the  Liberal  journals  of  Europe  published  a 
letter  in  which  Curci  protested  against  "  a  too  wide  inter- 
pretation of  his  words."  He  affected  to  believe  that  it  was 
"  his  duty  to  enlighten  the  reader  as  to  his  meaning  "  ;  it  was 
to  be  remembered  that  he  "  reprobated  the  Royal  Vatican, 
not  because  of  its  teachings,  but  because  it  had  been  inter- 
dicted." Such  was  the  spirit  which  animated  the  "  convert- 
ed "  Curci  as  he  wrote  two  or  three  more  pamphlets,  which 
excited  no  interest  even  among  the  Liberals,  and  as  he 
composed  the  Memoirs  which  he  intended  to  be  a  vindication 
of  his  inconsistencies. 

The  Memoirs  of  Curci,  although  written  after  his  recon- 
ciliation with  the  Holy  See,  form,  in  too  many  respects,  a 


THE   VAOARIES   OF   FATHER   CURCI,  S.  J.  411 

kiud  of  summary  of  all  the  bitter  personalities  with  which 
he  had  illustrated  the  Dissoision  aud  the  Royal  Vtitican — 
■outrageous  attacks  which  au  atmosphere  of  polemics  may 
sometimes  explaiu,  but  which  are  absurdly  out  of  place  iu  a 
work  which  is  composed  ou  the  brink  of  the  grave,  aud  when 
the  world  has  ceased  to  give  a  sign  that  the  existence  of  the 
writer  is  still  remembered.  In  these  Memoirs  there  is 
scarcely  any  indication  of  the  man  of  talent,  of  noble  thoughts, 
and  of  literar}'  power ;  one  perceives  only  the  worst  side  of 
Curci's  character,  as  it  naturall}^  externated  itself  when  he 
emancipated  himself  from  the  control  of  the  religious  spirit 
— his  too  frequently  vulgar  vanity,  his  proneness  to  unworthy 
impertinences,  and  his  continual  torture  of  self  with  morbid 
reflections  on  his  fancied  injuries.  As  he  looks  back  on  the 
<?areer  of  Pius  IX.,  he  seems  to  regard  that  Pontiff  as  merely 
au  imbecile  :  "  It  was  the  great  fault  of  Cavour  to  have 
thought  that  Pius  IX.  possessed  the  qualities  of  a  king ; " 
this  Pope  deserved  no  monument,  and  that  which  now  marks 
the  spot  where  his  remains  repose  "  was  erected  by  liis 
creatures,  all  of  whom  were  created  in  the  philosophical  sense 
■of  the  term — ex  nihilo  sui  et  suhjediy  He  loves  to  manifest 
his  feigned  contempt  for  those  w^hom  Pius  IX.  especially 
-cherished — Antonelli,  "with  his  astute  /z^e.s.se  ",•  Simeoni, 
"  who  knew  nothing  about  statesmanship  " ;  even  Curci's 
own  venerable  general.  Father  Beckx,  "  a  man  of  weak  will, 
which  age  rendered  still  weaker."  But  Victor  Emmanuel ! 
He  was  "  the  worthy  sou  of  the  magnanimous  Charles 
Albert."  Aud  Cavour!  "In  both  politics  and  religion  I 
Avas  with  Cavoiir."  Then  he  sympathized  with  Minghetti, 
^'  that  grand  statesman."  Even  Boughi,  wdio  qualified  the 
Papacy  as  "  the  cancer  of  Italy,"  was  hailed  by  Curci  as 
"  my  friend."  The  Marquis  Massimo  d'Azeglio,  who  de- 
tested the  Jesuits,  although  his  brother  (Taparelli)  was  one 
of  their  luminaries,  was  "  that  excellent  Massimo  "  in  the 
mind  of  Curci.  Even  the  blasphemous  Leopardi  finds  grace 
in  his  eyes.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  his  treatment  of  his 
late  brethren  of  that  Society  "  wliich  he  had  always  loved, 
and  still  loved  with  a  most  sincere  affection  "  ?  He  tells  us 
that  iu  his  day  "  the  Roman  College  had  become,  in  matter 


412  STUDIES  IN    CHURCH   HISTORY. 

of  studies,  a  veritable  Babel,  because  of  the  confusion  there 
reigning."  He  insists  that  among  the  Jesuits  there  then 
prevailed  "  many  enormous  faults  which  revealed  their  moral 
decadence,"  and  that  those  faults  subsisted  "  either  because 
the  superiors  were  igornant  of  them,  or  did  not  comprehend 
them,  or — what  was  worse — did  not  have  the  courage  or  the 
strength  to  correct  them."  The  great  astronomer,  Secchi, 
was  a  fairly  good  man,  according  to  Curci ;  but  he  thought 
more  of  the  stars  than  of  the  saints,  and  he  desired,  above 
all,  that  his  brethren  should  revere  in  him  "  a  science  which^ 
after  all,  might  well  have  been  ignored."  As  for  Armellini, 
if  we  are  to  credit  Curci,  he  was  a  vain  man,  and  knew  not 
the  first  princij)les  of  exegesis.  Another  celebrated  pro- 
fessor is  said  to  have  taught  Scholasticism,  "  because  he  was 
at  the  ball,  and  was  therefore  expected  to  dance  ;  but  his 
highest  ambition  was  to  see  a  crowd  of  aristocratic  women 
waiting  at  his  confessional."  We  are  even  asked  to  believe 
that  some  of  the  Jesuit  professors  were  ignorant  men  (1). 
Curci  is  careful,  however,  to  remind  us  of  his  own  great 
merits.  Speaking  of  his  exegetical  work,  he  says  that  "  since 
Dom  Calmet,  nothing  like  it  has  appeared  "  ;  and  he  laments 
because  in  the  government  of  the  Society  he  has  been  ever 
'•  left  in  the  background."  Here  we  have  his  great  grievance. 
In  the  Dissension  he  says  :  "  During  my  membership  of  more 
than  half  a  century  in  the  Society,  I  have  always  been  a 
stranger  (to  its  government) ;  but  since  I  did  not  enter  it  for 
the  sake  of  exalted  position, ...  I  resigned  myself  to  pass  my 
few  remaining  years  as  the  very  refuse  of  the  Society."  No 
one  can  arise  from  a  perusal  of  the  Memoirs  of  Curci  without 
a  firm  persuasion  that  the  eloquent  Jesuit  would  never  have 

(1)  We  are  told  by  Curci  that  Father  Rozanka,  a  Pole,  was  very  obtuse,  and  knew  very 
little  of  the  language  (Latin)  in  which  he  was  expected  to  lecture.  Curci  says  that  during 
an  examination  in  Moral  Theology  which  he  underwent  during  his  seholasticate  before 
this  professor,  the  matter  of  matrimonial  impediments  was  taken  up,  and  Eo^anua  pro- 
posed this  case  of  conscience  :  Fit  casm  :  Titiiis  Inops  (fneit  uxorcm.  Quid  fadetniiim  ? 
Of  course,  the  young  student  replied  that  the  parties  should  not  be  troubled,  but  should 
live  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord.  Then,  says  Curci,  the  professor  cried  :  "  But  don't  you  per- 
ceive, sir,  that  here  there  is  a  question  of  an  invalidating  impediment  ?  "  And  when  the 
scholastic  replied  that  he  never  had  heard  that  poverty  was  an  invalidating  impediment 
for  mntrimony,  the  Pole  was  non-plussed,  until  one  of  the  laughing  co-examiners  came  to 
his  rescue,  saying  :  "  Your  Reverence  wished  to  state  thatTitlus  was  Impos  ;  but  you  used 
the  word  L\oPS."  Truly  the  perspicacity  of  his  readers  must  have  appeared  inflnitesima) 
tO  Curci. 


■    THE  APOSTASY   OF   DCELLINOER.  413 

gone  astray,  had  ho  paid,  in  1874,  some  little  attention  totlie 
severe  but  true  judgment  which  he  had  pronounced,  in  1854, 
in  the  case  of  "  that  grand  immoderate  spirit,"  the  author  of 
the  Essay  o)i  Lt  difference  in  Matters  of  Religion  :  "  Lamennais, 
like  Tertullian,  possessed  many  virtues  ;  but  he  was  wanting 
in  the  most  necessary  of  all,  humility.  Alas  !  This  priest, 
once  so  honored,  rebelled  against  the  Church  and  the  Papacy, 
and  ended  in  apostasy."  By  the  mercy  of  God,  Curci  never 
apostatized ;  and  when  he  died  in  1891,  he  had  been  fully 
reconciled  with  the  Church,  and  had  been  re-admitted  into  the 
Society  of  Jesus. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  APOSTASY  OF  DCELLINGER. 

There  is  a  widespread  and  erroneous  impression  to  the 
eflfect  that  the  unfortunate  Doellinger,  the  founder  of  the 
"  Old  Catholic  "  heresy,  was  a  faithful  son  of  the  Church 
until  the  Vatican  Council  proclaimed  the  doctrine  of  the  In- 
fallibility of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  And  nevertheless,  as  early 
as  1860,  ten  years  before  the  promulgation  of  the  d(jgma 
which  the  "  German  science  "  of  the  Bavarian  professor  re- 
fused to  accept,  he  avowed  the  already  consummated  ship- 
wreck of  his  faith  to  an  intimate  friend.  During  a  visit  to 
the  Protestant  historian,  J.  B.  Boehmer,  the  conversation 
having  turned  on  the  literary  projects  of  the  provost,  his 
friend  asked  :  "  Why  do  you  not  finish  your  History  of  the 
Church  (1),  before  you  undertake  other  work  ?  "  And  Doel- 
linger replied  :  "  I  cannot  finish  it.  The  latter  part  of  it 
would  not  agree  with  the  former  ;  the  conclusion  of  my  His- 
tory of  the  Church  would  be  thoroughly  Protestant"  (2). 
And  this  was  the  Doellinger  whose  correspondence  with  Rfiess, 
the  future  bishop  of  Strassbourg  who  had  founded  the  Kath- 
oUk  Review  in  1825,  shows  that  then  the  future  apostate  posed 

(1)  Doellinger  had  iuterrupted  his  Histnrn  of  the  Church  when  he  bepan  his  wntines 
on  the  period  of  the  Reformation,  and  he  never  finished  it,  conteatinp  himself  with  piib- 
lishinp  certain  frairments,  of  which  the  raomtism  and  Judaiism  was  the  most  noteworthy. 

(2)  Boehmer  narrated  this  fact  to  the  publicist,  Jorg.  See  Kannengleser's  Tiiyjit'  AUianc^ 
p.  8ft     Paris,  1893 


414  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

as  one  of  the  few  "  Ultramoutanes "  then  in  Germany. 
This  was  the  Doellinger  wlio  in  a  letter  to  Eyess  in  1826  found 
fault  with  the  Tuhiager  Quartalschrift,  a  Catholic  periodical 
which  suffered  from  Jesuitaphobia  :  "  These  good  men  fear 
lest  they  may  say  a  word  in  favor  of  the  Jesuits.  Is  it  not 
grotesque  ?  If  perchance  something  complimentary  to  the 
Society  drops  from  their  pens,  they  immediately  neutralize 
it."  This  was  the  Doellinger  who  had  bitterly  condemned, 
in  another  letter  to  IIsgss,  what  was  to  be  one  of  the  war-cries 
of  his  future  "  Old  Catholic  "  brethren — the  marriage  of  the 
clergy.  Speaking  of  an  attack  on  ecclesiastical  celibacy  which 
the  Theiner  brothers  had  published,  he  said :  "  Is  it  not  humil- 
iating, when  we  see  even  priests  rebelling  against  the  Church  ? 
These  Theiners  should  be  beaten  with  rods.  See  that  the 
Katholik  makes  an  example  of  them."  This  was  the  Doel- 
linger who  in  1832,  when  Lamennais  asked  him  what  course 
the  "  great  immoderate  spirit  "  should  pursue  in  regard  to 
the  papal  condemnation,  replied  :  "  Submit."  But  the  Doel- 
linger of  those  happier  days  was  the  intimate  friend  of  such 
grand  Christian  souls  as  Goerres,  Kingseis,  Moehler,  and  Klee ; 
and  perhaps  it  was  merely  in  accordance  with  his  pre-eminent 
characteristic  of  never  having  a  will  of  his  own,  that  his  works 
of  that  period  were  animated  by  a  thoroughly  Catholic  spirit. 
It  was  this  excessiA'e  susceptibility  to  the  impressions  of 
the  moment  that  ultimately  ruined  Doellinger ;  as  Joerg  re- 
marked, when  alluding  to  the  famous  discussions  between 
the  Correspondant  and  the  Univers,  "  After  he  had  received 
a  letter  from  Eio,  he  was  all  Kio  ;  and  if  a  letter  from  Mon- 
talembert  arrived  on  the  following  day,  he  was  all  Monta- 
lembert.  The  last  correspondent  was  always  right."  This 
lamentable  defect,  however,  worked  no  great  detriment  in 
the  mind  of  Doellinger  until  he  fell  under  the  influence  of 
John  (afterward  Lord)  Acton,  now  a  Professor  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge,  who,  although  a  mere  boy  of  seventeen 
when  he  became  the  nominal  pupil  of  the  idol  of  Munich, 
soon  showed  that  he  was  the  idol's  master  and  predestined 
evil  genius    (1).     Breathing  continually  the  quasi-mephytic 

(1)  Concerning  this  dominant  influence  of  Acton  over  the  mind  and  destinies  of  Doel- 
linger, Kannenprieser  says  :  "  In  1819  a  young  Enelishman  of  noble  family  was  entrusted 
to  the  care  of  Dcellinsrer  for  the  completion  of  his  scientific  and  literary  education.    Lord 


THE   APOSTASY   OF   D(ELLINGER.  415 

atmosphere  which  surrouiuled  Acton  no  less  tlian  it  surround- 
ed the  Jesuit-eating  theologist,  Huber,  and  several  others 
ejusifem  /urft(ri.<i,  Dddliuger  showed,  even  before  the  {ivowal 
to  Ba^hmer  which  we  have  noted,  that  his  faith  liad  been 
weakened.  Jan'g,  who  has  been  styled  his  foremost  disci- 
ple, said  of  him  even  in  1858  :  "  In  order  to  become  a  heretic, 
D(i41inger  wants  only  to  be  assured  of  his  rear-guard." 

In  the  autumn  of  1860  there  appeared  a  work  by  Doellin- 
ger  which  bore  the  title  ChristianUy  and  the  CJairch,  and 
was  written  in  a  thoroughly  Catholic  spirit ;  not  only  was 
the  temporal  power  of  the  Pontiff  defended,  bl^t  certain  of  its 
sentiments  were  intelligible  only  under  the  supposition  that 
the  author  believed  in  the  still  undefined  doctrine  of  Papal 
Infallibility.  But  in  April  of  the  following  year,  he  de- 
livered in  the  "  Odeon  "  of  Munich  two  discourses  which 
were  gleefully  acclaimed  by  the  Liberal  press  on  account  of 
their  disrespectful  tone  toward  the  Holy  See.  As  yet,  how- 
ever, the  timidity  of  Doellinger  was  greater  than  his  vanity  ; 
and  in  order  to  calm  the  indignation  of  the  Catholics  which 
had  heen  expressed  in  no  uncertain  manner,  he  pretended 
that  the  Liberal  journals  had  grossly  exaggerated  some  of  his 

Acton-Dalberg  was  seventeen  years  old  when  he  arrived  In  Munich.  He  was  a  boy  of 
quick  intelligence  and  very  precocious;  and  his  temperament  attested  his  double  origin. 
Through  his  mother  he  was  German,  she,  nix  Duchess  of  Dalberg,  having  married  an 
English  nobleman.  After  the  death  of  her  first  husband,  the  duchess  espoused  the  Whig 
minister.  Earl  Granville.  The  mere  mention  of  this  double  marriage  indicates  the  sur- 
roundings amid  which  the  new  disciple  of  Doellinger  had  passed  his  boyhood.  Alihout'h 
a  Catholic  because  his  mother  was  one,  he  lived  in  a  Protestant  and  Liberal  atmosphere 
which  was  necessarily  an  obstacle  to  his  religious  development.  Full  of  admiration  for 
Gladstone,  Russell,  etc.,  he  had  conceived  an  invincible  repugnance  for  Wiseman  and  the 
English  convertsof  the  day.  He  was  bitter  against  the  restoration  of  the  English  hierarchy, 
and  like  all  his  intimates,  he  entertained  feelings  of  horror  for  the  Jesuits.  It  is  evident 
therefore,  that  the  young  Acton  was  more  of  a  Protestant  than  of  a  Cattiollc.  His  mother 
perteived  this  fact ;  and  in  h<)i)es  of  withdrawing  her  son  from  pernicious  influences,  she 
confided  him  to  the  care  of  the  most  illustrious  scholar  in  Germany.  She  trusted  that  Doel- 
linger, by  means  of  his  knowledge  and  his  faith,  would  subjugate  his  English  Telemachus. 
But  wonder  of  wonders!  The  contrary  happened.  The  erudite  scholar,  who  knew  only 
his  books,  was  conquered  by  the  young  politician  who  had  a  great  experience  of  life. 
Lord  Acton  was  certainly  tha  evil  genius  of  Dnellincer  ;  lie  obtained  an  incredible  ascen- 
dency over  his  master,  and  drew  him  insensibly  into  schism.  And  this  was  effected  be- 
cause the  young  Englishman  was  endowed  with  what  Dnellingprdid  not  possess-chanicter. 
In  this  species  of  connuhium,  of  intellectual  marriage.  If  I  may  so  speak,  which  was 
contracted  between  the  master  and  the  beardless  pupil,  the  latter  represented  the  virile 
element.  Dnelllnger  had  no  firmness  In  his  disposltinn  ;  he  continually  yielded  to  trans- 
lent  influences When  Acton  entered  the  household  of  Dwllinger,  he  became  literally 

the  raa.oter  of  the  professor's  soul.  Hitherto  the  French  friends  of  the  Bavarian  had  exer- 
Msed  a  happy  influence  over  him :  their  very  disputes  could  never  have  drawn  Doel- 


416  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTOiiY. 

observations,  and  lie  made  liaste  to  issue,  after  a  labor  of 
only  three  months,  his  Church  and  the  Churches,  the  Pap- 
acy and  the  Temporal  Power.  The  first  part  of  this  work 
was  an  excellent  championship  of  the  Holy  See ;  but  in  the 
second  part,  which  treated  of  the  pontifical  difficulties  then 
obtaining  in  the  temporal  order,  while  the  author  modified 
many  of  the  views  expressed  in  the  "  Odeou,"  he  so  flattered 
the  Liberal  school,  that  the  Historisch-PoUthche  Bketter 
plainly  charged  him  with  having  capitulated  to  the  enemies 
of  Rome.  In  1863,  the  Papal  Fables  of  the  Middle  Age 
appeared  ;  and  here  for  the  first  time  Doellinger  explicitly 
attacked  the  doctrine  of  Papal  Infallibility,  relying  princi- 
pally on  the  alleged  heresy  of  Pope  Honorius  (1).  In  Sep- 
tember, 1863,  at  the  first  of  the  Congresses  of  Munich  which 
he  had  organized  for  the  glorification  of  "  German  science  " 
even  at  the  expense  of  Catholic  faith,  Doellinger  first  emitted 
his  pet  idea  of  reconciliation  of  the  "  three  great  Churches, 
the  Roman,  the  Greek,  and  the  Anglican,"  by  means  of  a 
suppression  of  everything  that  separated  them,  and  by  a 
maintenance  of  whatever  they  all  accepted — a  scheme  which 
implied  the  possibility  of  an  abandonment,  on  the   part  of 

linger  from  tlie  riplit  path,  for  in  spite  of  their  dissensions  of  later  days,  they  all  loved  the 
Church  with  their  entire  souls.  The  fall  of  Lamennais  had  only  strengthened  their  con- 
victions. Montalembert  had  cried  :  '  The  Church  is  more  than  a  woman;  she  is  a  mother.' 
And  the  French  Catholic  correspondents  of  Doellinper  cherished  an  inexpressible  tender- 
ness for  That  mother,  while  the  Bavarian  shared  that  feeling  until  the  day  when  Lord 
Acton  succeeded  in  giving  another  direction  to  his  thoughts.  This  disciple  put  the  profes- 
sor in  relation  with  his  compatriots — not,  however,  with  men  like  Wiseman.  Newman, 
Manning,  an'' others  of  the  young  English  Catholic  school— but  with  a  group  of  Protestant 
Liberals,  of  whom  Gladstone  was  more  or  less  the  soul.    Doellinger  became  entirely  Lord 

Acton,  in  anticipation  of  the  moment  when  he  would  become  entirely  Gladstone 

When  he  lost  his  old  friends,  he  lost,  we  may  say,  his  compass  ;  he  was  like  a  ship  with- 
out a  helmsman ;  perfidious  friends  directed  the  course  of  the  vessel,  resolved  on  casting  her 
on  the  rocks.  The  ship  was  not  wrecked  until  many  years  had  elaps-ed.  Thanks  to  the 
Impetus  of  the  direction  already  initiated,  thanks  also  to  one  or  two  of  his  olden  iutimate.s, 
the  moral  vagaries  of  Doellinger  were  not  perceived  at  once ;  he  drifted  a  long  time,  ere 
he  foundered  on  the  shoals  of  heresy.  .  .  .  Perhaps  all  would  have  yet  been  well,  if  Doel- 
linger had  remained  faithful  to  his  vocation  as  a  historian  ;  but  questions  of  religious 
politics  were  the  order  of  the  day.  Young  Italy  was  preparing  her  war  for  independence, 
and  English  diplomacy  favored  her  ambition.  Lord  Acton  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  pol- 
tical  struggles  which  his  English  friendshad  instigated  ;  a  decided  partisan  of  Italian  unity, 
he  condemned  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope.  These  problems  were  often  discussed  by 
the  master  and  the  pupil ;  and  Doellinger  ended  by  harboring  all  the  antipathies  of  the 
English  Li^erals,  and  by  encouraging  the  designs  of  the  Sub-Alpine  plotters.  The  past 
lost  its  attractions  for  him  ;  instead  of  burying  himself  in  historical  documents,  he  now 
devoured  Italian  pamphlets  and  the  reports  of  English  diplomacy.  The  effervescence  of 
the  peninsulars  consumed  him  ;  he  became  an  Italianissiwo." 
(1)  For  the  defence  of  Pope  Honorius,  see  our  Vol.  i.,  p.  432. 


THE   APOSTASY   OF  DCELLINGER.  417 

the  Churcli,  of  ut  least  some  part  of  lier  dogmatic  teaching. 
This  step  iu  the  path  of  "  religious  progress  "  was  rewarded 
in  the  following  October  by  the  provost's  appointment  as  a 
member  of  the  lloval  Bavarian  "  Historical  Commission," 
and  so  great  was  his  glee  on  receiving  this  gratification  of 
one  of  his  supreme  ambitions,  that  he  wrote  to  Jcerg  :  "  Est 
mmthiJe  in  octdis  Dosfris.''  Besides  this  token  of  approba- 
tion, others  had  been  given  to  Dtjellinger  by  King  Max- 
imilian II.,  whose  ideal  scheme  for  religious  pacification 
was  practically  a  mere  subsitution  of  a  kind  of  Universal 
Academy  instead  of  the  Church  ;  in  1860,  His  Majesty  had 
conferred  on  him  a  decoration  which  allowed  him  to  appear 
at  court — a  favor  which  caused  him,  although  lie  had  said 
in  1859  that  the  court  was  "  a  mad  house,"  to  now  call  on 
Jcierg  to  rejoice  because  "  the  wind  had  changed."  Ranke 
was  delighted  with  the  ebullition  of  Dcellinger  at  the  Con- 
gress of  Munich  ;  writing  to  Sybel  on  Oct.  7,  the  histori- 
ogi-apher  of  His  Prussian  Majesty  said :  "  Dcellinger  has 
defended  the  rights  of  science  so  well,  that  we  may  regard  him 
as  being,  in  a  certain  sense,  one  of  our  friends  and  allies." 
These  rights  of  science,  and  let  it  be  understood,  particular- 
ly cl  "  German  science,"  were  strenuously  vindicated  by 
Dcellinger  in  the  funeral  oration  for  Maximilian  II.  which 
ne  pronounced  before  the  Academy  of  Munich  on  March  30, 
1864,  insisting  that  "  Germany  is  the  heart  of  Europe,  and 
Bavaria  is  the  heart  of  Germany ;  Munich  is  th?  heart  of 
Bavaria,  and  the  Academy  or  the  University  is  the  heart  of 
Municn."  In  January,  1865,  the  provost  completed  a  study 
on  the  Question  of  the  Seminary  of  Spire  and  the  Syllabus, 
and  in  lb66  a  pamphlet  on  the  Council  of  Trent,  both  of 
which  were  redolent  of  a  spirit  of  bitter  hatred  for  the 
Papacy,  but  were  retained  in  the  writer's  desk  until  his 
death  enabled  Reusch,  an  injudicious  friend,  lo  give  them  to 
the  public  among  other  efi'usions  of  minor  importance  (1). 
In  1867,  the  AUgemeine  Zeitnng  and  the  Neue  Freie  Pressc 
published  a  series  of  venemous  anti-papal  articles  which  a 
few  of  the  friends  of  Da-llinger  refused,  contrary  to  the 
general  opinion,  to  regard  as  his  productions.     Joerg  said 

(1)  Miruir  Writingii  of  Dtrllinger.    Stuttgart,  1890. 


418  STUDIES   IN   CHUECH    HISTORY, 

at  the  time  that  the  provost  had  placed  his  signature  on 
them  by  means  of  the  fulsome  eulogies  of  himself  which  the 
articles  contained ;  and  their  appearance  in  the  posthumous 
collection  published  by  Reusch  is  a  Droof  that  the  unfortu- 
nate was  really  their  author.  In  1868,  he  "  corrected  "  his 
Christianity  and  the  Church,  suppressing  all  the  passages  of 
the  first  edition  which  favored  the  Holy  See  ;  and  when  the 
"corrected  "  version  appeared,  the  reader  was  left  in  ignor- 
ance concerning  the  "  corrections."  In  1869,  when  the 
Protestant  and  Catholic  worlds  were  both  indulging  in 
speculations  upon  the  imminent  Council  of  the  Vatican,  the 
Allgemeine  Zeitimg  published  several  anonymous  articles 
which  time  has  shown  to  have  been  written  by  Doellinger, 
and  which  were  more  injurious  to  the  Papacy  than  anything 
which  he  had  hitherto  produced ;  and  when  a  friend,  taking 
for  granted  that  the  paroxysms  were  his,  ventured  to  re- 
prove him,  the  hypocrite  replied  :  "  Your  reproaches  are 
unjust.  I  am  always  the  same ;  I  follow  the  march  of  events 
attentively  and  tranquilly.  It  is  true  that  I  do  not  approve 
of  everything  that  is  being  now  done  in  the  name  of  the 
Church ;  but  can  it  therefore  be  said  that  I  sulk?  If  so, 
then  certainly  St,  Bernard  and  Fenelon  were  sulkers," 
This  comparison  of  himself  with  the  last  of  the  Fathers 
and  with  the  gentle  dove  of  Cambray  deprives  Doellinger  of 
every  claim  to  be  excused  on  the  score  of  good  faith.  Well 
may  Kannengieser  say  :  "  When  revolt  is  accompanied  by 
frankness,  it  may  have  its  grandeur  ;  but  we  find  it  difficult 
to  pardon  the  hypocrite  who  lifts  his  eyes  toward  heaven 
while  he  assassinates.  Doellinger  had  the  misfortune  to 
play  this  part,  and  the  stain  is  irremovable.  For  his  honor 
it  is  a  pity  that  he  did  not  at  least  regret  these  articles. 
At  a  time  of  violent  anger,  one  may  pen  pages  which  he 
may  afterward  deplore  most  sincerely  ;  but  alas  !  such  a  re- 
gret did  not  trouble  the  heart  of  the  learned  historian. 
When  a  friend  conjured  him  to  close  the  mouths  of  his 
accusers  by  publishing  an  avowal  of  submission  to  the  Holy 
See,  the  provost  took  advantage  of  the  anonymousness  of 
the  articles,  and  said  that  he  had  nothing  to  retract ;  *  he 
accuses  himself  who  excuses  himself.'  he  wrote,  adding  that 


THE   APOSTASY   OF  D(ELLINGER.  419 

his  conscience  was  tranquil.  It  was  a  strange  conscience 
that  prompted  him  to  unite  these  articles  in  the  volume 
which  he  entitled   The  Pope  and  (he  Council,  hy  Janus.'' 

In  the  work  which  Doellinger  published  under  the  pen-name 
of  Janus,  he  rejected  not  only  the  infallibility  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff,  but  also  that  of  OEcumenical  Councils  ;  according  to 
the  infallible  Janus,  public  opinion,  guided  of  course  by 
"  German  science,"  of  which  D(jellinger  at  least  implicitly 
claimed  to  be  the  incarnation,  was  to  take  the  place  once 
occupied  by  the  Popes  or  by  the  bishops  assembled  in 
Council.  Since  the  ninth  century,  there  has  been  no  Church  ; 
we  must  now  try  to  re-discover  her  ;  when  the  bishops  con- 
sidered whether  or  not  they  should  proclaim  the  Pope 
infallible,  they  were  amusing  themselves  with  child's  play, 
for  the  Papacy  itself  is  illegitimate.  Such  is  a  summary  of 
the  teachings  of  Janus  ;  but  when,  a  few  months  after  the 
appearance  of  the  incendiary  lucubration,  the  same  Janus 
addressed  his  Reflections  to  the  bishojis  who  were  on  the 
point  of  starting  for  the  Vatican  Council,  he  showed  that  he 
was  indeed  two-faced,  for  he  adopted  a  tone  of  evangelical 
sweetness,  and  he  begged  the  prelates  to  remember  the 
solemnity  of  an  oath.  Nothing,  he  said,  could  exceed  the 
respect  with  which  he  regarded  them ;  but  this  assurance 
was  eloquently  belied  when,  shortly  afterward,  he  declared 
that  the  French  episcopal  partisans  of  the  Pope-King  were 
like  "  a  lot  of  old  women  armed  with  the  squirt  of  Moliere, 
trying  to  save  a  palace  in  flames."  We  have  already  given 
some  attention  to  the  course  pursued  by  Doellinger  in 
reference  to  the  Council  of  the  Vatican  (1)  ;  but  there  are 
other  details  which  w^ill  interest  the  student.  When  the  note 
of  Prince  Hohenlohe,  praying  the  European  powers  to  pre- 
vent the  meeting  of  the  Council,  had  failed  of  success, 
Doellinger,  who  had  inspired  that  note,  did  not  therefore 
regard  his  cause  as  desperate.  No  sooner  had  the  prelates 
arrived  in  the  Eternal  City,  than  he  began  to  publish  in  the 
Allgcmeine  Zeiiung  a  series  of  letters  on  the  Council  which 
purported  to  come  from  Rome,  but  were  written  by  him  after 
he  had  studied  information  furnished  to  him  by  his  friend 

(1)  See  Vol.  v.,  ch.  17. 


420  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY, 

Frieclrieh  and  by  Count  Arnim,  who  were  then  really  in  the 
capital  of  Christendom.  One  of  these  letters,  that  of  Jan.  19, 
1870,  abandoned  the  affectation  of  anonymousness  which  the 
others  presented,  and  the  author  took  care  to  draw  the 
attention  of  the  public  to  his  position  as  a  "  doctor  of  the 
Church — Lehrer  der  Kirche,''  averring  that  his  conscience 
was  troubled,  because  of  the  imminent  ecclesiastical  rev- 
olution. The  numerous  endorsements  of  these  letters — 
forwarded  by  Protestants,  Freemasons,  avowed  infidels,  and 
men  bearing  the  stamp  of  every  school  except  the  Catholic — 
caused  Schulte,  one  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  Doillinger- 
ites,  to  hope  that  the  conciliar  minority  would  carry  its 
point ;  but  the  master  told  him  that  they  "  could  not  count 
on  the  bishops,"  and  that  it  would  be  better  to  convoke  a 
Council  of  the  anti-infallibilists,  in  order  to  show  their  power. 
We  have  seen  tlie  importance  of  this  and  similar  reunions  of 
the  future  heretics ;  here  we  would  merely  remind  the 
student  that  the  first  Doellingerite  assembly,  convened  at 
Nuremberg  on  Aug.  25,  1870,  was  composed  of  eleven  priests 
and  two  laymen.  The  chief  consequences  of  this  convention 
were  the  pastoral  of  .the  German  bishops,  assembled  in 
Fulda,  warning  their  flocks  concerning  the  machinations  of 
the  Neo-Protestants  ;  and  a  demand  of  the  archbishop  of 
Munich,  addressed  to  the  Faculty  of  Theology  in  the 
University,  calling  on  its  members  to  announce  their  defini- 
tive position  in  reference  to  the  dogma  of  Papal  Infallibility. 
Seven  of  these  professors  submitted  to  the  Vatican  decrees  ; 
Doellinger  refused  compliance,  continuing  to  lecture  in  the 
University,  and  strange  to  say,  the  seminarians  of  Munich 
were  sufficiently  fatuous  to  frequent  his  exhibitions  (1), 
That  His  Grace  of  Munich  should  have  so  long  allowed  this 
scandal  is  a  curiosity  of  episcopal  polity.  Undoubtedly 
the  protection  of  the    mad  king,  Louis  XL,  prevented  the 

(1)  One  day  toward  the  end  of  1870,  one  of  these  seminarians  happened  to  find  a 
portfolio  of  Doellinger  which  the  professor  had  mislaid.  Impelled  by  youthful  curiosity, 
the  lad  examined  the  contents,  and  he  found  among  them  the  proof-sheets  of  the 
Ecclesiastical  Historu  which  Kurtz,  a  Protestant,  had  recently  written.  Further  investi- 
gation showed  that  for  some  time  Duellinger  had  delivered,  verbatim  et  liteiatim,  the 
course  of  Kurtz  to  his  own  auditors.  When  the  rector  of  the  seminary  restored  the 
portfolio  to  Doellinger,  he  requested  the  old  gentleman  to  have  some  respect  for  the 
faith  of  bis  students ;  and  Justice  demands  that  we  record  that  the  bint  was  taken,  at  least 
to  some  extent. 


THE   APOSTASY   OF   DCELLINGER.  421 

entertainment  of  any  hope  that  the  heretical  professor  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  would  be  deprived  of  his  chair  in  a 
State  institution;  just  at  this  time  the  monarch  wrote  to  his 
protegee  :     "  I  am  glad  that  I  have  not  been  deceived  in  you. 
I  have  often  declared  that  you  are  my  Bossuet.     Veritable 
rock  of  the  Church,  I  am  proud  of  you."     But  the  recalci- 
trant was  certainly  excommunicated  ipso  facto  because  of  his 
obstinately  heretical  teachings  ;  and  proper  ecclesiastical  zeal 
now  demanded  that  the  toleration  he  still  enjoyed  should  be 
abrogated  immediately  by  a  public  announcement  of  that  ex- 
communication.    Only  when  that  course  had  been  pursued, 
would  the  seminarians    and  other  Catholic  students  of  the 
University  be  compelled  to  avoid  the  lecture-room  of  Doel- 
linger.     Not  until  January  4,  1871,  did  His  Grace  of  Munich 
demand  a  retractation  from  his  rebellious  diocesan,  and  then 
his  letter  was  answered  with  a  request  for  a  delay  of  a  few 
weeks,  during  which    the   culprit  "might    conscientiously 
study  the  grave  question  on  which  his  future  depended." 
The  insincerity  of  this  prayer  was  almost  immediately  de- 
monstrated  when,    on  January  20  and  22,  the  AUgoneine 
Zeitiuig  published  two  letters,  anonymous  indeed,  but  which 
all  Germany  recognized  as  Doellingerian,  and  which,  like  all 
of  the  other  anonymous  productions  which  were  universally 
ascribed  to  the  professor,  the  collection  given  to  the  world 
by  Reuse h  acknowledges  as  such.     These  letters  heaped  out- 
rao-es  on  the    archbishop    of   Munich,    and   denounced    the 
Catholic  Church  as  an  institution  dangerous  for  any  State. 
Eight   days  after  these  ebullitions,  however,  their    author 
wrote  to  his  ordinary,  not  anonymously,  but  as  Dr.  Dcellin- 
ger,  begging   for   another   respite,   during  which  he    might 
"  implore  light  from  the  Most  High."     And  again,  almost 
immediately,  the  AUgemeine  Zeitung  of  February  10  present- 
ed to  its  readers  an  anonymous  lucubration,  which  is  also 
accepted  by  Reusch,  and  which  branded  the  archbishop  as 
a  forf^er.     Nevertheless,  on  February  15  the  prelate  signified 
to  the  hypocrite  that  a  further  delay  of  a  month  was  accord- 
ed to  him  ;  and  when  that  term  was  about  to  expire,  and  a 
respite  of  eight  additional  days  was  requested,  for  the  purpose 
of  enabling  the  heretic  "  to  examine  the  many  documents 


422  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

which  he  was  receiving  from  every  quarter,"  His  Grace  pater- 
nally granted  the  favor.  Meanwhile  Lord  Acton  and  other 
self-proclaimed  good  theologians,  the  real  leaders  of  the 
movement  which  was  fondly  supposed  by  many  good  Prot- 
estants to  i^rognosticate  the  final  demise  of  that  Papacy 
which  had  been  so  frequently  killed,  were  prompting  their 
scapegoat  as  he  prepared  the  pronunciamiento  which  was  to 
announce  to  the  world  the  birth  of  the  Bismarckian  National 
Church  of  Germany.  On  March  25,  the  AUgeineine  Zeitnng 
published  Doellinger's  formal  declaration  that  "  as  Christian, 
as  a  theologian,  as  a  historian,  and  as  a  citizen,  he  could  not 
accept  the  doctrine  of  the  Infallibility  of  the  Roman  Pon- 
tiff." And  he  exultantly  proclaimed  :  "  Thousands  of  priests, 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  lay  persons,  think  as  I  think, 
and  regard  the  recent  conciliar  decrees  as  inadmissable. 
Down  to  this  present  moment  no  Catholic  has  ever  told  me 
that  he  was  convinced  of  the  truth  of  those  doctrines  ;  and 
all  my  friends  and  acquaintances  declare  that  their  exper- 
ience is  like  mine."  Even  this  manifesto  did  not  induce  the 
archbishop  of  Munich  to  declare  the  excommunication 
of  Dcellinger ;  he  sirnply  announced  that  thereafter  the 
seminarians  of  his  diocese  would  not  be  allowed  to  attend 
the  lectures  in  Ecclesiastical  History  which  were  given 
in  the  University  of  Munich.  But  on  April  17,  His  Grace 
felt  that  he  was  compelled  to  act ;  and  the  faithful  were  in- 
formed that  by  his  own  avowals  the  great  Dr.  Dcellinger 
had  segregated  himself  from  the  Catholic  communion.  Nat- 
urally "  the  champion  who  had  endeavored  to  save  the 
Church  "  was  congratulated  by  all  the  Protestant,  Masonic, 
Jewish,  and  avowedly  infidel  journals  of  the  world ;  the 
University  of  Ox*^ord  enrolled  him  among  its  Doctors  of 
Laws  (at  least  a  superfluous  compliment  to  the  most  prom- 
inent exponent  of  "  German  science ")  ;  the  ex-Carmelite 
apostate,  Loyson,  prophesied  that  the  unfortunate  would  be 
revenged  by  the  terrible  punishments  which  were  being 
prepared  for  "those  who  had  corrupted  the  Church." 

We  have  already  shown,  in  our  dissertation  on  the  "  Old 
Catholics,"  the  miserable  delusion  under  which  Dcellinger 
labored  when  he  flattered  himself  that  hundreds  of  thousands 


THE   APOsrASY   OF  DtELLINGER.  423 

of  Catholics  would  follow  him  as  he  deserted  from  the 
Eoniau  camp ;  now  we  would  draw  the  attention  of  the 
reader  to  some  features  of  the  evolution  wliich  the  heresi- 
arch  experienced,  after  his  emancipation  from  the  "  tyranny  " 
of  the  Catholic  Church.  One  of  the  most  salient  of  these 
featiires,  although  an  apparently  necessary  accompaniment 
of  every  abandonment  of  the  faith,  was  his  treatment  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  We  have  seen  that  in  his  Catholic  days 
Dtellinger  was  not  hostile  to  the  Jesuits ;  but  after  the 
catastrophe  of  his  life,  the  Modern  Jesuit  of  Gioberti  would 
appear  to  have  become  his  Vade  3Iecnm.  Writing  to 
Michelis  on  May  1,  1874,  he  said  :  "-I  have  found  that  I  am 
obliged  to  revise  radically  all  my  historical  and  patriotic 
science  (after  forty-eight  years  of  a  professorship  of  that 
science)  ;  I  must  again  investigate  the  fundamental  results 
of  my  early  studies.  Would  that  I  had  done  this  twenty 
years  ago  !  "  He  prosecuted  this  so  much  needed  revision  ; 
and  one  of  its  results  was  a  consciousness  of  a  duty  to  teach 
the  world,  in  nearly  every  one  of  the  academical  discourses 
with  which  he  regaled  his  infidel  or  latitudinariau  audiences 
in  Munich,  how  little  they  knew  concerning  the  iniquities  of 
the  sons  of  Loyola.  In  1882,  he  published,  with  this  object, 
his  Policy  of  Louis  XIV.;  and  in  1886  there  appeared  his 
foolish  essay  on  the  noble  Mme.  de  Maintenon  under  the  title 
of  The  Most  Influential  Woman  in  the  History  of  France  (1). 
Here  his  revised  historical  and  theological  attainments  im- 
pelled him  to  define  the  Jesuit  conception  of  moral  science 
as  "  the  art  of  changing  mortal  or  venial  sins  into  indifferent 
acts."  This  evolution  of  the  famous  historian,  however,  is 
less  inexplicable  than  his  volte-face  in  the  matter  of  the  Jews. 
In  the  olden  times,  he  had  been  inexcusably  severe  toward 
the  children  of  Israel ;  even  his  feelings  as  a  Bavarian,  com- 
miserating the  sufferings  of  the  thousands  of  his  country- 
men who  were  the  prey  of  Jewish  usury,  could  scarcely 
justify  this  passage  from  a  discourse  wliich  he  once  deliv- 
ered in  the  Bavarian  Chambers  :  "  One  should  have  seen  the 


(1)  For  a  defence  of  Mme.  de  Maintenon  against  the  aspersions  'vitli  wliich  her  char- 
acter and  career  have  been  visited  by  the  majority  of  Protestant,  and  by  many  ignorant 
Catholic  writers,  see  our  Vol.  Iv.,  p.  291,  ci  scqq. 


424  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

cold  calculation  with  wliicli  the  Jew  selects  his  victim,  seizes 
him  slowly  but  surely,  and  then  sucks  his  blood  without 
pity  or  mercy,  and  with  the  imperturbable  calm  with  which 
a  surgeon  dissects  a  corpse.  One  should  have  seen  all  this 
on  the  spot ;  and  then  he  would  recall  involuntarily  the  verses 
in  which  the  Roman  poet  depicts  Laocoon  fighting  the  serpent 
whose  folds  entwine  him  and  are  about  to  strangle  him. 
And  besides  these  diabolical  manoeuvres,  we  behold  the  vam- 
pire of  the  Jewish  press  spreading  its  wings.  It  waves  them 
in  the  journals  of  the  morning,  of  mid-day,  and  of  the  even- 
ing ;  in  its  issues  on  Sundays  and  on  holy-days  ;  in  order  that 
those  whom  it  deceives  may  not  have  a  moment  for  reflection, 
and  in  order  that,  reduced  to  serai-paralysis,  they  may  not 
feel  that  the  proboscis  of  the  Jewish  demon  is  drawing  from 
their  frames  the  last  drops  of  their  life-blood."  But  after 
Doellinger  had  separated  from  the  Papacy,  he  had  no  hatred 
to  spare  from  that  with  which  he  pursued  Eome  and  the 
Jesuits.  He  forgot  the  manner  in  which  his  then  dearly- 
beloved  Luther  had  treated  the  Israelites  when  descanting  on 
Tlie  Jews  and  Their  Lies.  He  ignored  the  assertion  of  his  col- 
league, the  Protestant  Lagarde,  that  "  The  Jewish  Alliance 
is,  in  the  field  of  Semitism,  what  the  Society  of  Jesus  is  in 
the  field  of  Catholicism  "  ;  and  he  cared  not  to  hear  Boeckel, 
another  Protestant  associate,  declaiming  that  "  The  Jew- 
Jesuits  are  a  thousand  times  worse  than  the  others."  It 
was  in  accordance,  therefore,  with  the  anti-Christian  predi- 
lections of  his  later  years,  and  not  because  of  any  universal 
humanitarian  proclivities,  that  in  the  discourse  which  Doel- 
linger pronounced  in  1881  on  T/ie  Jews  in  Europe,  he  declared 
that  "  he  was  there  to  love,  and  not  to  hate "  ;  and  that 
"  Israel  remains  the  chosen  people  of  God  ;  for  God  does  not 
forget  His  promises.  Tlie  Jews  are  our  brothers,  who  will 
be  one  with  us  as  soon  as  we  learn  how,  by  our  faith  and 
our  lives,  to  excite  in  them  a  holy  emulation."  But  the 
most  interesting  phrase  of  the  Doellingerian  evolution  was  the 
apostate's  virtual  acceptance  of  Rationalism.  He  showed 
his  unbelief  in  the  historical  truth  and  in  the  inspiration  of 
essential  parts  of  the  New  Testament  when,  in  1887,  he  in- 
sisted that  the  story  of  Simon  the  Magician,  narrated  in  the 


THE   APOSTASY   OF   DCELLINGER.  425 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  is  a  fable  ;  and  that  "  belief  iu  demouism 
is  an  illusiou,"  being  nothing  more  than  "  a  gift  from  Pa- 
ganism to  Christianity."  He  had  already  implieitly  denied 
the  historical  value  of  the  Pentateuch  iu  1888,  wlien,  sjjeaking 
of  the  Founders  of  RtUijions,  he  said  :  "  Tlie  tirst  commence- 
ments of  religions  development  are  a  myster}-  for  ns,  just  as 
the  primitive  history  of  humanity  is  a  mystery.  ..  .  The  his- 
tory of  all  religions  proves  that  it  is  a  very  dangerous  temp- 
tation to  believe  one's  self  divinely  iuspired,  and  to  imagine 
that  God  has  chosen  one's  self,  among  many  millions,  to  be 
the  instrument  of  His  designs."  In  1887,  when  treating  of 
the  intiueuce  of  Greek  literature  and  civilization  on  the 
Western  world,  he  adopted  the  assertion  of  Ranke  :  "  The 
Christian  religion  was  born  from  the  antagonism  subsisting 
between  the  religious  opinions  of  other  peoples,"  and  then, 
concluded  that  Christianity  is  simply  a  mixture  of  Greek 
philosophy,  Judaism,  and  a  few  poetical  fictions.  "  It  was 
from  this  atmosphere,"  said  Do^Uiuger,  "  that  Christianity 
emanated."  It  is  true  that  in  many  of  the  discourses  which 
the  apostate  pronounced  in  the  days  of  his  terrible  desol- 
ation— when  he  was  "  isolated,"  as  he  wrote  to  the  papal 
nuncio,  Mgr.  Ruftb-Scilla,  in  1887 — the  most  palpably 
Rationalistic  sentiments  were  often  so  clothed  in  a  tliiu  dis- 
guise of  ostensibly  orthodox  verbiage,  that  persons  of  merely 
ordinary  powers  of  penetration  might  have  been  led  to  be- 
lieve in  a  survival  of  Christian  convictions  in  the  mind  of  the 
orator.  But  ^rom  the  day  of  his  formal  segregation  from  the 
Fold  of  Christ,  Rationalistic  asseverations  fell  from  the  lips 
of  Dnelliuger  so  frequently,  that  one  is  led  to  believe  in  the 
accuracy  of  the  judgment  which  impelled  Gladstone,  some 
years  after  the  great  catastrophe,  to  term  his  unfrocked 
friend  a  freethinker.  This  freethiuking  propensity,  however, 
may  have  resulted  merely  from  a  habit  which  the  unfortunate 
had  consecrated  by  very  many  years  of  indulgence — the 
habit  of  yielding  to  circumstances,  to  the  dictates  of  policy, 
and  to  the  tyrannous  exigencies  of  human  respect. 

In  the  year  1857,  three  years  before  he  avowed  to  Boehmer 
the  shipwreck  of  his  own  faith,  Doellinger  took  occasion, 
in  an  article  published  in  the  Historisvh-PoUtischc  Blatter, 


426  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

to  account  for  the  religious  aberrations  of  Baader,  one  of 
his  comrades  of  the  School  of  Munich.  The  vagary  of  this 
septuagenarian  was  short-lived,  and  he  died  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  Church ;  but  after  his  demise  certain  foolish 
friends  thought  to  procure  for  him  a  posthumous  reputation 
by  publishing  certain  love-letters  which  the  old  man  had 
written  to  a  little  soubrette  of  nineteen.  Commenting  on 
this  intrigue,  Doellinger  said  :  "This  correspondence  shows 
very  clearly  that  the  motives  for  Baader's  animosity  against 
the  Church  were  purely  external  and  accidental,  and  that  tliej 
were  foreign  to  his  philosophy.  . . .  We  need  no  more  than  these 
letters  in  order  to  understand  how  Baader  crossed  the  line 
which  separates  the  serene  convictions  of  one  who  has  arrived 
at  the  zenith  of  his  intellectual  development,  from  the  passion- 
ate but  almost  childish  desires  of  an  impotent  old  man." 
If  Doellinger  ever  perused  these  lines  during  the  long  years 
of  his  segregation  from  the  Fold  of  Christ,  he  must  have 
recognized  in  them  his  own  self-condemnation.  Baader  had 
once  said  that  when  an  old  man  descends  to  illegitimate 
amours,  he  is  "  a  soul  that  has  fallen  from  heaven  into  a 
scullery."  So  far  as  we  know,  the  old  age  of  Doellinger 
succumbed  to  no  onslaught  of  carnal  passion  ;  but  certainly, 
like  those  of  Baader,  "the  motives  for  his  animosity  against 
the  Church  were  purely  external  and  accidental,"  and 
Satanic  pride  is  at  least  as  ignoble  as  sensuality.  No 
Catholic  will  pretend  to  judge  as  to  the  sentiments  of  Doel- 
linger's  innermost  heart  at  any  moment  of  the  long  years 
which  he  spent  as  an  exile  from  his  Father's  house  ;  still  less 
will  any  Catholic  abandon  the  hope  that  when,  on  Jan.  9, 
1890,  a  fatal  stroke  of  apoplexy  reduced  the  more  than 
nonagenarian  to  an  unconsciousness  which  ended  only  in 
death,  a  moment  of  lucidity  and  of  sincerity  might  possibly 
have  enabled  him  to  conceive  an  Act  of  Contrition,  as  he 
remembered  the  words  which  he  penned  in  18H1  in  his 
Church  and  Churches:  "One  thing  is  certain.  Amid  the 
ruins  of  everything  earthly,  one  institution  alone  will  ever 
survive,  emerging  intact  from  the  mass  of  debris,  because 
it  is  indestructible,  immortal.  That  institution  is  the  Chair 
of  St.  Peter." 


LOUIS   VEUILLOT.  4:27 

CHAPTER  XX. 

LOUIS  VEUlLI.'tT.   * 

"  Place  my  pen  at  my  siile  ;  put  the  crucitix,  my  pride,  on 
my  breast ;  lay  this  volume  at  my  feet ;  then  close  my  coffin 

in  peace I    trust  in   Jesus.     Here  on   earth,  I.  have    not 

been  ashamed  of  His  faith  ;  and  on  the  last  day,  when  I  stand 
before  His  Father,  He  will  not  be  ashamed  of  me." 

Such  were  the  words  of  his  funeral  sermon,  preached  by 
Yeuillot  himself  in  his  beautiful  book.  Here  ami  There  ;  and 
one  of  his  biographers  would  add  no  more  by  way  of  epi- 
taph than  the  involuntary  homage  which  was  rendered  to 
the  gi-eat  journalist  by  the  ad\ersaiy  who  said  that  Yeuillot 
never  had  other  objects  in  view  than  the  Pope  and  good 
grammar.  The  life  of  such  an  editor  must  necessarily 
furnish  material  for  the  edification  of  a  Catholic  layman  ; 
and  that  of  Louis  Yeuillot  will  refresh  his  memory  with  the 
remembrance  of  some  of  the  most  stirring  events  of  our 
century.  Yeuillot  was  born  at  Boynes  in  the  Gatiuais,  Oc- 
tober 11, 1813.  "  Once  upon  a  time,"  he  tells  us  in  Rome 
and  Loreto,  "  there  lived,  not  a  king  and  queen,  but  a  jour- 
nevman-cooper,  who  had  nothing  in  the  world  but  his  tools  ; 
and  who,  carrying  these  on  his  back,  in  winter  through 
the  mud,  and  in  summer  in  the  heat  of  the  sun,  trudged 
from  town  to  town,  making  and  repairing  barrels,  tubs, 
and  pails  ;  pausing  awhile  wherever  he  found  work, 
and  departing  when  there  was  no  more ;  happy  if  he  took 
along  enough  to  sustain  him  during  his  new  journey,  but  cer- 
tain of  leaving  behind  him  a  good  name,  and  of  receiving  a 
weclome  when  he  returned.  He  was  called  Francis  Yeuillot ; 
he  was  a  native  of  Burgundy  ;  he  could  not  read,  and  knew 
nothing  but  his  trade,  which  he  had  learned  by  prodigious 
efforts  of  intelligence  and  courage,  since  he  was  the  seventh 
or  eighth  child  of  a  farm  lalwrer.  One  day  while  passing 
through  a  village  of  the  Gatiuais,  he  saw  at  the  honeysuckle- 
framed  window  of  a  humble   dwelling  a  robust  young   girl, 

*  This  chapter  appeared  in   The  Ave  Maria,  VdI.  XXXlv. 


428  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

who  was  singing  at  her  work.  He  walked  more  slowly  . 
then  he  turned  toward  her,  and  he  tramped  no  further.  The 
maiden  was  as  good  as  she  was  pleasing ;  she  liked  to 
work  ;  honor  shone  on  her  brow  amid  the  flowers  of  health 
and  3'outli ;  good  sense  ruled  her  conversation  ;  her  fortune 
was  equal  to  his  ;  their  hearts  were  soon  paired ;  they  were 
married."  Louis  Veuillot  was  the  first  fruit  of  this  happy 
union.  While  yet  a  child,  his  parents  moved  to  Paris,  and 
he  was  brought  up  almost  without  religion  ;  going,  of  course, 
to  Mass  on  Sunda}^  but  dependent  for  his  early  training  on 
one  of  the  government  schools.  The  Catechism  was  taught 
in  a  kind  of  a  way  in  these  establishments,  and  finally  he 
made  his  First  Communion.  "  Happy  they,"  he  afterward 
wrote,  "  who  can  go  through  life  under  the  protection  of  the 
souvenirs  and  graces  of  that  beautiful  day  !  Such  felicity 
was  not  for  me.  Led  to  the  Holy  Table  by  hands  which  were 
ignorant  or  altogether  impious,  I  approached  it  without 
knowing  the  holiness  of  the  Banquet ;  I  left  it  with  all  my 
stains  still  upon  me,  and  I  returned  to  it  no  more."  When 
manhood  had  come  upon  Veuillot,  the  realization  of  all 
he  had  lost  in  his  youth  by  having  been  trained  in  the  ir- 
religious schools  of  the  State  contributed  chiefly  to  the  zeal 
of  his  advocacv  of  freedom  of  education. 

When  thirteen  years  of  age,  Louis  entered  a  lawyer's 
office,  receiving  as  stipend  twenty  francs  a  month,  and  a 
crust  of  bread  every  day  for  breakfast.  The  revolution  o' 
1830,  which  dethroned  the  elder  branch  of  the  Bourbons,  ex- 
cited the  sympathy  of  the  boy.  "  I  was  seventeen  years  old," 
he  tells  us,  "  when  I  heard  the  best  youth  of  the  bourgeoisie 
congratulating  themselves  on  having  demolished  the  throne 
and  the  altar ;  I  was  eighteen  when  I  saw  ferocious  beasts 
pull  down  the  cross.  .  .  .  Already  my  companions  were  less 
sympathetic,  but  I  still  applauded.  All  that  fell  excited 
their  fears ;  all  that  fell  excited  my  joy."  Very  soon  the 
trembling  bourgeois  began  to  found  journals  in  order  to  de- 
feud  themselves  from  the  baleful  consequences  of  their  own 
work,  and  young  Veuillot  was  offered  a  position  on  the  Echo 
de  B 011671,  a  moderate  paper  founded  by  M.  Herbert,  after- 
ward a  Minister  of  State.     Without  any  special  preparation 


Loris  vr.riLi.oT.  429 

he  became    a  jmirualist ;  his  tirst  duties  were  in  connection 
with  the  tiieatres,  but  he   soon  Liunched  into  politics.     His 
brother  Eugene,  the  most  reliable  of  his  biojL^raphers,  warns 
us    not  to  credit  readily  all  the  stories  narrated  about   the 
earlv   commencements    of    the    journalistic    life    of   Louis. 
Much  has  been  said  concerning  his  innumeral>le  duels ;  but 
the  fact  is  that  he  engaged  in  only  two,  and  iu  each  case  he 
was  the  challenged  party.     In  1832  LouisYeuillot  became 
editor  of  the  Memorial  de  la  Dordognc,  at  Perigord.     Hither- 
to ho  had  made  no  classical  studies  ;  lie  now  repaired  this 
defect.     And  it  was  while  he  was  editing  the  Memorial  that 
he  began   to  experience   a   change   in  his  religious  senti- 
ments, although  his  full  conversion  did  not  take  place  until 
his  visit   to   Rome   in   1838.     In   1837   he  was    called   to 
Paris  to  collaborate  ou  the  Charie  de  1830,  a  journal  found- 
ed   by    Guizot ;  but   the   fall   of   that  statesman    precipi- 
tated the  end  of  his  pajDer,  and  Veuillot  passed  over  to  the 
Pair.     At  this  time  Louis  Veuillot,  as  we  gather  from  his 
fraternal  biographer,  had  lost  all  sense  of  the  just  and  unjust, 
and  he  was  little  better  than  one  of  those  condottleri  of  the 
pen  who  sell  their  labors  in  any  field   with  equal  pleasure. 
While  in  the  lamentable  condition  produced  by  such  a  life 
iu  the  case  of  oue  destined  by  nature  and  grace  for  better 
things,  his  friend  Fulgence  Ollivier  asked  him  to  accompany 
him  on  a  voyage  ;  he  needed  the  diversion, and  accepted  the 
offer.     "  He  thought  to  go  to   Constantinople,    but  he  went 
farther;  he  went  to  Rome;  he  went  to  baptism."     We  would 
refer  the  reader  to  the  charming  pages  of  Rome  and  Loreto 
for  Veuillot's  own  account  of  his  arrival  in  the  Eternal  City 
on    March  15,  1838 ;  of  his   visits  to  the  monuments  of  an- 
tiquity, and  then  to  the  churches  ;  of  his  hesitations  and  strug- 
gles ;  and  finally,  of  his  paternal  reception  by  Pope  Gregory 
XYL,  who  perhaps  perceived  in  his  prodigal  son  the  future 
champion  of  the  Church. 

Now  that  he  was  a  practical  Christian,  Veuillot  could  scarce- 
ly resume  his  place  in  the  officious  press  of  the  government  of 
July  ;  Imt  he  accepted  a  position  iu  the  Ministry  of  the  In- 
terior, and  while  thus  occupied  he  produced  his  Pilgrimages 
in  Switzerland,  Pome  and Lorefn,  The  Holy  Posary,  An  Honest 


430  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

JVoman,  and  other  works.  But  agreeable  as  was  the  sinecure 
which  he  enjoyed,  Yeuillot  was  impelled  by  both  his  tem- 
perament and  his  new  faith  to  abandon  it.  Combat  was  his 
life,  and  again  he  entered  the  journalistic  arena  ;  but  now  it 
was  Catholic  journalism  that  he  undertook  to  sustain. 
There  was  then  in  Paris  but  one  purely  Catholic  journal,  the 
Univers  Religieux  established  in  1834  by  M.  Bailly,  the  found- 
er of  the  Conferences  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul.  Since  1839 
Veuillot  had  written  for  this  paper  ;  in  1843  he  became  its 
editor,  renouncing  for  that  end  a  sure  place  which  furnished 
him  double  the  revenue  he  was  about  to  receive.  It  was  his 
design  to  abstain  from  all  systematic  opposition  to  the 
government  of  Louis  Philippe,  but  despite  himself  Veuillot 
soon  found  himself  involved  in  a  struggle  concerning  the 
vital  question  of  the  freedom  of  education.  Immediately 
after  the  revolution  of  1830  certain  Catholics,  disgusted  with 
the  sceptical,  if  not  impious,  education  given  by  the  Univer- 
sity, and  relying  upon  the  guarantees  professedly  offered  by 
the  Constitution,  had  opened  a  school.  Summoned  before 
the  House  of  Peers,  one  of  their  number,  the  Count  de  Monta- 
lembert,  being  a  Peer  of  France,  they  were  condemned.  The 
recollections  of  his  own  experience  in  the  government's  god- 
less schools  gave  great  force  to  the  zeal  with  which  Veuillot 
entered  into  the  controversy  which  now  ensued.  He  wrote 
an  introdution  to  an  account  of  the  trial  of  the  Abbe  Com- 
balot,  who  had  written  a  memorial  to  the  bishops  on  the 
dangers  of  University  education  (as  then  given  at  Paris), 
and  had  been  condemned  to  fifteen  days'  imprisonment  and 
a  fine  of  four  thousand  francs.  For  this  introduction  Veuillot 
was  condemned  to  a  month's  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  three 
thousand  francs.  The  governmental  and  freethinking  press 
was  dumbfounded  at  the  audacity  of  Catholics  who  dared  to 
defend  themselves.  The  absurdity  of  these  despised  ignor- 
amuses presuming  to  pretend  to  a  possibility  of  reason 
against  such  adversaries  !  And  then,  said  some  of  the  big- 
wigs of  the  University,  and  others  of  the  political  world — men 
like  the  Duke  de  Broglie  and  the  Count  Portalis,  who  called 
themselves  Catholics,  and  had  nevertheless  violated  the 
rights  of  the  Church  and  of  Catholic  parents,— how  lament- 


LOUIS    VKUILLOT.  431 

ably  deficient  was  the  editor  of  the  Univers  iu  evangelical 
meekness!  In  tine,  the  violent  course  of  the  recent  convert, 
wrho,  to  make  matters  worse,  was  a  thorough  Ultramontane  at  a 
time  when  there  were  still  many  Gallicans  among  the  French 
clergy,  was  presented  as  the  cause  of  all  the  trouble  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  government  of  July.  An  evident 
error  ;  for  the  question  of  the  freedom  of  educaticm  had 
originated  in  1831,  before  the  U)nve)'s  existed  (1). 

The  revolution   of  1848   was  favorably  received   by   the 
Univers.     Catholics  could  have  few  regrets  for  the  Orleans 
branch  of  the  Bourbons  ;  and  certain  members  of  the  pro- 
visional government,  such  as  Lamartine,  Arago,  and  Marie, 
were   capable   cf   inspiring  confidence.     On    February  24, 
Montalembert  being  present,  Veuillot  traced  the  following 
manifesto  for  his  journal  :  "  The  dynasty  of  July  has  suc- 
cumbed.    The  struggle  was  at  an  end  on  the  third  day.     The 
revolution  is  accomplished,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  sur- 
prising iu   history.     The   tempest   has  carried   everything 
away  ;  new  men  appear  on  the  scene  ;  God  will  effect  His 
designs  by  means  which  the  world  now  ignores.     To-day,  as 
yesterday,  nothing  is  possible  unless  through  liberty  ;  to-day, 
as  yesterday,  religion  is  the  only  possible  base  of  society. 
Religion  is  the  aroma  which  keeps  liberty  from  corruption. 
It  is  iu  Jesus  Christ  that  men  are  brothers ;  it  is  in  Him 
that  they  are  free.     Real  liberty  can  save  everj-thing.     The 
new  government  has  great  duties  toward  France  and  toward 
the  entire  world.     AVe  trust  that  it  may  be  able  to  fulfil 
them.     All  governments  have  the  faculty  of  being  able  to 
consolidate    themselves  ;  they  need   only  love   justice   and 
frankly  promote  liberty."     Two  days  afterward  Veuillot  re- 
minded the  provisional  government  that  the  Catholics  had 
done  their  duty  by  the  government  of  July,  and  tliat  the  new 
regime  might  expect  the  same  fidelity.     The  Univers,  added 
the  writer,  did  not  believe,  "  with  Galilean  theology,  in  the 
inamissible  right  of  crowns;  but,  with  Catholic  tlieolog}-,  in 
the  right  of  peoples."     But  the  Univers  did  not  long  remain 
a  partisan  of  that  republic  which  it  had  so  warmly  welcomed. 
Alongside  of  Lamartine  were  Ledru  Rollin  and  Louis  Blanc  ; 

(1)  See  our  dissertation  on  Montalembert,  In  Vol.  v. 


432  STUDIES    IN    CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

the  former   distributed  liis    fiery  circulars,    demanding   an 
assembly  "  capable  of  understanding  and  accomplishing  the 
work  of  the  people  "  ;  he  wanted  deputies  who  would  be  "  all 
men  of  the  past,  and  not  of  the  future  " ;  that  is,  Robespierres, 
and  not  common-sense   patriots.     But  having  little  confi- 
dence in  most  of  his  allies,  whose  principles  he  regarded  as 
little  better  than  those  of  the  revolutionists,  Veuillot   re- 
served complete  liberty  of  action  for  his  journal.     When  the 
Catholics   were  divided  as   to  the  candidature  of  General 
Cavaignac  and   Prince  Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte  for  the 
presidency  of  the  republic,  the    Univers  called  for  the  in- 
tentions of  the  aspirants  in  regard  to  the  Boman  question. 
The  capital  of  Christendom  was  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Bev- 
olution,  Pius  IX.  having  fled  to  Gaeta  after  the  assassination 
of  his  Minister,  Bossi.     "It  is  not  the  Pope,"  wrote  Veuillot, 
"  but  the  Papacy  that  we  must  now  defend  ;  it  is  the  key- 
stone of  European  civilization,  the  work  of  God,  that  must 
be  preserved  from  a  horde  of  wretches,  whose  strength  is  the 
ruin  and  opprobrium  of  the  world.     He  who  will  manifest 
sufficient  intelligence  and  heart   to  pronounce  himself  the 
enemy  of   these   scoundrels,  in   order  to   break  with  them 
entirely,  to  trample  on  their  bloody  standards,  to  prefer  their 
poisoned  daggers  to  the  ignominy  of  their  praise;  he  who, 
before  these  atheists,  will  proclaim  himself  a  man  of  God, 
and  will  reply  to  their  clamors  with  the  Sign  of  the  Cross, — 
that  man  will  deserve  our  suff"rages."     To  this  direct  appeal 
Cavaignac,  though  sufficiently  courageous,  made  no  answer  ; 
he  had  to  account  to  his  political  friends.     Louis  Napoleon 
seemed  more   disposed  to   satisfy  the  Catholics.     At  this 
juncture  Veuillot  was  asked  to  meet  Louis  Napoleon ;  but  he 
declined,  alleging  that  Montalembert  was  the  head  of  the 
Catholic  party.     Then  appeared  the  letter  of  the  prince  to 
the  papal  nuncio,  in  which  that  candidate  disavowed  the 
conduct  of  his  cousin,  the  Prince  of  Canino,  at  Bome.     He 
"  regretted  with  his  whole  soul  that  the  Prince  of  Canino 
had  not  realized  that  the  temporal  power  of  the  venerable 
head  of  the  Church  was  intimately  connected  with  the  eclat 
of  Catholicism,  and  with  the  liberty  and  independence  of 
Italy."     Although  the  Univers  did  not  plainly  avow  itself  in 


Loris  VF.riLLOT.  483 

favor  of  the  presideucv  of  Louis  Napoleon,  it  was  now  clear 
that  it  might  be  ranked  among  his  partisans ;  and  con- 
sequently numbers  of  Catholic  votes  went  to  secure  the 
majority  wliich  etioctcd  his  election. 

In  less  than  two  years  the  Second  French  llepublic  had 
convinced  the  world  that  its  tendencies  were  socialistic,  even 
though  the  legislative  majority  was  monarchical.  For  this 
majority  was  divided  into  Legitimists,  who  themselves  were 
split  into  the  pure  and  fusionist;  Orleauists,  or  the  non- 
descript devotees  of  the  younger  and  usurping  branch  of  the 
royal  house  ;  and  finally,  Bonapartists.  Veuillot  was  person- 
ally inclined  to  a  submission  of  the  Orleans  princes  to  the 
Count  of  Chambord,  the  grandson  of  (^harles  X.,  and,  as 
Henry  Y.,  legitimate  king  of  France.  But  when  all  hopes  of 
a  submission,  or  even  of  a  fusion,  had  vanished,  thanks  to 
the  influence  of  Thiers  on  the  Duchess  d'Orleans,  wliat  were 
the  Catholics  to  expect,  now  that  1852,  which  would  conclude 
the  term  of  the  prince-president,  was  at  hand  ?  During  his 
journeys  in  the  provinces,  Louis  Napoleon  had  arranged  that 
he  should  be  invited  to  restore  the  Empire  ;  Veuillot  saw 
that  the  })rince  was  the  sole  obstacle  to  the  triumph  of  the 
socialists.  So  far  in  accord  with  Montalembert,  who  had 
not  yet  abandoned  the  prince-president,  Veuillot  accpiiesced 
in  the  Coup  d'Etat.  He  was  "  neither  conquered,  nor  con- 
queror, nor  malcontent";  France  now  jiossessed  "a  govern- 
ment and  an  army,  a  head  and  an  arm  "  ;  the  new  ruler  was 
to  be  supported,  "  that  they  might  afterward  have  the  right 
to  counsel  him."  "  Property  need  not  now  anticipate  pillage ; 
families  need  not  fear  dishonor ;  religion  will  not  mean  mar- 
tyrdom. The  head  of  the  Church  is  no  longer  on  the  roatl  to  a 
new  exile,  a  new  Calvary.  The  foundations  of  society  are  no 
longer  threatened  b}^  sophism,  armed  with  poniards.  Public 
blasphemy  has  ceased."'  Undoubtedly  Veuillot  was  no 
prophet  when  he  saw  in  the  new  Empire  an  anti-revolution- 
ary government,  and  in  Louis  Napoleon  the  material  for  an- 
other Charlemagne  ;  but  we  must  not  forget  that  the  Conp 
rVl^faf  was  followed  by  many  reparative  measures.  And  ac- 
cording to  M.  de  Mongeot,  a  judicioiis  biograplier  of  Veuillot, 
the  prince-president  would  have  suppressed  the  University. 


434  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTOEY. 

that  receptacle  of  every  evil  doctrine,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
objections  of  certain  bishops,  who  feared  that  they  could  not 
yet  sujjply  its  place.  Again,  as  Montalembert  expressed  the 
idea,  our  editor  was  a  witness,  not  a  guarantee,  for  Louis 
Napoleon.  And  lie  reserved  the  right  to  combat  the  new 
government,  if  it  deviated  from  the  right  path  ;  refusing,  in 
order  to  do  this  with  more  freedom,  every  offer  of  preferment 
and  every  favor. 

It  was  about  the  time  of  the  Coiqj  cC  Etat  that  the  famous 
controversy  on  the  classics  began ;  and  this  contest  was,  for 
a  while,  one  of  the  most  painful  in  which  Veuillot  ever  en- 
gaged. In  1851  the  Abbe  Gaume,  a  distinguished  theolog- 
ical writer,  had  denounced  the  disastrous  influence  of  the 
pagan  classics,  and  had  advocated  the  substitution  of  works 
by  Christian  authors.  He  was  sustained  by  several  prelates, 
among  whom  was  Cardinal  Gousset.  Veuillot  defended  the 
thesis  advanced  by  Gaume  ;  and  Mgr.  Dupanloup,  in  a  letter 
to  the  jjrofessors  of  his  preparatory  seminary,  justified  the 
olden  methods,  and  attacked  rather  vividly  the  partisans  of 
the  new  idea.  Veuillot  responded  with  equal  energy,  and 
then  the  prelate  of  Orleans  interdicted  the  reading  of  the 
Univers  in  his  seminary.  Such  judges  as  Cardinal  Gousset 
thought  that  Mgr.  Dupanloup  had  gone  too  far  ;  they  held 
that  a  journal  had  the  right  to  discuss  an  opinion  emitted 
in  an  episcopal  act,  provided  it  did  not  blame  the  act  in  itself. 
Mgr.  Dupanloup  tried  to  procure  a  collective  warning  from 
all  the  French  bishops  to  the  Univers,  but  he  could  obtain 
the  signatures  of  only  a  small  minority.  Finally,  Veuillot 
requested  his  friends  to  terminate  the  dispute  :  "  We  need 
not  defend  ourselves  ;  in  fact,  we  have  said  only  what  we 
have  said.  Malevolent  or  unintelligent  interpretations  will 
fall  of  themselves,  and  useful  truth  will  alone  remain.  If 
on  our  part,  any  exaggerations  have  been  committed,  we 
trust  that  they  may  be  forgotten."  In  her  own  good  time 
Rome  spoke  on  the  matter ;  the  Christian  classics  obtained 
more  attention  in  the  French  seminaries,  while  the  good 
faith  and  learning  of  the  Abbe  Gaume  were  attested  by  his 
promotion  to  the  Roman  prelacy. 

An  incident  of  more  gravity  succeeded   the  controversy 


LOUIS  VEUILLOT.  435 

ou  the  classics.  lu  1850  Veuillot  bad  begun  the  publication 
of  a  collection  of  new  works  which  would  constitute  a  com- 
plete "  apology  "  of  Christianity.  Among  his  colaborers  were 
the  Benedictines  Dom  Pitra  and  Doni  Gueranger,  the  Abbe 
Martinet,  and  Bishop  Rendu.  The  great  Spanish  orator, 
Donoso  Ccn'tes,  wrote  for  this  collection  his  solid  essay  on 
Catholicifiin,  Liberalism  and  Socialism,  in  which  he  con- 
tended that  the  second  system  was  necessarily  the  precur- 
sor of  the  third.  Against  this  idea  the  Abbe  Gaduel,  vicar- 
general  of  Orleans,  arose,  discerning  in  the  work  of  the 
great  Spaniard  a  tissue  of  errors,  and  taking  occasion 
to  involve  in  his  censures  the  entire  religious  press  when- 
ever it  undertook  to  treat  of  theological  matters.  At  this 
time  Donoso  Cortes  occupied  in  Spain  an  unchallenged 
position  as  chief  apostle  of  the  truth  in  the  world  of  letters ; 
and,  unknown  to  Gaduel,  he  had  taken  the  course  generally 
followed,  pace  Gaduel,  by  all  prudent  Catholic  laymen  in 
similar  contingencies  ;  that  is,  he  had  submitted  his  ideas  to 
the  judgment  of  authorized  theologians.  In  reply  to  Gad- 
uel, Donoso  Cortes  submitted  his  book  to  Rome,  and  he  was 
fully  justified.  But  Veuillot  had  less  equanimity  than  his 
Spanish  friend,  and  in  his  defense  of  the  religious  press  he 
wielded  his  ready  weapon  of  raillery  very  freely  against  his 
adversary.  Unable  to  reply,  the  latter  complained  to  the 
archbishop  of  Paris,  Mgr.  Sibour.  This  prelate  then  pro- 
hibited the  Univers  to  all  the  priests  and  religious  communi- 
ties of  his  diocese.  The  archiepiscopal  act  was  applauded  by 
the  entire  revolutionary  press  ;  but  many  prelates,  in  public 
letters,  manifested  sympathy  for  the  condemned  journal. 

Louis  Veuillot  was  then  in  Rome,  and  he  appealed  to 
the  Pontiff,  writing  to  his  staff  on  the  same  day  :  "  Judged 
by  the  Father  of  all  the  faithful,  b}'  the  highest  authority 
on  earth,  we  shall  know  with  certainty  what  we  must  do, 
and  we  will  do  it  at  once.  We  will  continue  our  work  or 
we  will  abandon  it  with  equal  security  ;  asking  pardon  of 
God  and  of  men  for  having  been  unable  to  do  good,  or  for 
having  done  evil."  Six  days  afterward  he  received  from 
Mgr.  Fioramonti,  Secretary  for  Latin  Letters  to  His  Holi- 
ness, a  consoling  letter,  which,  while  inviting  him  to  moder- 


436  .     STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY, 

ation,  augured  well  for  the  success  of  bis  appeal.  And 
very  soon  the  supreme  authority  took  up  the  defense  of  the 
religious  press.  In  an  Apostolic  Letter  to  the  bishops  of. 
France,  dated  March  21,  1853,  Pope  Pius  IX.  said  :  "  We 
must  here  remind  you  of  the  ardent  advice  which  we  gave 
four  years  ago,  to  all  tlie  bishops  of  the  Catholic  world  : 
that  they  should  exert  every  effort  to  induce  talented  and 
healthily  educated  men  to  devote  themselves  to  writings  cal- 
culated to  enlighten  the  mind  and  to  dissipate  the  darkness  of 
error  now  so  prevalent.  Again,  therefore,  while  iirging  you 
to  remove  from  your  flocks  the  poison  of  bad  books  and  jour- 
nals, we  insist  that  you  extend  every  protection  to  the  men 
who  consecrate  their  energies  to  the  production  of  works 
whereby  Catholic  teachings  may  be  propagated,  whereby 
the  venerable  rights  of  the  Holy  See  may  be  fully  recognized, 
and  whereby  the  obscurity  of  error  be  dissipated.  Your 
episcopal  charity  should  excite  the  ardor  of  these  Catholic 
writers  who  are  animated  by  so  good  a  spirit ;  and  if,  per- 
chance, they  sometimes  commit  some  mistakes,  advise  them 
paternally  and  prudently." 

This  letter  of  the  Pontiff  was  generally  regarded  as  a 
justification  of  Veuillot,  and  Archbishop  Sibour  hastened  to 
lift  the  sentence  which  he  had  so  rashly  pronounced.  But 
the  adversaries  of  Veuillot  were  not  reduced  to  silence  :  in 
less  than  two  years  from  the  appearance  of  the  above  papal 
letter  there  was  issued  an  anonymous  pamphlet,  which,  en- 
titled "  The  Univers  Judged  by  Itself,"  endeavored  ,to  show 
by  means  of  citations,  that  the  said  journal  was  "  revolution- 
ary, turbulent,  without  respect  for  authority,  without 
charity,  full  of  injuries  and  insults,  which  constantly  in- 
volved itself  in  contradictions,  in  the  name  of  the  Church." 
Another  Catholic  journal,  UAmi  de  la  Religion,  upheld  the 
pamphlet ;  but  the  incriminated  editor  found  many  dis- 
tinguished defenders,  among  whom  were  Mgr.  Parisis,  arch- 
bishop of  Arras,  and  the  ablest  journal  in  Italy,  the  Armo- 
nio.  It  was  proved  that  most  of  the  pamphleteer's  cita- 
tions were  made  in  bad  faith ;  that  they  were  presented 
without  regard  to  the  context ;  that  in  many  cases  they  were 
truncated,  and   even  falsified.     And  the  Armonia   well  in- 


Loris  vKi'ii.LoT.  437 

sisted  that  if  the  rniccrs  were  a  revolutiouary  jouruiil,  it 
would  not  be  the  object  of  revobiti(niarv  liatred  iu  every 
hiud,  and  the  Romau  Pontiff  woukl  not  have  extended  his 
protection  to  it.  While  the  discussion  was  at  its  height, 
and  while  Yeuillot  was  taking  the  first  steps  to  vindicate 
himself  before  the  tribunals,  the  assassination  of  Mgr. 
Sibour  saddened  the  hearts  of  all  Catholics,  and  Yeuillot 
generously  let  the  matter  drop. 

When  after  the  Crimean  War,  the  Count  Walewski,  rep- 
resentative of  France  at  the  Congress  of  Paris,  allowed  the 
Count  di  Cavour,  agent  for  Piedmont,  to  menace  the  pontifi- 
cal government,  Yeuillot  protested  against  this  open  attack 
on  the  rights  of  the  Church.  When  the  Italian  war  of  1859 
opened,  he  asked  whether  Napoleon  III.,  allying  himself 
watli  the  revolutionists,  was  not  about  to  undo  his  work  of 
'49.  When  the  preliminaries  of  Yillafranca  were  signed,  he 
rejoiced  at  the  end  of  a  war  "  which  had  caused  a  fear 
lest  the  Revolution,  rather  than  liberty,  would  be  the  gain- 
er." But  he  found  in  these  preliminaries  "  no  recognition 
of  the  right  of  revolt ;  Lombardy  did  not  give  herself,  but 
was  rather  ceded  by  Francis  Joseph,  and  given  by  Napo- 
leon "  ;  he  was  sufficiently  optimistic  to  trust  that  Piedmont 
would  prove  "  one  Catholic  nation  the  more."  Alas  !  Na- 
poleon III.  allowed  Yictor  Emmanuel  to  contend  for  the  whole 
of  Italy,  not  even  excepting  the  Papal  States.  Then  Yeuillot 
entered  upon  the  combat  which  he  bad  vainly  tried  to  avoid. 
When  the  brochure,  "  The  Pope  and  the  Congress,"  written 
by  La  Gueronniere,  but  inspired  by  Napoleon,  appeared,  ad- 
vocating the  spoliation  of  the  Pontiff  as  a  political  necessity^ 
Pius  IX.  characterized  it,  in  reply  to  an  address  from  the 
Count  de  Goyon,  commander  of  the  French  army  of  occupa- 
tion in  Rome,  as  "  a  signal  monument  of  hj^pocrisy  and  an 
ignoble  tissue  of  contradictions."  The  imperial  authorities 
would  have  prevented  the  Univers  from  publishing  the  papal 
rebuke,  but  Yeuillot  knew  his  duty.  His  brother  Eugene 
says  that  just  as  lie  had  resolved  to  ignore  the  imperial 
wishes,  a  friend  asked  him  if  he  realized  what  he  was  doing. 
"  We  are  dying,"  was  the  reply.  The  discourse  of  the  Pon- 
tiff was  published  on  January  11,  1860 ;  but  the  government 


438  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

hesitated.     On  the  28th,  however,  Veuillot  received  the   En- 
cyclical Nallis  certe,  condemning  the  last  aggressions  against 
the  Papal  States.     The  document  was   at  once   translated ; 
and  as  he  sent  it  to  the  printers,  the  brave  editor  said :  "  Our 
paper  will  be  suj^pressed  to-morrow."     So  it  happened,  but 
Veuillot  had  triumphed ;  for  when  the  government   realized 
that  the  news  of  the  pontifical  action  had  already  transpired, 
it  authorized  the  other  journals  to   publish  the   Encyclical. 
Thus  it  was,  as  Veuillot  wrote  to  the  Pope,  that  an  Encycli- 
cal of  Pius  IX.,  that  of  1853,  had   given  life  to  the   Univers, 
and  another  one  had  taken  that  life.     Twice  Veuillot   asked 
for  authorization   to  resume  his  journal,  but  in  vain  ;   how- 
ever, in  1867,  while  Napoleon  was  effecting  his  tentative  evo- 
lution toward  liberalism,  and  which  was  to  involve  freedom 
of  the  press,  the  permission  was  accorded.     Pius  IX.  sent  a 
sum  of  money   to  further  the  good   work  ;  but  as  it  did  not 
prove  necessary,  Veuillot  turned  it  over  to  the  Peter's  Pence. 
The    attitude  of  the  Univers  did  not  change   toward  the  lib- 
eralized  Empire.     When,  just  previous  to  the   plebiscite  of 
May  7, 1870,  Emile  Ollivier,  the  new   Minister,    solicited  its 
support,  he  was   told  that  the  imperial  government  would 
have  to  promise  the   preservation  of  the  territories  still  re- 
maining to  the  Pope.     As  this  assurance  was  not  given,  our 
journal  remained  neutral,  being  unwilling  to  vote   with   the 
revolutionists  against  the  plebiscite,  and  unable  to   support 
an  administration  which  refused  satisfaction  to  the  Catholics. 
Meanwhile  the  General  Council  of  the  Vatican  was  celebrat- 
ed, and   the   favorite  thesis  of  Veuillot  was  solemnly  prom- 
ulgated.    Well  has  it   been  said   that   in  the   Constitution 
which  promulgated  the  dogma  of  Papal  Infallibility,  "  Tout 
Veuillot  est  Id,  et  font  VeviJIot  nest  qune  victoire." 

The  revolution  of  September  4, 1870,  did  not  surprise  Veu- 
illot ;  Sedan  was  a  consequence  of  Castlefidardo.  Eemain- 
ing  in  Paris  during  the  siege,  he  sustained  the  Government 
of  the  National  Defense,  and  continued  to  hope  against  hope. 
He  was  a  constant  adversary  of  the  Commune,  and  the  ar- 
ticles which  he  wrote  against  its  insane  leaders  form  his  in- 
teresting book  entitled  Paris  During  the  Tivo  Sieges.  When 
peace   had   returned,  he   seized   every   occasion  to   protest 


LOUIS    VEUILLOT.  439 

against  the  brutal  seizure  of  Rome  ou  September  20,  1870. 
Oue  day  the  members  of  the  ri^ht  had  almost  interdicted 
the  right  of  speech  to  M.  de  Belcastcl,  who  wished  to  iuter- 
polate  the  government  on  this  subject ;  and  Veuillot  severe- 
ly attacked  this  Catliolic  Jiiajority  for  thus  ajipearing  to 
abandon  the  cause  of  the  Head  of  the  Church.  For  this 
action  he  was  blamed  by  many  persons  of  his  own  party  ;  and 
even  Pius  IX.,  so  partial  to  the  Uiiivcrs,  complained  of 
his  too  zealous  defenders.  Veuillot  bowed  to  the  rebuke,  de- 
claring himself  read}'  to  break  his  pen  if  it  was  deemed  a 
danger  or  useless.  But  a  few  days  afterward  Mgr.  Mer- 
millod,  then  vicar-apostolic  of  Geneva,  and  supposed  to  be, 
in  this  matter,  an  authorized  interpreter  of  the  sentiments  of 
the  Pontiflf,  informed  the  entire  staff  of  the  journal  that 
Pius  IX.  blessed  their  work.  When  Marshal  MacMahon 
was  called  to  the  presidency,  May  24,  1873,  Veuillot  wel- 
comed the  loyal  soldier  who  seemed  disposed  to  favor  a 
monarchical  restoration.  We  need  not  detail  how  such  ef- 
forts failed,  and  how  MacMahon  showed  himself  pliant  to 
the  dictates  of  the  secret  societies — probably  because  he 
belonged  to  them.  Enough  here  to  note  that  this  adminis- 
tration disliked  the  U)nver,s.  Twice  the  journal  was  sus- 
pended :  once  at  the  request  of  Bismarck,  it  was  thought,  for 
having  published  a  letter  of  the  bishop  of  Perigueux  on  the 
religious  persecutions  in  Germany  ;  and  again  for  an  article 
which  displeased  the  Spanish  Cabinet  of  the  day. 

In  this  short  sketch  we  have  confined  our  remarks  to 
the  public  life  of  a  great  soldier  of  the  Church  ;  his  private 
life  "  est  de  V  intlme"  as  Eugenie  de  Guerin  would  say.  Even 
his  brotJier  hesitated  to  trench  upon  this  privacy  :  "  To 
speak  of  his  habits  would  be  a  puerility ;  and  as  for  his  joys 
and  griefs,  I  have  shared  them  too  entirely  to  display  them 
before  the  indifferent."  But  a  trace  of  his  joys  and  griefs  is 
to  be  found  in  his  works.  It  is  believed  that  one  chapter  of 
Here  and  There  gives  the  history  of  his  marriage  ;  and  in 
his  masterpiece,  Tlie  Nnptial  CJuimhr,  are  depicted  many 
of  his  chagrins.  After  the  death  of  his  beloved  wife,  Louis 
Veuillot  found  a  faithful  companion  in  an  adored  sister,  Mile. 
Elise  Veuillot,  whose  portrait  he  outlines  in  Here  and  There : 


440  STUDIES    IN   CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

"  Your  sweet  aud  noble  countenance  is  beautiful  in  our  eyes 
as  in  those  of  the  angels,  by  the  cares  which  have  prematurely 
impressed  their  mark.  For  the  love  of  God  you  refused  your- 
self to  the  service  of  God,  and  for  charity's  sake  you  deprived 
yourself  of  the  joys  of  charity.  You  do  not  fully  enjoy  the 
peace  of  the  cloister,  nor  the  care  of  the  poor,  nor  an  aposto- 
late  in  the  world ;  and  your  great  heart  has  known  how  to  fore- 
go all  that  is  grand  and  perfect  like  itself.  A  servant  to 
your  brother,  a  mother  to  his  orphans,  you  have  sunk  your 
life  in  little  duties.  You  have  given  away  your  youth,  liber- 
ty, and  future ;  you  are  no  longer  yourself,  but  one  who  is  no 
more,  a  dead  wife  and  a  buried  mother.  You  are  a  virgin- 
widow,  a  religious  without  a  veil,  a  spouse  without  her  rights, 
a  mother  without  the  name.  You  sacrifice  your  days  and  your 
vigils  to  children  who  do  not  call  you  mother,  and  you  have 
shed  a  mother's  tears  upon  the  graves  of  those  who  were  not 
your  children.  And  amid  all  this  labor,  this  abnegation  and 
trial,  you  seek  and  you  find  for  repose  other  infirmities  to 
succor,  other  weaknesses  to  strengthen,  other  wounds  to  heal. 
May  you  be  blessed  by  God  as  you  are  by  our  hearts ! " 
Louis  Veuillot  went  to  his  reward  on  the  7th  of  April,  1883. 
A  profound  and  judicious  critic,  the  Abbe  Le  Noir,  compar- 
ing Veuillot,  the  journalist  of  the  sovereign  and  infallible  Pa- 
pacy, with  Emile  de  Girardin,  the  journalist  of  liberty,  says : 
"  Girardin  had  no  governmental  system,  and  he  was  defeated 
by  all  our  governments,  not  one  of  which  either  understood 
or  desired  liberty.  Veuillot  had  a  fixed,  clear,  and  simple  sys- 
tem, which  the  French  clergy  adopted  ;  the  Papacy  upheld 
him  even  against  the  bishops,  and  he  ended  by  obtaining  a 
complete  triumph  in  the  Catholic  Church.  Veuillot  created 
a  style  which  was  adapted  to  the  clergy  of  his  time ;  he 
found  the  tone  which  was  to  touch  their  heart-strings  ;  he 
gave  them  in  his  journal  the  aliment  they  craved,  and  he  be- 
came omnipotent  with  his  readers.  Certain  prelates  tried 
to  crush  him  :  they  merely  rendered  his  vitality  greater. 
In  the  eyes  of  Rome  and  his  public  he  was  right,,  and  after- 
ward the  Council  of  the  Vatican  solemnly  proclaimed  his 
thesis  "  (1). 

(1)  The  DictUinaru  of  Bergicr,  Adapted  to  the  Intellectual  Mi wemeM  of  the  Latter 
Half  of  the  Nineteenth  Ceyitury,  Art.  Veuillot.    Paris,  1876. 


CESARE    CANTU,    rRINTE    OF    MODERN    HISTORIANS.  441 

CHAPTER  XXL 

CESARE   CANTU,  PRINCE  OF  MODERN  HISTORIANS.  * 

Modern  Italy  has  reascni  to  V)e  proud  of  hor  knights  of  the 
pen.     To  sav  nothing  of  her  ecclesiastics  who  have  distin- 
gnislied  themselves  in  current  literature,  and  whose  name  is 
legion,  no  other  country  has  produced,  in  this  century,  a  lit- 
erary galaxy  which  merits  comparison  with  that  formed  by 
Pellico,    Manzoni,    Monti,    Brofferio,   Foscolo,   Romagnosi, 
Grossi,  Troya,  D'Azeglio,  and  Cantu.     Our  century  has  pro- 
duced more  celebrated  mediocrities  than  any  of  its  predeces- 
sors ;  and,  since  the  inception  of  her  sham-encouraging  uni- 
tarian revolution,  Italy  has  brought  forth  her  share.     But 
literary  mediocrities  are  soon  forgotten  in  Italy.     There,  few 
mistake  voluminousness  for  exhaustiveness  ;  obscurity  is  not 
lauded  as  profundity ;  petulancy  is  not  taken  for  vivacity  ; 
specious  smartness  does  not  pass  for  wit.     As  a  rule,  literary 
pre-eminence  is  attained  in  Italy  by  the  deserving  alone  ;  and 
among  those  contemporary  writers  who  have  won  the   re- 
spectful admiration  of  the   Italian   historical   and   literary 
world,  the  first  place,  both  for  the  number  and  the  variety  of 
his  works,  must  be  accorded  to  Cesare  Cantu,  who  went  to  his 
eternal  reward  in  1894,  in  the  ninetieth  year  of  his  age.     The 
chief  title  of  Cantii  to  the  gratitude  of  scholars  throughout 
the  world  is  his  Universal  History,  a  work  which  excels  all 
similarly  styled  lucubrations  as  a  persevering  research  for 
historical  truth,  and  as  a  frank  expression  of  that  truth.     It 
is  a  voluminous  work ;  but  the  scholar  never  meets  with  any- 
thiu<^'  that  might  be  omitted  without  diminution  of  its  utility, 
or  even  with  little  passages  which  have  no  necessary  l)eariug 
on  the  subject-matter.     As  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  pass 
in  chronological  order  before  the  student,  he  feels  as  though 
he  were  contemporary  with  each  of  them  ;  so  clearly  does  his 
Mentor  philosophize,  as  the  procession  moves  on,  concern- 
ing  the  social,  political,  and  religious  development  of  all. 
Characteristic  details  abound.     The  events  are  so  grouped, 

•  This  chapter  appeared  In  Thk  Avk  Maria.  Vol.  XL. 


442  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

that  the  scholar  can  consider  them  from  a  general  as  well  as 
from  a  particular  point  of  view  ;  and  during  the  entire  un- 
folding of  the  panorama,  he  insj^ects  humanity  as  it  accords 
with  or  transgresses  the  law  of  justice  and  progress.  In  the 
perusal  of  this  admirable  History,  we  often  discern  the  hand 
of  him  who  has  touched  the  most  delicate  fibres  of  the  heart 
in  his  poems  and  romances  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  historian 
is  ever  calm  on  his  judicial  bench  as  he  descants  on  past  and 
present,  and  penetrates  into  the  future.  No  historian  has  so 
well  understood  the  science  which  is  termed  the  philosophy 
of  history  ;  that  science  which  deduces  from  the  events  of  the 
past  the  laws  obeyed  by  human  passions,  the  aspirations  of 
men  and  of  nations,  and  which  aids  us  in  anticipating  the 
future.  The  work  of  Cantu  is  pre-eminently  a  living  work  ; 
it  is  not  a  mere  corpse  of  the  past  which  he  presents  to  our 
contemplation.  The  men  whom  he  evokes  are  living  charac- 
ters, not  the  mere  shades  and  names  of  men.  And  he  is  no 
mere  shade  of  a  historian,  when  he  judges  these  personages  ; 
he  is  sagacious,  trenchant,  and  precise,  utterly  void  of  that 
eclecticism  and  that  scepticism  which  are  the  dominating 
features  of  nearly  all  modern  would-be  historians. 

One  cannot  but  think  that  the  poetical  genius  of  Cantu 
helped  him  to  attain  to  historical  eminence.  Of  course  few 
poets  make  good  historians.  Not  one  true  poet  in  ten  is  prop- 
erly equipped  to  court  the  Muse  of  History ;  and  the 
chances  are  ten  to  one  that  the  properly  equipped 
poet  will  sacrifice  historical  truth  to  the  exigencies  of 
dramatic  effect.  But  poetic  fire  is  of  great  advantage  to  the 
competent  historical  delineator,  as  the  works  of  Cantii  well 
evince.  Our  author  shows  that  a  man  can  be  both  poet  and 
historian,  although  such  success  is  exceptional.  Schiller, 
for  instance,  a  good  poet,  and  an  admirable  one  when  he 
speaks  the  truth,  is  but  a  poor  historian.  He  essayed  a 
history  of  that  brigandage  and  butchery,  that  chaos  of  con- 
trary elements,  which  is  termed  the  Thirty  Years'  War  ;  which 
he  would  never  have  approached  had  he  not  hoped  to  make 
capital  out  of  its  tremendously  dramatic  personages.  Well, 
Schiller  found  the  material  for  a  thrilling  work  ;  but,  as  we 
have  remarked   elsewhere,  he  brought  forth  an  incoherent 


CESARE    CANXr,    I'llINCE    OF    MODERN    HISToKIANS.  [i?, 

mass  of  pLititudiucMisdt'c'liUUJitioiis.  In  fint',  Schiller  cohscmI 
to  be  a  poet  without  ijecoininga  historian.  Siu-h  was  not  the 
destiny  of  Cautu. 

Our  author's  Universal  llisionj  was,  so  to  sponk,  tlie  tree 
which  put  forth  those  fruitful  branches,  the  Jlistor//  of  the 
Ifalian.s,  i\iQ  Hisfonj  of  a  Hioidrcd  Years,  and  The  Last  Tlilrty 
Years.  After  the  revolution  of  '48,  during  that  time  of  repose 
which  preceded  the  unitarian  movement  of  'GO  which  was  to 
"  regenerate  "  Italy,  Cantii  deemed  it  well  to  draw  the  atten- 
tion of  the  world  to  the  lessons  furnished  by  the  events  which 
were  consequent  on  the  great  French  Revolution  of  1789,  and 
which  were  calculated  to  serve  as  warnings  for  the  revolution- 
ists of  the  future.  This  intention  was  realized  in  the  History 
of  a  Hundred  Years,  dealing  with  the  periodfrom  1750  to  1850, 
of  the  latter  jiart  of  which  Cantu  could  well  say  :  "  Quorum 
pars  magna  fui."  He  had  ah*eady  experienced  the  bitter 
fate  which  is  reserved  for  one  who  declines  to  be  the  sLive  of 
any  faction,  and  who,  recognizing  the  merits  and  faults  of  all, 
becomes  a  target  for  the  venomous  shafts  of  diametrically 
opposite  parties  (1).  Nevertheless,  he  had  undertaken  the 
task  of  describing  that  magnificent  but  doleful  period,  with  the 
sole  desire  to  manifest  the  truth,  without  fear  of  either  des- 
pots or  popular  passions.  He  felt  that  he  was  a  re-creator, 
and  for  such  a  one  truth  is  necessary.  In  this  work  Cantu 
read  severe  lessons  to  Austria ;  but  he  told  just  as  severe 
truths  to  the  leaders  of  '48.  Intensely  patriotic,  he  never 
deviated  from  the  principles  of  sound  morality  ;  and  when,  in 
concluding  his  exhortations,  he  questioned  himself  as  to  the 
prospects  of  Italy's  gaining  her  independence,  he  made  Italy 
reply  to  Austria  in  the  words  used  by  Matteo  Yisconti  to 
Guido  Torriano  when  the  latter  asked  him  when  he  would 
return  to  power  :  "  When  thy  sins  shall  have  become  greater 
than  mine,"  The  volumes  created  a  great  sensation  tlirough- 
out  continental  Europe  ;  but  the  French  version  was  a  sad 
mutilation  of  the  original  ;  and  when  the  author  complained 
to  M.  Renee,  the  Napoleonically-inclined  translator,  he  re- 
ceived the  reply  :  "  Do  you  think  that  there  is  as  much  free- 

(1)  For  au  account  of  Cantil's  experience  with  tbe  Congregation  of  the  Index,  see  our 
Vol.  ill.,  p.  189,  in  Note. 


444  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

dom  of  speech  in  France  as  there  is  in  Italy  ?  "  And  this 
question  was  put  before  the  Italians  had  tried  their  unitarian 
experiment.  In  his  Last  Thirty  Years,  describing  events  in 
which  his  own  part  was  so  great,  Cantii  never  loses  the  se- 
rene tranquillity  which  is  one  of  his  characteristics  ;  and,  ever 
loyal  in  his  own  sentiments,  he  is  indignant  when  he  beholds 
crime  figuring  as  a  chosen  instrument  of  statesmen.  He 
says  of  Cavour  :  "  He  despised  men  sufiiciently  to  avail  him- 
self of  their  wickednesses,  and  he  introduced  a  corruption 
which  contaminated  Italian  regeneration."  He  paints  in 
gloomy  colors  the  condition  of  his  country  since  she  suc- 
cumbed to  the  domination  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Three 
Points  ;  but  the  facts  which  he  presents  are  so  patent,  that  the 
book  has  found  few  censors. 

In  the  Heretics  of  Italy,  our  author  depicts  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  Church  in  Italy  with  broad  and  masterly 
lines.  The  constant  theme  of  this  work  is  the  often  for- 
gotten fact  that  civilization  has  always  developed  under  the 
influence  of  the  Church,  and  has  always  retrograded  when 
that  influence  has  been  impeded.  The  conclusion  of  the 
three  large  volumes  is  in  these  words  :  "  After  a  study  of 
Christianity  in  the  light  of  reason,  of  history,  and  of  con- 
science, our  respect  for  Catholic  tradition  has  been  con- 
firmed. Our  studies  have  furnished  us  new  reasons  for  the 
conviction  that  the  Christian  organization,  infusing  a  spirit 
of  subordination  into  the  masses,  confers  on  men  the  great- 
est amount  of  happiness.  Of  course  we  speak  of  that  felic- 
ity which  subjects  the  will  not  to  violence,  but  to  the  sweet 
empire  of  a  persuasive  morality.  We  remain  convinced 
that  the  most  ancient  of  powers,  the  sacerdotal  principality, 
is  also  the  most  venerable  and  the  most  generous  ;  that  it  is 
the  keystone  of  the  social  edifice  and  the  guarantee  of  the 
liberty  of  our  nation,  because  it  can  oppose  to  social  convul- 
sions the  sole  force  which  can  curb  them — conscience." 

With  Manzoni  and  Grossi,  Cantii  completes  the  triumvir- 
ate of  modern  Italian  poetry.  As  for  his  power  as  a  novel- 
ist, we  may  say  that  no  romance,  not  even  The  Bethrothed 
of  Manzoni,  has  furnished  such  exquisite  pleasure  to  refined 
and  sympathetic  souls   as   his   3Iar(jherita   PusterJa.     And 


CESAUE   CANTU,    PIUNCE   OF    MODEHN    HISTORIANS.  44") 

Cantu  could  write  for "  the  peopl»\"  His  lionesty  was 
equal  to  his  intelligence,  antl  he  always  loved  what  it  is 
the  fashion  to  style  "  the  lower  orders."  For  the  benefit  of 
the  working  class  he  wrote  many  books,  small  in  volume, 
but  of  immense  value, — books  which  speak  to  the  heart  of 
the  toiler,  although  dictated  by  solid  reason  and  filled  with 
extraordinary  erudition.  One  of  these  works,  Good  Sense 
and  Good  Heart,  published  in  1870,  has  been  pronounced, 
by  competent  critics  of  every  school  of  thought,  to  be  the  best 
educational  work  given  to  workiugmen  in  modern  times.  In 
this  book  Cantii  speaks  to  the  people  in  their  own  language, 
displaying  no  party  feeling ;  and  urging  his  readers  to  econo- 
my, benevolence,  sobriety,  and  above  all  to  activity,  which 
he  regards  as  the  vocation  of  man  on  earth,  an  instrument 
of  that  progress  which  is  the  characteristic  of  true  civiliza- 
tion. The  stupendous  amount  of  historical  knowledge  pos- 
sessed by  Cesare  Cantii,  the  immense  amount  of  reading, 
writing,  and  other  labor  in  which  his  nearly  ninety  years  of 
life  were  spent,  enabled  him  to  adorn  and  fructify  this  volume 
with  a  profusion  of  examples  illustrating  every  precept 
which  he  inculcates.  And  he  ever  remembers  that  the  mind 
of  his  reader,  a  "  man  of  the  people,"  must  not  be  fatigued  ; 
so  he  drops  at  times  into  a  bit  of  poetry,  which  is  both  recrea- 
tive and  edifying.  In  fact,  he  so  miscult  utile  didci  that,  as  a 
certain  critic  observes,  his  useful  appears  to  delight  in 
swimming  and   splashing  in  sweetness. 

Another  beautiful  work  for  the  improvement  of  the  toiler, 
called  The  Workingmans  Portfolio,  is  admirably  practical. 
It  is  a  an  autobiography  of  a  young  Neapolitan  orphan  who 
goes  to  Lombardy  to  learn  a  trade.  Naturally  restless  and 
fond  of  novelty,  he  continually  changes  masters  and  trades  ; 
picks  up  a  little  knowledge  of  everything  ;  learns  much  about 
the  vicissitudes  of  Italy,  and  participates  in  some  of  the  re- 
cent ones  ;  studies  considerably  ;  and  tiirough  all  his  adven- 
tures ever  thinks  of  the  injunction  of  his  deceased  mother : 
"  Remember  that  God  sees  you  !  "  Around  this  simple  frame- 
work Cantu  entwines  much  practical  philosophy,  moral 
counsels,  refutations  of  the  socialistic  theories  of  the  day, 
and  advice  concerning  the  oft-recurring  conflict  between  the 


446  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

interests  of  the  employee  and  those  of  the  employer.  Cer- 
tain chapters  on  "  A  Father's  Experience  Narrated  to  His 
Children,"  "  One  for  All  and  All  for  One,"  "  Kich  and  Poor,  " 
and  on "  Strikes,"  are  a  perfect  quintessence  of  all  the 
possible  arguments  against  communistic  and  socialistic 
dreams.  Throughout  the  entire  book  Cantii  evinces  such 
sincere  devotion  to  the  moral  and  intellectual  progress  of 
the  toiling  classes,  and  exhales  so  pronounced  an  odor 
of  honesty,  that  even  those  of  his  compatriots  who  do 
not  sympathize  with  his  "  clerical "  aspirations,  have  fain 
avowed  that  every  workingman  should  have  a  copy  of  the 
book,  and  that  the  government  should  introduce  it  into  every 
public  educational  institution.  In  a  letter  to  the  author, 
the  illustrious  French  publicist  Laboulaye  says  :  "  You  have 
written  more  extensive  and  graver  works,  but  none  have 
attested  so  well  as  this  one  your  great  love  for  the  *  people ' 
and  your  real  patriotism."  However,  the  Italian  govern- 
mental authorities  have  stigmatized  the  book  as  "  anti-na- 
tional" in  its  sentiments  ;  and  they  discourage  its  circulation 
among  those  whom  it  would  undoubtedly  prevent  from  be- 
coming a  peril  to  the  State. 

"  Perseverance  "  was  ever  the  motto  of  the  long  life  which 
Cantu  devoted  to  the  glory  of  the  God  who  gave  great  tal- 
ents to  him.  In  1873  he  thus  replied  to  greetings  sent  by 
the  printers  of  Milan : "  For  a  long  time  your  eyes  have 
been  directed  toward  a  workingman  who  wills  strongly. 
Like  yourselves,  that  workman  was  born  in  humble  circum- 
stances. When  twenty  years  of  age,  he  became  the  father 
of  nine  orphans  ;  and,  without  fortune  or  any  kind  of  protec- 
tion, he  resolved  to  preserve  the  independence  of  his  opinions, 
without  any  adulation  of  either  the  great  or  the  lowly. 
Asking  for  no  other  Maecenas  than  the  public,  he  produced 
books  which  are  more  conscientious  than  scientific.  De- 
prived of  his  liberty  and  of  his  country,  defrauded  of  the 
fruit  of  his  youthful  labors,  attacked  in  his  most  sincere 
aspirations  and  in  his  dearest  affections,  made  a  target  by 
all  who  thought  or  wrote  differently  from  himself,  he  adopt- 
ed for  his  motto  the  word,  Perseverando.  When  you  ac- 
company him  to  the  cemetery,  say :  *  A  good  workman 
has   passed  away.     Let  us  imitate  his  perseverance. 


CEaARE  CANTU,   PRINCE  OF   MODERN    HISTORIANS.  447 

The  chiiritv  of  CiUitu  well  desorvod  to  l>e  sotcriiicd,  for  it 
was  reasoual)le  ;  autl  it  did  not  prevoiit  his  manifestation  of 
a  noble  indignation,  when  he  found  himself  face  to  face  with 
the  enemies  of  the  Chmvh.  and  of  Christian  trutli.     He  never 
eared  to  hide  his  disgust  wiien  he  was  c-ompeHed  to  listen  to 
pretentious  chatter  like  that  of  one   of  his   scientific  com- 
patriots wlio  smartly  dechired  :     "  At  length  we  know  how 
much  phosphorus  is  required  to  make  a  Dante."     To  men 
of  that  ignoble  stamp,  Cantu  would  address  but  one  serious 
observation :     "  The  studious  man  will  not  ignore  the  re- 
searches and  the  conjectures  of  the  grand  seekers  who,  per- 
severinf^lv  although  sadly,  pursue  that  Infinite  which  they 
cannot  reach  ;  lyut  he  will  not  attempt  to  raise  an  edifice  on 
systems  which  are  not  only  discordant,  but  which  contra- 
dict each  other.     Yesterday  we  were  told  to  listen  to  Renan, 
who  insisted  that  Monotheism  was  instinctive  in  the  Semitic 
race  ;  to-day  we  are  directed  to  Soury,  who  affects  to  show 
that   the   Hebrews  were  Polytheists."     To   those   who  are 
willing  to  derive  their  descent  immediately  from  monkeys 
although  possibly  mediately  from  the  hand  of  God,  Cantii 
adduces  language  as  a  decisive  proof  of  the  immediately  di- 
vine origin  of  man  :    ^'  Language  is  a  treasure   of   wisdom 
which  is  superior  to  all  our  meditations  ;  its  origin  cannot  be 
ascribed   to   reflection    or  to  conscience,  since  in    its  very 
beginnings  it  was  the  vehicle  of  metaphysical  conception  so 
fertile  and  so  logical  that  the  would-be  scientist  is  at  a  loss 
for  an  explanation."     To  the  so-called  reformers  who  to-day 
foster  one  of  the  most  pregnant  evils  which  now  afflict  civil- 
ized society—  to  all  who  exalt  popular  instruction  to  the  det- 
riment of  popular  education,  Cantii  proclaimed  :    "Attention 
should  be  paid  to  the  hearts  of  men  much  more  than  to  the 
alphabet  and  to  gymnastics."    To  those  whose  adoration  of  the 
nineteenth  century  does  not  hide  the  fact  that  Anarchism  is 
now  a  power,  Cantii  prescribes :     "  "We  must  lift  up  those 
who  are  on  their  knees ;  we  must  not  prostrate  those  who 

stand  erect The    laborer  may   need    to  gain   his   daily 

bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow  ;  but  it  should  not  be  neces- 
sary for  him  to  live  with  tears  always  in  his  eyes."  To  the 
France  of  his  day  Cantii  spoke  the  language  of  confidence  in 


i48  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY, 

the  destinies  of  the  land  which  had  shown  to  the  world  the 
Gcsia  Dei  per  Francos ;  he  did  not  hide  from  himself  the 
melancholy  fact  that  modern  France  is  "  a  clinic  of  all  the 
social  diseases,"  but  he  bade  Frenchmen  remember  :  "The 
literature  of  France  is  the  literature  of  all  Europe  ;  her  lan- 
guage is  the  universal  vehicle  of  all  ideas  ;  her  tribune  seems 
to  be  the  tribune  of  the  peoples  who  have  none ;  and  with 
more  truth  than  ever  the  saying  of  Jeflferson  may  noAv  be  quot- 
ed :  'Every  man  has  two  countries — his  own  and  France.'  " 
To  the  misguided  zealots  who  in  1848  were  confounding  the 
cause  of  the  Pope-King  with  that  of  the  Austrian  campers 
on  Italian  soil,  Cantu,  who  had  just  brought  his  Universal  His- 
tort/  down  to  his  own  time,  complained  that  they  knew  not 
the  significance  of  "  Pius  IX.,  who  in  his  doubts  threw  him- 
self at  the  feet  of  the  crucifix";  and  he  called  on  the  Italians 
to  learn  from  the  political  attitude  of  the  Pontiff,  and  from 
all  history,  "  how  reason  is  on  the  side  of  those  who  expect  a 
regeneration  of  their  country,  not  from  revolutionary  despot- 
ism, but  from  a  healthy  moderation." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  PLACE   OF  THE  MIRACULOUS  IN  HISTORY.      THE 
MIRACLES  OF  LOURDES.* 


THE  MIRACULOUS  NOT  UNHISTORICAL  PER  SE. 

Few  incredulists  cherish  any  kind  feeling  for  mere  author- 
ity ;  but  nevertheless,  the  entire  school  expects  men  to  submit 
their  intelligences  to  the  ukase  of  its  own  ipse  dixit,  and  to 
do  so  with  as  much  simplicity  as  was  ever  evinced  by  devout 
royalists  when  they  doffed  their  caps  before  an  edict  issued, 
"  De  par  le  Boi.''  We  can  fancy  that  we  ?ee,in  every  part 
of  the  habitable  globe,  placards  warning  God  that  the  school 
of  "  pure  science,"  of  "  pure  reason,"  of  "  rational  criticism," 
denies  His  right  to  transcend  the  laws  of  His  own  creation. 
However,  a  very  respectable  number  of  persons  contend  that 

*  The  first  part  of  t'lis  dissertation  appeared  in  the  Ave  Maria,  Vol.  xl. 


THE   PLACE   OF  THE    MIRACULOUS   IN    HISTORY.  449 

even  at  the  close  of  this  progressive  uiueteentli  century  mir- 
acles do  occur  in  Christendom.  The  incredulist,  intiuted  by 
the  spirit  of  modern  "criticism,"  nisiy  sneer  as  he  reads  of 
the  faith  displayed  at  the  venerated  shrines  of  Lourdes,  of 
La  Sidette,  or  of  8te.  Anne  de  13eau})re  by  so  many  thousands 
of  every  age,  condition,  and  mental  calibre  ;  but  perforce  he 
acknowledses  that  the  ancient  theories  of  the  miraculous  are 
not  yet  ethcaciously  exploded.  In  our  day  the  sincere  stu- 
dent of  history  thanks  Providence— or  mayhap  the  stars  which 
take  the  place  of  Providence  in  his  imagination — that  he 
lives  in  this  much-vaunted  period  of  "  scientific  criticism."  If 
he  has  already  acquired  a  certain  amount  of  solid  informa- 
tion as  to  the  nature  and  history  of  the  critical  faculty,  he 
realizes  that  a  critical  school  is  not  a  peculiar  appanage  of 
the  nineteenth  century  :  that  the  best  modern  scholars  admit 
that  the  so-called  Dark  Ages  witnessed  the  agitation  of 
nearly  all  the  questions  that  have  been  mooted  and  disputed 
in  our  days  of  presumed  intellectual  pre-eminence.  How- 
ever, this  real  student  perceives  that  modern  days  have  be- 
held some  advance  in  the  apparatus  wherewith  man  exercises 
his  perceptive  faculties  ;  and  he  is  grateful  for  his  share  in 
the  improvement.  But  does  the  modern  school  of  "  scientific 
'•riticism  "  always  deserve  its  name  ?  Do  all  its  professed 
devotees  follow  out  in  practice  the  principles  inculcated  by 
its  canons,  and  which  they  really  venerate  so  long  as  there 
is  merely  question  of  abstract  theory  ?  The  Rationalistic 
school  can  not  close  its  eyes  to  the  fact  that  Catholic  scholars 
and — alas  !  it  must  be  admitted — inoiJcs  founded  the  mo;it 
solid  and  severe  school  of  historical  criticism  which  the 
world  has  yet  admired ;  but,  despite  this  fact,  the  arrogant 
tribe  proclaims  that  a  Catholic  has  no  place  in  historical 
science,  since  he  is  necessarily  subservient  to  prejudices  which 
are  foreign  to  science.  This  proclamation  is  made  whenever 
It  is  asserted  that  a  narrative  of  a  miracle  is  a  mere  legend, 
and  that  legends  have  no  rights  in  history.  In  ^cher  words, 
Dom  Mjd>illon,  Dom  Boiiquet,  and  other  f'^^unders  of  that 
school  of  historical  erudition  to  which  the  Benedictines  have 
given  their  name,  are  to  be  dismissed  as  incorrigible  dunces. 
We  are  asked  to  believe  that  miracles  have  no  place  m 


450  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

history  :  and  therefore,  since  we  do  believe  in  miracles,  to 
write  ourselves  down  as  outlaws  in  the  historico-critical 
domain.  But  we  would  ask  our  Rationalistic  friends  what  . 
method  of  historical  criticism  one  should  follow  when,  in  the 
course  of  his  inquiries,  he  finds  himself  face  to  face  with  a 
presumed  occurrence  which  is  certainly  strange,  and  which 
Catholics- insist  upon  regarding  as  a  miracle.  Is  he  to  sum- 
marily dismiss  the  alleged  fact  as  an  impossibility  ?  Prof. 
Huxley  would  reply  in  the  negative.  He  frankly  admits 
that  the  imjDossibility  of  miracles  can  not  be  sustained,  al- 
though he  knows  of  nothing  wihch  calls  upon  him  to  qualify 
the  grave  verdict  of  Hume  :  "  There  is  not  to  be  found  in  all 
history  any  miracle  attested  by  a  sufficient  number  of  men 
of  such  unquestioned  goodness,  education,  and  learning  as 
to  secure  us  against  all  delusion  in  themselves  ;  of  such  un- 
doubted integrity  as  to  place  them  beyond  all  suspicion  of 
any  design  to  deceive  others  ;  of  such  credit  and  reputation 
in  the  eyes  of  mankind  as  to  have  a  great  deal  to  lose  in  case 
of  their  being  detected  in  any  falsehood  ;  and,  at  the  same 
time,  attesting  facts  performed  in  such  a  public  manner  and 
in  so  celebrated  a  part  of  the  world  as  to  render  the  detec- 
tion unavoidable  ;  all  of  which  circumstances  are  requisite 
to  give  us  full  assurance  in  the  testimony  of  men."  "We  do 
not  propose  to  question  the  necessity  of  adopting  these 
stringent  canons  ;  but,  admitting  the  postulate  of  Hume, 
Huxley,  and  others  of  that  ilk,  we  ask  our  Rationalistic  friends 
how  they  proceed  in  the  contingency  just  mentioned.  If 
they  are  honest,  they  will  candidly  reply  that  when  they  meet  a 
passage  recording  some  strikingly  strange  event,  their  first 
and  immediate  proceeding  is  to  note  whether  the  narrative 
accords  with  their  own  preconceived  ideas  concerning  the 
subject  matter.  They  will  avow  that  if,  at  this  early  stage 
of  the  so-called  investigation,  they  discover  that  their  notions 
have  sustained  no  unpleasant  shock,  then,  and  only  then,  will 
they  bring  the  canons  of  criticism  to  bear  upon  the  point  at 
issue.  It  is  only  when  they  have  assured  themselves  that 
there  is  no  likelihood  of  contagion  from  the  new  applicant 
for  admittance  into  their  self-arrogated  domain,  that  they 
deign  to  lift  the  quarantine,  and  allow  the  detained  to  be- 


THE   PLACE   OF   THE    MIRACULOUS   LN    HISTORY.  151 

come  amenable  to  those  canons  wliieli  are  at  once  invoked  iu 
every  other  class  of  cases.  Thon  indcM^d  will  bo  h(\-ird  the 
usual  challenges  :  Where  and  how  did  this  narrative  origi- 
nate? Who  was  its  author  ?  Does  he  merit  credit  ?  What 
means  of  verifying  his  story  did  lie  enjoy?  and  so  on.  We 
suppose,  of  course,  that  our  Rationalistic  friends  are  true 
students  and  well-equipped  critics  ;  for  these  interrogatories 
imply  that  an  intricate  investigation  is  imminent,  and  the 
audacious  individual  who  would  omit  it  in  a  matter  of  any 
moment  would  not  deserve  the  name  of  scholar,  let  him  be 
Catholic  or  Rationalist.  Now  we  imagine  that  most  of  our 
readers  have  opined  that  the  ordinary  canons  of  criticism 
sliould  be  put  into  practice  before  any  use  of,  or  at  least 
independently  of  the  quarantine  regimen  which  the  advocates 
of  "  pure  reason  "  so  zealously  enforce.  We  shall  illustrate 
our  position  and  that  of  these  gentry  by  two  examples. 

In  the  year  484  Huneric,  King  of  the  Vandals,  an  obstin- 
ate Ariau  who  was  then  master  of  the  Mediterranean  coast 
of  Africa,  and  had  begun  a  cruel  persecution  of  all  Catholics 
who  would  not  deny  the  consubstantiality  of  the  Son  with 
the  Father,  one  day  ordered  that  several  of  the  recalcitrants 
should  have  their  tongues  plucked  out  at  the  roots.  Six  con- 
temporary authors  record  that  after  their  mutilation,  the 
victims  continued  to  proclaim  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour  in 
as  audible  and  distinct  tones  as  had  hitherto  been  natural 
to  them.  These  six  w^riters  are  :  Victor,  bishop  of  Vite  (1) ; 
the  Emperor  Justinian,  the  third  successor  of  Zeno  (2) ;  ^Eneas 
of  Gaza  (3) ;  Procopius  (4)  ;  the  Count  Marcellinus  (5) ;  and 
Victor,  bishop  of  Tunon  (6).  Furthermore,  these  six  au- 
thors tell  us  that  the  martyrs  proceeded  to  Constantinople, 
where  the  Emperor  Zeno  attested  the  prodigy.  Four  of  these 
authors  say  that  they  examined  the  mouths  of  the  victims, 
and  that  they  heard  them  talk.  It  is  useless  to  o1)ject  that 
perhaps  the  entire  tongues  were  not  cut  out  (7)  ;  and  that 

(1)  Historii  of  the  Vandalic  Pergecutiou,  Bk.  v. 

(2)  Coilcx,  Bk.  i.,  tit.  27. 

(3)  DUiUigue  "  Theophrastes."  (i)  War  A.gain«t  the  VandaU,  Bk.  1.,  ch.  8. 

(5)  Oirimick. 

(6)  ll^id. 

(7)  Thus  urines  the  Englisb  translator  of  Mosbeim. 


452  STUDIES   ±'S.    CHURCH   HISTORY. 

the  "  Memoirs  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  "  of  Paris  make 
mention  of  two  persons  who  had  no  tongues,  but  neverthe- 
less coukl  talk.  In  these  latter  cases  there  were  remaining 
small  portions  of  the  original  tongues  ;  and  even  with  those 
portions,  as  the  examining  surgeons  reported,  the  unfortu- 
nates could  talk  only  with  very  great  effort,  and  their  utter- 
ances were  unintelligible  articulations  rather  than  compre- 
hensible words.  On  the  other  hand,  an  inspection  of  the 
mouths  of  the  martyrs  of  Typasis  revealed  not  a  vestige  of 
tongue,  and  the  emitted  tones  were  precisely  such  as  would 
have  been  produced  by  organs  in  normal  condition.  Now,  if 
four  eye-witnesses,  men  respectable  by  their  worldly  rank 
and  by  their  learning  and  probity  of  life,  do  not  form  good 
historical  testimony,  we  know  not  where  to  find  any.  Let 
the  reader  apply  the  criterions  insisted  upon  by  Hume  and 
Huxley  to  the  testimony  in  favor  of  this  miracle.  He  will 
find  that  it  will  stand  the  test.  Our  witnesses  could  not 
have  conspired  to  palm  off  an  impudent  fraud  upon  a  credu- 
lous world  ;  for  some  of  them  wrote  in  Africa,  and  others  in 
Constantinople.  And  mark  that  they  all  agree  in  the  sub- 
stance of  their  narratives,  while  their  simplicity  andpositive- 
ness  are  indicative  of  sincerity. 

The  narrative  for  which  we  now  ask  attention  concerns 
St.  Martin  of  Tours.  It  is  related  by  Sulpicius  Severus,  a 
writer  with  whom  the  learned  among  our  opponents  are  well 
acquainted,  and  whom  they  esteem  as  a  reliable  authority, 
whenever  their  preconceptions  do  not  interfere  with  their 
sanity  of  judgment.  One  day  it  happened  that  while  St. 
Martin  was  walking  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chartres,  a  weep- 
ing father  besought  him  to  give  speech  to  his  daughter,  who 
Iiad  been  mute  from  her  birth.  By  the  power  of  God  the 
saint  complied  with  the  request ;  and  one  Evagrius,  a  priest 
who  witnessed  the  event,  related  it  to  Severus,  who  recorded 
it  in  his  book.  Here  is  an  author  who  is  not  only  contem- 
porary with  the  subject  of  his  story,  but  who  knew  him  well, 
who  lived  long  among  tlie  disciples  of  the  saint,  and  heard 
their  testimony  concerning  the  prodigies  performed  by  him, 
and  whom,  therefore,  we  must  suppose  to  have  beer^  well 
equipped  for  the  work  of  preparing  an  accurate  account  of 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  MIRACULOUS  IN  HISTORY.     453 

the  life  and  deeds  of  the  great  prelate.  His  book,  multiplied 
into  tliousauds  of  copies  while  he  yet  lived,  has  come  down 
to  us  intact,  and  with  'is  sure  guarantees  of  authenticity  as 
is  possessed  by  any  jMicient  manuscript.  There  is  still  pre- 
served in  Verona  a  <*opy  which  was  contemporary  witli  Sul- 
picius,  an  exceptional  case  in  the  matter  of  a  work  of  the 
fourth  century.  Now,  according  to  all  the  rules  of  ordinarily 
sound  criticism,  the  narrative  of  Sulpicius  Severus  concern- 
ing the  adduced  miracle  by  St.  Martin  of  Tours  ought  to  in- 
spire contidepf'e  in  the  credibility  of  that  prodigy.  But  our 
Rationalistic  friends  will  not  view  the  matter  in  this  light. 
With  a  contemptuous  shrug  they  dismiss  both  the  well- 
attested  miracle  of  St.  Martin  and  the  equally  well-proved 
prodigy  •vhich  occurred  among  the  Vandals.  And  why  ? 
Merely  because  they  are  presented  as  miracles.  We  are 
told  tha*^^  rules  of  criticism  do  not  exist  for  such  narratives. 
In  fine,  the  results  of  an  investigation  which  has  been  con- 
ducted in  scrupulous  accordance  with  canons  adopted  and 
consecrated  by  these  same  devotees  of  "  pure  reason  "  and 
of  "  scientific  criticism  "  must  go  for  nothing  whenever  those 
results  contradict  the  Rationalistic  manner  of  thought  on 
the  Deity,  on  the  soul's  immortality,  or,  for  that  matter, 
on  anything  else.  And  this  is  the  same  as  saying  that  in- 
credulist  criticism  diametrically  reverses  the  position  which 
criticism  ought  to  occupy.  Criticism  should  lead  us  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  That  which  one  may  happen  to 
regard  as  truth  before  any  preliminary  examination  has 
been  held,  should  not  impose  its  limitations  upon  criticism. 
Why  will  not  our  Rationalistic  critics  be  content  with  treat- 
ing an  alleged  miracle  as  they  would  any  other  alleged  fact  ? 
Why  not  subject  it  to  the  same  verifying  process  ?  When 
the  alleged  miraculous  appears  on  the  pages  of  history,  let 
all  sincere  critics  pronounce  judgment  on  it,  with  eyes  direct- 
ed simply  on  the  question  of  fact,  without  any  preliminary 
reflections,  direct  or  indirect,  upon  even  the  existence  of  tlie 
supernatural.  There  will  be  sufficient  time  afterward  to 
decide  whether  the  event  must  be  regarded  in  a  natural  or 
supernatural  light.  We  ask  for  no  more  than  this ;  and 
this  is  mere  justice,  plain  common-sense. 


454  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

We  can  scarcely  believe  that  atheistical  and  Protestant 
critics  will  ever  adopt  this  course.  It  is  much  more  easy  to 
settle  every  question  as  to  the  truth  of  an  alleged  miracle 
with  a  smart  sally  of  words, — with  a  feeble  attempt  at  a  joke. 
Mayhap  such  conduct  is  prudent ;  for  the  frivolous  travesties 
of  ratiocination  generally  presented  by  the  giants  of  agnostic 
criticism  can  not  withstand  the  shock  of  the  evidence  which 
leads  the  Roman  Congregation  of  Rites  to  proclaim  the 
miraculous  nature  of  a  given  occurrence.  When  Joseph  II., 
the  philosophistic  German  emperor  and  "  sacristy-sweep," 
visited  the  Eternal  City  during  the  Conclave  of  1769  which 
resulted  in  the  election  of  Pope  Clement  XIV.,  he  had  re- 
solved, like  a  true  philosophist,  to  ridicule  everything  papal ; 
and  among  other  enterprises,  he  sought  to  belittle  the  pre- 
cautions taken  by  the  Sacred  Congregation  in  cases  of 
canonization.  Having  requested  to  be  allowed  to  examine 
some  evidence  regarding  an  alleged  miracle  then  being  con- 
sidered by  the  tribunal,  he  obtained  it,  and  taking  it  home^ 
he  subjected  it  to  a  hypercritically  thorough  investigation. 
The  result  was  not  what  the  pupil  of  Kaunitz  had  fondly 
anticipated  ;  and  he  was  constrained  to  remark,  when  return- 
ing the  documents,  that  if  all  the  testimony  favoring  the 
truth  of"  Roman  miracles  "  were  as  conclusive  as  that  which 
he  had  just  weighed  in  his  Rationalistic  balance,  no  sane 
jurist  would  reject  it.  Judge  of  the  emperor's  consternation 
when  he  learned  that  the  Congregation  of  Rites  had  rejected 
as  insufficient  the  evidence  which  he  had  deemed  satisfactory. 
We  do  not  know  whether  Joseph  II.  again  feigned  to  contemn 
Roman  views  of  the  miraculous  ;  but  we  do  know  that  if  our 
contemporaries  of  the  pretendedly  scientific  school  of  his- 
torical criticism  were  to  peruse  the  documents  just  mentioned, 
they  would  simply  resort  to  ridicule.  With  the  rank  and 
file  of  men,  ridicule  succeeds  where  reason  would  fail.  Few 
men  are  capable  of  sustaining  the  painful  march  of  argumen- 
tation ;  and  still  smaller  is  the  number  of  those  who  are 
above  being  influenced  by  a  display  of  some  verbal  scintilla- 
tions which  pass  for  wit.  Even  educated  and  thinking 
persons  not  unfrequently  succumb  to  raillery,  and  prefer  a 
specious  vivacity  to  unadulterated  truth. 


THE    MIKACLKS    ()F   LOUIIDES.  455 

n. 

THE   MIRACLES   OF  LOURDES. 

Commenting  on  the  assertion,  so  often  made  by  heterodox 
polemics,  that  if  mathematical  certainty  could  be  predicated 
of  even  one  oi  the  many  miracles  which  the  Churcli  indi- 
cates as  forming  one  of  her  constant  and  necessary  treasures, 
the  entire  world  would  probably  be  converted,  Leon  Gautier 
thus  speaks  of  the  entrancing  but  calmly  critical  book  (1) 
which  Henri  Lasserre  presented  to  Our  Lady  of  Lourdes 
as  an  ev-voto  in  grateful  recognition  of  a  cure  which  he  him- 
self had  received  at  her  hands  :  "  Henri  Lasserre  has  fur- 
nished us  with  the  proof  of  this  one  miracle,  chosen  from 
among  thousands.  He  has  obstinately  confined  himself  to 
one  fact,  closing  his  eyes  to  thousands  of  other  splendors,  in 
order  to  contemplate  one  alone.  He  has  had  sufficient  pa- 
tience to  study  only  one  star  in  a  heaven  studded  with  so  many 
constellations  ;  but  who  knows  that  star  so  well  as  he  knows 
it,  and  who  has  revealed  it  so  well  to  men  ?  In  Oar  Lady  of 
Lourdes  you  will  not  discern  any  of  those  honeyed  phrases 
which  are  so  characteristic  of  the  false  mysticism  of  our  day  ; 
this  work  cannot  be  styled  '  a  good  little  book ' ;  it  is  nervous 
and  virile,  and  it  will  make  men ;  every  thing  in  it  is  strong, 
and  above  all,  everything  is  demonstrated.  Lasserre  is  a 
judge,  and  not  a  narrator ;  he  is  a  magistrate  pronouncing 
from  his  tribunal  a  decision  which  is  based  on  good  reasons 
which  have  been  duly  weighed.  His  book  is  a  scientific 
production  ;  it  is  a  series  of  theorems  which  are  endowed 
with  splendid  form  "  (2).  This  one  miracle  which  claimed 
the  attention  of  Lasserre  as  though  he  had  determined  to 
satisfy  the  affectedly  modest  demand  of  heterodoxy — the 
one  fact  which,  if  proved  to  have  been  the  effect  of  a  real 
miracle,  was  supposedly  to  be  pronounced  a  sufficient  reason 
for  the  conversion  of  the  sceptical  world,  was  "  the  incessant 
procession  of  pilgrims — men,  women,  entire  populations — 

(1)  Our  Lady  of  Lourdci*.    Paris,  1869. 

(2)  Portraits  of  the  yineteenih  Century,  Vol  iii.,  p.  216.    Paris,  1884. 


456  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

coming  from  all  sides  to  kiieel  before  a  grotto  in  the  desert 
which  had  been  uukuowu  ten  years  previously,  but  which 
the  word  of  a  child  had  suddenly  caused  to  be  regarded  as 
a  divine  sanctuary."  Before  the  inception  of  his  investi- 
gation, Lasserre  had  felt  that  the  word  "  superstition  "  was 
rather  unsatisfactory  as  an  accompaniment  to  the  scoff  of  the 
incredulists  at  the  most  wonderful  phenomenon  of  the  grand 
uineteeuth  century  ;  the  mouthing  of  that  word,  albeit  an 
gxpeditiovis  proceeding,  was  not  to  his  taste  :  "  Whether  the 
miracle  (of  the  apparitions  to  little  Bernadette)  was  true  or 
false ;  whether  the  cause  of  this  vast  concourse  of  persons  was 
due  to  the  divine  action  or  to  human  error ;  a  study  of  the  mat- 
ter was  no  less  of  consummate  interest.  This  study  did  not 
at  all  suit  the  worshippers  of  '  free  investigation  '  ;  they  pre- 
ferred a  summary  dismissal,  a  course  at  once  more  prudent 
and  more  easy,  but  which  I  could  not  regard  as  consistent 
with  a  zealous  search  for  the  truth,  although  I  felt  that  it 
«'as  risky  to  affirm  with  a  haste  equal  to  that  of  their 
[lenial.  . . .  The  witnesses  of  what  I  have  narrated  are  living  ; 
I  have  given  their  names  and  their  residences,  so  that  they 
may  be  questioned,  and  so  that  my  own  conclusions  may  be 
confirmed."  The  Church  has  as  yet  accorded  no  formal  ad- 
mission of  the  miraculous  nature  of  the  prodigies  of  Lourdes  ; 
just  as  in  the  cases  of  those  which  have  rendered  celebrated, 
although  to  a  minor  degree,  the  shrines  of  Genazzano,  La 
Salette,  St.  Anne  de  Beaupre,  and  several  others,  we  are  not 
obliged  to  predicate  anything  worse  than  rashness  and 
absence  of  common  sense  concerning  the  infinitesimally 
small  number  of  Catholics  who,  after  a  study  of  the  events 
which  have  recently  conferred  a  halo  of  glory  on  the  little 
Pyrenean  town,  persist  in  regarding  it  as  a  monument  to 
human  credulity.  To  those  who  have  carefully  reflected  on 
the  arguments  adduced  by  Lasserre  there  can  occur  no  good 
reason  for  hesitation  in  agreeing  with  Pope  Pius  IX.,  when, 
in  an  apposite  Brief  to  the  zealous  but  judicious  Frenchman, 
His  Holiness  congratulated  him  on  "  having  demonstrated 
the  truth  of  the  recent  apparition  of  the  Most  Clement 
Mother  of  God,"  and  on  having  so  adduced  his  proofs,  that 
"  the  luminous  evidence  of  the  event  is  strengthened  by  the 


THE   MIRACLES   OF  LOURDES.  4-57 

very  objections  advanced  by  liuniau  malice  as  it  attempts  to 
combat  the  divine  mercy." 

On  Feb.  11,  1858,  a  girl  of  fourteen  years  named  Berna- 
dette  Soubirous,  accompanied  by  a  younger  sister  and  a  lit- 
tle friend,  left  her  home  in  Lourdes  in  order  to  search  for 
drift-wood  on  the  banks  of  the  Gave.  When  a  mere  infant, 
Beruadette  had  been  consigned  to  the  care  of  a  relative  of 
her  father,  the  poverty  of  the  family  rendering  such  a  course 
necessary,  and  the  health  of  the  child  demanding  a  life  in 
the  fields.  She  had  returned  to  her  parents'  humble  domi- 
cile only  two  weeks  before  the  day  when  their  persistent 
poverty  forced  her  to  seek  for  fuel  with  which  the  simple 
food  of  the  family  might  be  prepared.  During  the  years  of 
absence,  her  guardians  had  given  no  care  to  her  religious 
instruction  ;  she  had,  however,  picked  up  that  quantum  of 
knowledge  which  is  necessarily  breathed  in  every  Catho- 
lic atmosphere,  and  she  was  able  to  recite  her  Rosary  with 
simple  faith  in  the  existence  of  a  God  who  was  her  Creator 
and  Protector,  and  of  a  Dear  Lady  iu  heaven  who  was  the 
Mother  of  God,  and  wished  to  be  the  adopted  Mother  of 
every  child  of  man.  It  was  in  order  to  procure  for  their 
•daughter  all  necessary  catechetical  instruction,  so  that  she 
might  receive  her  First  Communion,  that  the  Soubirous  had 
taken  her  home  ;  she  had  already  joined  a  class  under  the 
care  of  the  pastor,  but  had  not  as  yet  attracted  the  attention 
of  that  clergyman.  The  Rosary  had  been  continually  in  the 
hands  of  Bernadette,  since  the  day  when  she  had  learned  to 
regard  it  as  a  dear  companion  while  she  tended  the  sheep 
of  her  foster-parents ;  and  when,  on  the  occasion  of  which 
we  speak,  the  trio  of  girls  had  arrived  at  the  Massabielle 
Rocks,  where  they  expected  to  find  many  branches  and  twigs 
which  had  drifted  with  the  current,  her  companions  were 
not  astonished  when  they  noticed  that  instead  of  bending  to 
her  task,  she  had  fallen  to  her  knees,  seemingly  forgetful 
of  the  purpose  that  had  brought  them  to  the  river.  The 
drama  of  Lourdes  had  begun.  The  sister  and  the  friend  of 
Bernadette  had  formed  their  little  bundles,  when  they  were 
approached  by  the  apparenth*  negligent  child,  who  seemed 
to  be  strangely  agitated  as  she  demanded  :  "  Did   vou   see 


i58  STUDIES   IN   CHUECH   HISTOKY. 

anything  ?  "  Learning  that  the  others  had  heard  or  seen 
nothing  worthy  of  mention,  she  replied  to  the  query  as  to 
her  own  experience  with  the  words  :  "  If  you  saw  nothing 
I  have  nothing  to  say."  Tlien  the  chiklren  started  on  their 
return ;  but  the  strange  demeanor  of  the  eldest  excited  the 
curiosity  of  the  others  to  such  a  pitch  that  at  length,  with 
many  injunctions  of  secrecy,  she  narrated  what  had  befallen 
her.  Standing  above  the  grotto  before  which  her  sister, 
Marie,  and  their  little  friend,  Jeanne,  were  gathering  fuel,  a 
beautiful  lady  had  appeared  to  Bernadette.  The  personage, 
declared  the  child,  was  surrounded  by  an  ineflable  light — a 
light  which  was  brighter  than  that  of  the  sun,  but  which  in 
no  manner  wounded  the  eyes.  The  apparition  was  that  of  a 
person  about  twenty  years  old,  of  medium  height,  and  with 
a  countenance  of  inexpressible  sweetness  ;  the  figure  was 
clothed  in  white,  with  a  blue  girdle,  and  the  feet  were  bare, 
each  one  supporting  a  rose  which  seemed  to  be  of  gold ;  the 
hands  of  the  lady  were  joined,  as  though  she  were  praying, 
and  from  them  a  Rosary  showed  beads  of  a  milk-white  color. 
Bernadette  said  that  when  she  first  saw  the  lady,  she  in- 
stinctively raised  the  cross  of  her  chaplet,  trying  to  make 
with  it  the  Sign  of  our  Redemption ;  that,  however,  her 
trembling  prevented  the  action  ;  and  that  it  was  only  when 
her  visitor  made  the  salutar}^  sign,  tliat  she  received  suf- 
ficient strength  to  make  it.  Then,  added  Bernadette,  she 
felt  no  more  fear  ;  she  recited  the  five  decades  of  her  Rosary^ 
and  as  she  pronounced  the  final  "  Glory  to  the  Father,"  the 
luminous  figure  vanished.  Marie  and  Jeanne  afterward  de- 
clared that  they  had  passed  about  fifteen  minutes  at  their 
task  while  Bernadette  was  apparently  wrapped  in  devotion  ; 
and  this  fact,  together  with  the  assertion  of  the  favored  child 
that  she  had  recited  five  decades  of  the  chaplet  during  her 
vision,  would  indicate  that  about  fifteen  minutes  was  the  dur- 
ation of  the  apparition.  It  is  needless  to  state  that  Marie 
and  Jeanne  forgot  their  promise  of  secrecy ;  that  they  in- 
formed Mother  Soubirous  of  the  event,  real  or  imaginary ; 
and  that  the  story  was  ridiculed,  while  they  were  forbidden 
to  revisit  the  grotto.  Two  days  passed,  and  Bernadette, 
whose  recollection  of  "  the  beautiful  lady  "  continually  filled 


THE   MIRACLES   OF   LOURDES.  459 

her  heart,  beggetl  her  mother  to  withdraw  tlie  prohibition. 
The  other  girls  supported  the  request ;  the  mother  yielded ; 
and  after  the  early  Mass  the  little  ones  again  repaired  to  the 
Massabielle  Rofks,  taking  the  i)reeauti()U,  however,  to  carry 
with  them  a  bottle  of  Hoh-  Water,  for,  as  Mary  and  Jeanne 
declared  with  their  relatively  superior  theological  knowledge  : 
''  If  the  lady  is  the  devil,  she  will  flee  if  we  throw  the 
Holy  Water  on  her  ;  we  need  only  say  :  '  If  you  come  from 
God,  approach  ;  if  you  are  from  the  demon,  depart ! '  "  When 
they  arrived  at  the  grotto,  Beruadette  began  the  recitation 
of  the  Rosary,  the  others  responding.  Suddenly  the  coun- 
tenance of  Bernadette  seemed  to  be  transfigured ;  her  eyes 
gave  forth  a  preternatural  light,  as  she  cried  :  "  Look  !  She 
is  there  !  "  Marie  and  Jeanne  saw  nothing  but  the  usual 
rocks  and  verdure  ;  but  the  bearer  of  the  salutary  water  hand- 
ed it  to  Bernadette,  who  quickly  threw  some  drops  on  the 
figure,  saying  :  "  If  you  come  from  God,  approach  !  "  She 
cared  not,  she  afterward  said,  to  add  the  alternative  words  of 
the  objurgatory  formula  ;  for  her  heart  told  her  that  the  im- 
plied suspicion  would  have  been  an  outrage  on  the  "  beautiful 
lady."  And  indeed,  declared  Bernadette,  she  had  no  sooner 
spoken  to  the  apparition  than  it  moved  a  few  steps  toward  her, 
smiling,  as  it  were,  at  the  precaution  of  the  cbikl.  Then  the 
children  concluded  their  Rosary,  the  "  lady,"  insisted  Ber- 
nadette, appearing  to  join  with  them,  for,  as  the  girl  said, 
she  saw  the  beads  gliding  through  the  fingers  of  the  appari- 
tion, just  as  they  passed  through  her  own.  When  the 
devotion  was  completed,  the  "  lad}- "  disappeared.  As  on 
the  previous  occasion,  Marie  and  Jeanne  had  seen  nothing 
of  the  vision.  It  was  quite  natural  that  this  strange  story 
should  have  soon  become  known  in  the  town  ;  and  while 
nearly  all  agreed  with  the  Soubirous  that  their  child  was  the 
victim  of  an  hallucination,  all  were  struck  by  the  evident 
sincerity  6f  the  visionary,  and  by  the  w^onderful  change  in 
her  appearance  and  demeanor.  Two  of  tbe  townswomen,  a 
"  Child  of  Mary "  named  Antoinette  Peyret,  and  a  matron 
named  Millet,  believed  that  the  apparition  might  be  that  of 
some  suffering  soul  of  Purgatory  who  was  desirous  of  prayers 
for  deliverance  ;  and  accordingly  they  told  Bernadette  that 


460  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

when  she  next  saw  the  "  lady,"  she  should  ask  her  v/hat  it 
was  that  was  wanted,  and  that,  lest  Bernadette  might  make 
some  mistake  in  reporting  the  answer,  the  "  lady  "  should  be 
requested  to  write  her  reply  on  a  paper  which  the  child 
would  hand  her.  Bernadette,  therefore,  accompanied  by 
Mile.  Antoinette  and  Mme.  Millet,  went  to  the  grotto  on  Feb- 
ruary 18  ;  the  "  lady  "  again  appeared,  the  child's  visage 
being  transfigured  as  before,  but  her  companions  seeing  or 
hearing  nothing  else  which  was  preternatural.  "  She  signs 
to  me  that  I  should  go  to  her,"  cried  Bernadette.  Then 
Antoinette  said  to  the  girl  :  "  Ask  the  lady  whether  she  is 
displeased  because  we  are  with  you  ;  tell  her  that  if  she  so 
desires,  we  shall  retire."  And  Bernadette  replied  :  "  She 
says  that  you  may  remain ; "  whereupon  the  Child  of  Mary 
and  the  matron  knelt  on  the  sward  at  the  side  of  Bernadette, 
and  lighting  a  blessed  candle  which  they  had  deemed  it  wise 
to  bring,  they  told  her  to  obey  the  sign  to  approach  which 
the  apparition  had  given.  "  Ask  her  who  she  is,"  they  sug- 
gested ;  "  ask  her  why  she  has  come,  and  whether  she  is  not 
some  soul  desiring  that  Masses  be  said  for  her  deliverance 
from  Purgatory.  We  are  ready  to  do  all  that  she  may  desire, 
if  that  be  the  case."  Receiving  from  Antoinette  the  paper, 
pen,  and  ink,  with  which  the  "  lady "  was  to  make  known 
her  identity  and  her  wishes,  the  child  advanced  toward  the 
mysterious  figure,  a  maternal  smile  seeming  to  encourage 
her  steps.  But  the  apparition  receded  as  Bernadette  prog- 
ressed ;  it  did  not  stop  until  it  reached  the  entrance  to  the 
grotto,  and  then  the  little  one  stood  on  her  toes,  as  though 
she  were  trying  to  place  the  writing  materials  in  the  hands 
of  the  "lady."  The  matron  and  the  maiden  now  stepped 
forward,  wishing  to  hear  a  possible  conversation ;  but  the 
child,  without  turning  toward  them,  and  as  though  she  was 
obeying  a  command  of  her  visitor,  signed  with  her  hand 
that  they  should  move  no  further.  Then  the  favored  girl 
was  heard  to  say  :  "  My  lady,  if  you  have  something  to  tell 
me,  please  write  it  down,  and  tell  me  also  who  you  are." 
Bernadette  afterward  said  that  the  "  lady  "  smiled  at  this 
request,  and  replied  :  "  It  is  not  necessary  tliat  I  should 
write  what  I  intend  to  tell  you  ;  and  I  simply  ask  that  you 


THE   MIRACLES   OF  L0URDE8.  4G1 

do  me  the  favor  of  coiniu^  licro  (^iicli  (lay  during  the  next 
fortnight/'  And  the  r('})ly  was  cheerfully  given  :  "  I  promise, 
my  ladv  ;  "  whereupon,  as  Bernadette  afterward  said,  she  re- 
ceived the  assurance  :  "And  in  my  turn  I  jjromise  to  render  you 
happy,  U(^t  in  this  world,  but  in  the  other."  Evidently  the 
"lady  "  now  told  Bernadette  that  she  might  withdraw  ;  for 
the  child  backed  ioward  her  companions,  and  as  she  reached 
them  she  exclaimed  to  Antoinette,  the  Child  of  Mary  : 
"  Now  she  is  smiling  on  you  "  ;  and  Lasserre  is  careful  to 
note  that  from  that  moment  Antoinette  lived  on  that  smile. 
"  Ask  her,"  cried  the  maiden,  "  whether  it  would  displease 
her  if  we  were  to  accompany  you  in  your  daily  visits  during 
the  coming  fortnight."  A  pause ;  and  then  Bernadette 
announced  that  the  "  lady  "  had  replied  :  "  The}',  and  others 
also,  may  come ;  I  wish  to  see  everybody'."  Another 
moment ;  and  the  child  declared  that  the  "  lady  "  had  gone, 
and  with  her  the  light  that  had  always  announced  her 
coming.  Thousands  of  persons,  some  merely  curious,  but 
many  filled  with  the  spirit  of  faith,  came  from  the  neighbor- 
ing districts  and  attended  the  little  Bernadette  as  she  made 
her  visits  to  the  grotto  during  the  two  following  weeks. 
None  saw  anything  but  a  child  in  ecstasy  ;  a  few  were  dis- 
posed to  regard  the  matter  as  a  comedy  arranged  by  priest- 
craft ;  others  saw,  or  affected  to  see  in  Bernadette  an 
illustration  of  the  power  of  hallucination.  The  hypothesis 
of  trickery  was  not  long  sustained  ;  good  judges,  who  liad 
seen  the  best  efforts  of  the  most  eminent  actresses  of  the 
world,  declared  that  human  art  could  not  produce  such 
manifestations  as  those  presented  by  this  ignorant  and 
stolid  peasant  girl.  But  the  supposition  of  hallucination, 
of  catalepsy,  was  a  simple  method  of  explanation  adopted 
by  the  philosophists  who  soon  came  from  all  parts  of  France 
to  pronounce  their  dictum  concerning  the  "  visionary  "  of 
Lourdes.  Meanwhile  the  clergy  of  the  locality,  realizing 
full  well  that  while  God  has  His  miracles,  nevertheless  the 
devil  has  his  prodigies,  and  man  has  his  impostures,  fol- 
lowed the  course  which  is  traditional  with  their  order  in  slm- 
iliar  circumstances.  An  appreciation  of  their  attitude  must 
result  from  reflection  on  the  instruction  given  to  his  assist- 


462  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

ants  by  the  Abbe  Peyramale,  the  senior  cio^e  of  tlie  town 
and  Canton  of  Lourdes  :  "  Let  the  impatient  have  their  talk. 
If  on  the  one  hand  we  are  strictly  obliged  to  examine 
thoroughly  the  affair  which  is  now  progressing,  on  the  ' 
other  hand  we  are  enjoined  by  the  simplest  kind  of  prudence 
not  to  mingle  with  the  crowd  now  singing  its  canticles  at 
the  grotto.  By  holding  aloof  from  these  assemblages  we 
will  run  no  danger  of  sanctioning  an  illusion  or  a  trick  by 
our  presence ;  but  neither  should  we  manifest  a  hostile 
attitude,  or  condemn  by  a  premature  decision  a  thing  which 
may  be  the  work  of  God.  As  for  attending  these  demon- 
strations as  simple  spectators,  such  a  proceeding  would  be 
impossible  to  persons  wearing  the  soutane.  If  the  people 
saw  a  priest  at  the  grotto,  they  would  place  him  at  their 
head,  and  insist  on  his  intoning  their  chants  ;  and  if  he 
were  to  yield  to  the  general  pressure  or  to  his  own  unreflect- 
insf  enthusiasm,  and  were  afterward  to  discover  that  the 
alleged  apparitions  were  illusions  or  impostures,  who  does 
not  see  that  religion  would  be  compromised  in  the  persons 
of  its  clergy  ?  And  if  a  priest  were  to  frequent  the  grotto, 
and  nevertheless  resist  the  popular  clamor,  would  not  the 
same  lamentable  consequences  follow,  if  perchance  the  hand 
of  God  were  found  to  have  been  in  the  apparitions  ?  "  And 
when  many  pious  persons  insisted  on  his  change  of  front, 
the  cure  replied  :  "  We  clergymen  can  interfere  only  if  there 
should  result  from  this  excitement  some  heresy,  some 
superstition,  or  some  disturbance  ;  then  our  duty  would  be 
marked  out  by  the  facts  themselves,  for  by  bad  fruit  we 
would  recognize  a  bad  tree,  and  we  would  perforce  attend  to 
the  first  symptom  of  disease  in  order  to  save  our  flocks. 
Up  to  the  present  moment  no  danger  has  presented  itself  ; 
on  the  contrary,  the  people  have  shown  a  spirit  of  recollec- 
tion, and  are  content  with  prayers  to  the  Holy  Virgin,  thus 
increasing  in  piety.  We  may  well  wait  for  the  decision 
which  episcopal  wisdom  will  soon  pronounce  on  this  matter. 
If  these  events  are  the  work  of  God,  they  need  not  our 
interference ;  and  the  Omnipotent,  without  our  help,  will 
know  how  to  arrange  affairs  in  accordance  with  His  designs. 
But  if  these  events  are  not  from  God,  the  moment  when  wo 


THE    MIRACLES   OF   LOURDES.  4C3 

should  interfere,  in  order  to  deuouuce  them,  will  be  desig- 
nated by  Him.  lu  ca  word,  let  us  trust  iu  Provideuce." 
Mgr.  Laureuce,  the  bishop  of  Tarbes,  and  therefore  ordinary 
of  Lourdes,  approved  the  instruction  given  by  the  cure-doycn ; 
and  without  a  single  exception  the  clergy  checked  their 
own  possibly  legitimate  desire  to  share  in  the  pious 
demonstrations  of  their  flocks  before  competent  ecclesias- 
tical authority  had  spoken  the  permissive  word.  The 
attitude  of  the  civil  authorities,  however,  was  less  sensible 
than  that  of  the  clergy.  The  Second  Empire,  almost  as 
entirely  a  child  of  the  Revolution  as  the  Third  Republic 
which  succeeded  it,  was  far  more  Masonic  than  Christian 
in  the  choice  of  its  governmental  servants  ;  and  these 
gentry,  since  they  were  loud  praters  concerning  liberty  of 
conscience,  declared  that  civilization  was  outraged  by  a 
claim  that  a  miracle  had  occurred  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  that  in  any  case  the  Catholic  people  of  France  had  no 
right  to  pray  without  governmental  permission.  On  Feb.  21, 
the  third  day  of  the  fortnight  of  interviews  described  by  her 
*'  lady,"  when  the  apparition  had  particularly  enjoined  upon 
Bernadette  to  "  pray  for  sinners,"  the  child  was  arrested  "  in 
the  name  of  the  law"  as  she  was  leaving  the  church  where  she 
had  assisted  at  Vespers.  A  thrill  of  indignation  coursed 
through  the  veins  of  nearly  all  those  who  had  that  morning  seen 
the  visage  of  the  little  one  illumined  by  what  they  deemed  to 
be  rays  of  heavenly  origin ;  and  they  would  have  resisted  the 
officers,  had  not  a  priest  ordered  them  to  "  submit  to  the 
authorities."  The  multitude  accompanied  the  child  to  the 
office  of  the  Commissioner  of  Police ;  but  the  first  great 
ordeal  of  the  innocent  was  undergone  behind  closed  doors. 
The  official  report  of  the  interrogatory,  sent  by  the  Com- 
missioner, Jacomet,  to  his  superiors  in  Paris,  was  refused 
to  Lasserre,  so  anxious  were  the  Masonic  agents  of  the  gov- 
ernment for  a  triumph  of  truth  ;  but  from  M.  Estrade,  the 
local  Receiver  of  the  Indirect  Taxes,  whom  Jacomet  had 
allowed  to  assist  at  the  examination,  and  who  shared  the 
views  of  the  Commissioner,  our  author  afterward  obtained 
all  the  particulars.  All  the  cunning  of  an  experienced  and 
more  than  usually  brilliant  detective,  all  the  malice  of  an 


464  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

adept  of  the  Lodges,  had  not  succeeded  in  confounding  the 
simplicity  of  Bernadette  ;  even  when  the  officer,  affecting 
furious  anger,  termed  her  a  liar,  and  menaced  her  with  im- 
prisonment, the  child  had  calmly  answered :  "  Monsieur, 
you  may  order  the  police  to  lock  me  up,  but  1  can  say  only 
what  I  have  said  ;  it  is  the  truth  "  (1).  On  receiving  a  com- 
mand to  abstain  from  future  visits  to  tlie  grotto,  she  had 
replied  that  she  had  promised  the  "  lady  "  to  repair  thither 
every  day  for  a  fortnight,  and  that  even  though  she  might 
wish  to  obey  the  Commissioner,  an  interior  force  would 
induce  her  to  prefer  obedience  to  the  apparition.  The  result 
of  the  examination  had  been  an  order  to  Frangois  Soubirous 
to  prevent  his  daughter  from  re-visiting  the  grotto.  "  She 
is  a  cunning  child,"  Jacomet  had  remarked  when  Bernadette 
had  departed.  "  She  is  sincere,"  Estrade  had  replied. 
Out  of  obedience  to  her  father,  who  believed  in  the  t^utli  of 
the  apparition,  but  who  greatly  feared  the  more  tangible  pow- 
er of  the  government,  Bernadette  now  endeavored  "  to  resist 
the  attraction  toward  the  grotto  which  possessed  her";  and 
on  the  morning  of  Feb.  23,  she  proceeded  to  school,  sore  at 
heart,  feeling  that  she  would  displease  God,  whether  she  dis- 
obeyed her  "  lady  "  or  disobeyed  her  parents.  She  received, 
of  course,  no  consolation  from  the  Sisters  of  the  school,  who 
believed,  or  affected  to  believe,  that  she  was  a  victim  of  hal- 
lucination. But  when  the  mid-day  Angelus  had  been  recited, 
and  the  pupils  started  for  their  dinners,  the  quandary  of 
the  little  one  was  dissipated  by  a  force,  irresistible  although 
maternally  sweet,  which  impelled  her  to  an  interview  with 
her  whom  she  regarded  as  lier  Protectress.  Hastening  to  the 
grotto,  where  some  of  the  crowd  of  the  morning  still  awaited 
her  appearance,  hoping  that  she  would  defy  the  Commis- 
sioner's prohibition,  Bernadette  as  usual  knelt  and  began  her 
Rosary ;  but  alas  !  her  "  lady  "  did  not  appear.     The  tears  ran 

(1)  Estrade  informed  Lasserre  t;iat  personally  Bernadette  was  timidity  itself,  as  might 
have  been  expected  in  the  case  of  an  ignorant  peasant  girl  confronted  by  the  dread 
powers  of  the  police.  Indeed,  at  this  period  of  her  life  the  child  was  always  more  or  less 
confused  in  the  presence  of  any  stranger.  But  whenever  there  was  a  question  of  the 
reality  of  her  vision,  the  girl  manifested  a  strength  of  mind  seldom  found  in  persons  wise 
with  the  wisdom  of  the  world  ;  and  on  such  occasions  she  always  replied  without  any 
indication  of  timidity,  and  with  invincible  firmness,  although,  even  then,  she  showed  the 
virginal  modesty  which  leads  its  possessor  to  avoid  the  notice  of  the  curious. 


THE   MIRACLES   OF  LOURDES.  465 

down  her  clieeks  as  she  exclaimed  :  "  Have  I  done  something 
wrong,  and  thus  prevented  her  coming  ?  "  She  waited  in 
painful  anxiety  for  some  moments,  and  then  turned  toward 
her  home,  many  of  the  spectators  declaring  that  the  Commis- 
sioner had  gained  his  point — that  the  foolish  child  would  have 
no  more  visions.  But  one  joy  was  hers  when  she  appeared 
before  her  father ;  when  he  heard  that  she  had  disregarded 
his  command  because  she  was  impelled  by  an  interior  and  un- 
conquerable force,  he  declared  that  his  daughter  had  never 
told  a  lie,  and  that  it  was  not  for  him  or  her  mother  to  contra- 
dict the  will  of  God.  Bernadette  might  go  to  the  grotto 
whenever  she  desired  to  go.  In  vain  Jacomet  now  threatened 
to  imprison  the  entire  Soubirous  famil}',  if  his  orders  were 
again  violated  ;  Bernadette  innocently  declared  that  she  could 
not  disobey  her  "  lady,"  and  both  the  parents  upheld  her  de- 
termination. In  this  emergency  the  Commissioner  sent  a 
report  of  his  predicament  to  the  imperial  Procurator  of  the 
Department ;  and  that  wise  official  replied  that  there  was 
no  pretext  for  police  interference  unless  the  crowds  be- 
came "  disorderly  " — a  view  which  enco^lraged  an  officer  of  a 
body  which  knew  well  how  to  manufacture  disorder  for 
its  own  purposes.  On  the  morning  after  her  bitter  disap- 
pointment, Bernadette  prostrated  herself  again  before  tlie 
grotto,  holding  a  blessed  candle  in  the  hand  which  was  not 
occupied  with  the  Rosary  ;  and  scarcely  had  her  knees  pressed 
the  ground,  when  the  ineffable  expression  of  her  countenance 
showed  the  bystanders  that  she  was  again  in  communion  with 
her  mysterious  visitant.  As  the  girl  afterward  swore  in 
her  declarations,  the  "  lady  "  sweetly  called  her  by  name, 
and  then  said  :  "  My  child,  I  have  something  to  tell  you,  and 
to  you  alone  ;  do  you  promise  me  that  you  will  repeat  it  to 
no   one  ? "  (1).     When  the   promise  had   been   given,    the 

(1)  Concerning  this  secret,  Lasscrre  asks:  "What  secret  could  there  be  between  the 
Mother  of  the  Sovereign  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  and  the  daughter  of  the  miller  Sou- 
birous; between  that  lowly  child  and  the  resplendent  Majesty  of  her  who  ranks  after  God 
alone;  between  a  little  shepherdess  and  the  Supreme  Queen  of  the  realms  of  the  Infinite? 
Certainly  we  dare  not  divine  it,  we  would  consider  it  a  sacrilcpre  to  listen  at  the  doors  of 
heaven.  Nevertheless,  we  may  note  the  profound  and  delicate  knowledpe  of  the  human 
heart  and  the  maternal  wisdom  which  induced  the  august  speaker  to  communicate  some 
secret  to  Bernadette.  before  she  conferred  the  public  mission  that  the  pirl  was  to  fuini. 
Favored  with  wonderful  visions,  charged  with  a  message  from  the  other  world  to  the 
priests  of  the  True  God,  this  childish  heart,  hitherto  so  peaceful  and  so  solltury,  found  itst-lf 


466  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

"  lady "  communicated  to  her  protegee  that  secret  which 
Bernadette  would  never  divulge  ;  and  then  she  said  :  "  Go  now 
and  tell  the  priests  that  I  desire  that  a  chapel  be  built  here 
in  my  honor."  The  vision  disappeared,  and  paying  no 
heed  to  the  questions  of  the  crowd,  the  most  favored  of  all 
the  Children  of  Mary  of  our  day  hurried  to  the  residence 
of  the  Abbe  Peyramale,  with  whom  as  yet  she  had  not  ex- 
changed a  word.  "  M.  le  Cure,  I  have  a  message  for  you 
from  the  lady  who  appears  to  me  at  the  grotto  of  Massabielle." 
When  the  worthy  pastor  heard  this  announcement,  delivered 
with  calm  assurance,  he  deemed  it  wise  to  feign  some  rough- 
ness of  manner,  and  said  :  "  Ah  !  you  are  the  one  that  pre- 
tends to  have  visions,  and  who  runs  around  the  country  with 
foolish  tales.  Well ;  tell  me  all  about  these  extraordinary 
adventures,  the  truth  of  which  nothing  seems  to  prove."  The 
heart  of  the  child  sank  a  little  as  she  heard  the  harsh  tones 
of  one  who  was  celebrated  for  his  kindness  to  the  lowliest  of 
his  parishioners  ;  but  in  all  simplicity  she  repeated  the  story 
of  the  grotto.  The  accents  of  sincerity  impressed  the  priest, 
and  as  he  afterward  said,  had  there  been  merely  a  question 
of  the  opinion  of  Monsieur  Peyramale,  he  would  have  yielded 
full  credence  to  Bernadette  ;  but  the  girl  was  addressing  the 

suddenly  In  the  midst  of  dense  crowds,  and  subjected  to  great  agitations.  She  was  about 
to  be  contradicted  by  many,  to  be  threatened  by  some,  to  be  ridiculed  by  others ;  and  what 
was  to  be  most  dangerous  for  her,  to  be  venerated  by  a  large  number.  The  day  was 
approaching  when  multitudes  would  acclaim  her,  and  dispute  among  themselves  for  bits  of 
her  clothes  as  though  they  were  relics  of  a  saint ;  when  illustrious  persons  would  kneel  before 
her,  and  ask  for  her  blessing ;  when  on  the  faith  of  her  simple  word  a  magnificent  temple 
was  to  be  erected,  imposing  pilgrimages  to  be  undertaken,  and  grand  processions  to  be 
held.  Thus  this  poor  child  of  the  people  was  about  to  suffer  the  most  terrible  trial  whicli 
could  assail  her  humility,  a  trial  in  which  she  might  lose  forever  her  simplicity  and  all 
the  sweet  and  modest  virtues  which  had  grown  in  the  days  of  her  solitude.  The  very 
graces  which  she  had  received  were  about  to  be  for  her  a  redoubtable  danger,  a  dan^er 
which  more  than  once  has  conquered  souls  favored  by  the  honors  of  heaven.  Even  St. 
Taul  was  tempted  by  pride  after  his  visions,  and  had  need  of  the  afflictions  which  came 
from  the  evil  spirit  of  the  flesh  in  order  that  his  heart  might  not  be  exalted.  The  Holy 
Virgin  wished  to  secure  the  child  of  her  predilection  without  any  approach,  on  the  part  of 
the  wicked  angel,  toward  the  lily  of  purity  which  was  warmed  by  the  rays  of  her  favor. 
What  does  a  mother  do,  when  danger  menaces  her  child  ?  She  presses  her  more  tenderly 
to  the  maternal  bosom,  and  softly  whispers  in  the  little  ear  that  there  is  no  need  for  fear, 
since  the  mother  is  near.  And  when  the  mother  is  forced  to  leave  the  child  alone  for  a 
moment,  she  murmurs :  '  I  shall  not  be  far  away  ;  only  extend  your  hand,  and  it  will  meet 
mine.'    So  did  the  Mother  of  us  all  for  Bernadette.    All  this  did  the  Queen  of  Heaven  to 

the  little  child  of  Lourdes  when  she  told  her  that  secret The  secret  became  for 

Bernadette  the  surest  of  safeguards.  Theology  does  not  teach  us  this ;  we  learn  it  from 
a  study  of  the  human  heart." 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  LOUKDES,  -107 

Abbe  Peyramale,  the  pastor  of  a  large  flock  wliicli  lie  was 
obliged  to  guard  from  suares.  He  persevered  with  his  rough 
demeanor,  aud  asked  :  "  And  yet  you  do  not  know  the  name 
of  this  lady?"  And  when  the  child  replied  that  she  had 
not  yet  learned  the  name,  the  priest  said  :  "Those  who  be- 
lieve you  imagine  that  she  is  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary. 
But  do  you  not  know  that  if  you  tell  untruths  in  this  matter 
you  are  in  the  path  which  leads  far  from  heaven  ?  "  After 
a  few  moments  of  reflection,  the  abbe  continued  :  "  Nothing 
compels  me  to  believe  that  this  lady  is  the  Queen  of  Heaven. 
Tell  her  that  before  I  can  undertake  to  procure  the  fulfilment 
of  her  request,  she  must  give  me  some  proof  of  her  power." 
Asain  he  mused  awhile,  and  then  he  said  :  "  You  tell  me 
that  the  apparition  has  at  her  feet  a  wild  rose-bush,  an  eg- 
lantine which  grows  from  between  the  rocks.  Well  ;  we  are 
now  in  the  month  of  February,  and  you  may  say  to  the  lady 
that  if  she  wants  that  chapel,  she  will  cause  that  bush  to 
flower."  When  Jacomet  and  the  other  incredulists  of 
Lourdes  heard  of  this  interview,  they  said  that  the  abbe  had 
asked  the  mysterious  lady  for  her  "  passport."  Estrade,  the 
incredulist  collector  of  taxes  whom  we  have  heard  avowing 
that  Bernadette  impressed  him  as  being  at  least  sincere  in 
her  belief  in  the  vision,  was  one  of  the  curious  who  joined 
the  throng  of  devotees  on  the  morning  after  the  child's 
delivery  of  the  message  to  the  curS  ;  and  it  may  be  well  to 
let  him  give  his  own  account  of  what  he  saw,  and  of  the  effect 
that  the  spectacle  produced  on  his  deeply  rooted  infidelity. 
His  remarks  were  first  published  by  Louis  Veuillot  in  the 
Univers  of  July  28,  1858,  and  afterward  he  himself  amplified 
the  narrative  for  the  benefit  of  Lasserre  :  "  I  arrived  on  the 
scene,  bent  on  having  a  good  laugh  at  a  farce  or  at  some 
grotesque  incidents ....  Thanks  to  my  elbows,  T  easily  ob- 
tained a  place  in  the  foremost  rank.  As  the  sun  arose,  Ber- 
nadette appeared.  I  w^as  next  to  her ;  and  I  noticed  in  her 
childish  features  that  character  of  sweetness,  of  innocence, 
and  of  deep  tranquillity,  which  had  impressed  me  when  I 
saw  her  at  the  office  of  the  Commissioner.  She  knelt  with- 
out any  ostentation  or  embarrassment,  without  any  attention 
to  the  crowd,  absolutely  as  though  she  were  alone  in  a  church 


468  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

or  in  an  unfrequented  forest.     She  began  to  pray  on  liel 
Kosarj,  and  suddenly  her  features  seemed  to  receive  and  to 
reflect  a  mysterious  light ;  her  looks  became  fixed  on  the 
opening  of  the  grotto,  and  she  became  radiant  with  happiness. 
I  looked  at  that  spot,  but  I  discerned  absolutely  nothing  but 
some  leafless  branches  of  eglantine  ;  but  nevertheless,  all  my 
previous   prejudices,    all   my   philosophical    objections,    all 
my  preconceived  negations,  were  immediately  destroyed  as 
I  looked  on  the  transfigurement  of  that  child,  and  I  felt  that 
in  spite  of  myself  some  extraordinary  sentiment  had  mastered 
me.     I  had  an  irresistible  intuition,  a  certainty,  that  some 
mysterious  Being  was  there ;  my  eyes  did  not  see  it,  but  my 
soul,  as  well  as  the  souls  of  innumerable  others  there  present, 
saw  it  with  the  light  of  evidence.     Yes,  I  avov/  it ;  a  Divine 
Being  was   there.     Suddenly  and  completely  transfigured, 
Bernadette  was  no  longer  Bernadette  ;  she  was  an  angel  from 
heaven.  . . .  Her  attitude,  her  slightest  gestures,  the  manner, 
for  instance,  in  which  she  made  the  Sign  of  the  Cross  ;  all 
these  had  a  dignity  and  a  grandeur  more  than  human.  . . .  She 
seemed  to  fear,  lest  she  might  lose,  for  a  single  instant,   the 
ravishing  spectacle  that  she   was  contemplating.  ...  I  held 
mv  breath,  as  though  I  might  thus  hear  the  conversation 
between  the  apparition  and  the  girl.     Bernadette  was  listen- 
ing with  an  expression  of  the  moat  profound  respect,  or 
rather  of  absolute  adoration,   mingled  with  a  limitless  love 
and  the  sweetest  of  ravishments,  although  at  times  a  tinge  of 
sadness  was  observed.  ...  If  the  denizens  of  heaven  make  the 
Sign  of  the  Gross,  assuredly  they  make  it  as  Bernadette  did 
during  her  ecstasy ;  she  seemed,  in  some  sort,  to  embrace 
the  Infinite.     At  one  moment,  she  moved  on  her  knees  from 
where  she  had  been  praying  to  some  distance  within  the 
grotto — about  ten  yards  of  a  rather  steep  ascent ;  and  those 
near  her  distinctly  heard  her  murmur  :  '  Penance,  penance  !  ' 
A  few  moments  afterward  she  arose,  and  took  the  road  to 
the  town.     Then  again  she  was  but  a  poor  little  child  in  rags 
who  appeared  to  have  had  no  part  in  this  wonderful  drama." 
Bernadette  immediately  visited  the  cure,  telling  him  that  she 
had  given  his  message  to  the  "  lady,"  and  that  the  reply  had 
been  a  smile.     "  Then,"  added  the  child,  "  she  toid  me  to 


THE    MIRACLES    OF   LOUUDES.  469 

pray  for  siuiiors,  aiul  asked  ine  to  euter  the  grotto.  Three 
times  she  cried  :  '  Peiiauoe,  peuauce  ! '  ;  and  I  repeated  the 
words  as  I  moved  oii  my  knees  toward  her.  lu  the  grotto 
she  revealed  to  me  a  second  secret  which  is  personal  to 
myself.  Then  she  vanished."  When  Bernadette  prostrated 
herself  at  the  grotto  on  the  following  day,  the  "  lady  "  raised 
her  and  embraced  her,  saj-ing  :  "  My  daughter,  I  wish  to 
confide  to  yon  a  third  secret  which,  like  the  others,  you  will 
keep  to  yourself."  Then  the  apparition  told  the  child  to  go 
to  the  spring  and  drink,  and  to  eat  some  of  the  grass  there 
growing.  No  one  had  ever  seen  a  spring  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  it  seemed  to  Bernadette  that  her  visitor  meant  the 
little  brook  which  coursed  before  the  grotto  on  its  way  to 
the  Gave.  But  the  mysterious  one  cried  :  "  I  told  you  to 
drink  from  the  spring.  It  is  not  there,  but  here  "  ;  and  the 
"  lady  "  pointed  toward  the  dry  spot  at  the  right  side  of  the 
grotto,  toward  which  the  child  had  gone  on  her  knees  on  the 
previous  day.  Wondering  but  promptly  the  girl  went  to  the 
place,  but  found  no  indication  of  a  spring ;  whereupon  the 
"  lady  "  made  a  sign  that  the  clay  should  be  scraped.  The 
hundreds  of  spectators  were  truly  puzzled  when  they 
witnessed  this  operation,  and  many  began  to  suspect  that 
the  child's  brain  had  become  affected  by  the  strain  of  her  ey- 
periences.  Their  wonder  grew  when  they  saw  her  apparently 
drinking  from  the  palm  of  her  hand,  for  they  knew  that  water 
had  never  been  seen  in  that  place.  Afterward  Bernadette 
said  that  when  she  had  scraped  the  earth,  she  noticed  that 
the  spot  appeared  to  be  damp  ;  that  in  a  moment  some  drops 
of  water  oozed  forth  ;  that  then  she  formed  a  little  cavity, 
and  that  soon  it  was  filled  with  the  fluid ;  that  although  the 
water  naturally  was  muddy,  after  three  trials  she  conquered 
her  repugnance  out  of  love  for  her  "  lady,"  and  swallowed 
some  of  it ;  that  while  she  was  eating  some  of  the  grass,  the 
minute  reservoir  which  she  had  dug  was  ovei-flowed,  and  a  little 
stream  began  its  flow  toward  the  Gave  ;  that  finally  the  ap- 
parition beamed  on  her  with  a  smile  of  satisfaction,  and  dis- 
appeared. When  the  girl  had  come  out  of  her  ecstasy,  the 
crowd  rushed  to  the  new  fountain,  and  found  that  it  was 
continually  growing  more  abundant ;  regarding  it  as  mirac- 


470  STUDIEa   IN    CHUKCH    HISTOEY. 

uloiis,  tliey  drank  of  it,  and  many  carried  some  of  it  to  their 
homes.  The  news  travelled  quickly;  and  as  that  day,  Feb. 
25,  a  Thursday,  was  market-day  in  Tarbes,  the  city  was  well 
filled  with  strangers.  Hundreds  of  persons  therefore  left 
Tarbes  during  the  night,  in  order  to  be  present  at  the  events 
which  the  next  morning  would  probably  bring  forth  at  the 
grotto  of  Lourdes ;  and  at  the  first  dawn  of  Feb.  26,  more 
than  five  thousand  acclaimants  greeted  Bernadette  with 
cries  such  as  "  See  the  saint !  "  while  the  nearest  to  her  rev- 
erently touched  her  garments  as  she  passed  to  her  accus- 
tomed station.  But  the  more  devout,  and  especially  the 
more  perspicacious  of  the  Catholic  spectators,  were  not  sur- 
prised when,  after  the  popular  attempt  at  canonization,  the 
innocent  subject  of  the  honor  seemed  to  have  lost  her  con- 
nection with  the  world  of  heaven.  On  that  morning  the 
child  appeared  to  be  no  more  than  any  ordinary  denizen  of 
earth ;  no  ecstatic  radiance  was  visible  on  her  countenance ; 
and  after  the  usual  recitation  of  her  Rosary,  she  announced 
that  her  "  lady  "  had  not  manifested  herself.  Undoubtedly, 
remarked  those  who  were  versed  in  the  science  of  God's 
dealings  with  the  children  of  grace,  the  sweet  Mother  of  the 
humble  had  deigned  to  remove  a  temptation  to  vain-glory 
from  the  daughter  of  her  predilection.  But  when  the  mul- 
titude returned  to  Lourdes,  they  learned  that  strange  rumors 
were  current  concerning  some  wonderful  cures  which  had' 
been  operated  by  the  use  of  the  recently  revealed  water ; 
and  the  ensuing  days  beheld  a  multiplication  of  these  ap- 
parent instances  of  divine  approbation  of  the  claims  of  la 
voycmte  People  talked  of  how  the  hand  of  Jeanne  Crassus, 
paralyzed  for  ten  years,  had  immediately  recovered  its  vital- 
ity when  bathed  with  the  water  of  the  new  spring.  Cures 
had  also  been  effected,  it  was  said,  in  the  cases  of  Marie 
Daube,  Bernarde  Soubie,  and  Fabien  Baron,  whom  various 
maladies  had  rendered  bedridden  for  several  years.  The 
most  remarkable  of  the  cures,  because  its  subject  had  been 
deeply  pitied  in  all  that  part  of  France  for  twenty  years,  was 
Louis  Bourriette,  a  poor  man  who,  while  working  in  a  quarry 
in  18B8,  had  been  a  victim  of  an  explosion  which  almost  en- 
tirely destroyed  the  sight  of  his  right  eye,  and  so  undermined 


THE    MIRACLES    OF   L0URDE8,  471 

his  constitution  that  lie  could  never  afterward  work  more 
than  sufficiently  to  barely  sustain  his  life,  and  that  of  a 
daughter.  At  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking,  when 
Bourriette  chased  his  left  eye,  he  could  not  distinguish  a 
man  from  a  bush  ;  and  it  was  greatly  feared  that  the  sound 
organ  Avould  soon  be  affected  in  a  similar  manner.  The 
poor  man  heard  of  the  supposedly  miraculous  virtues  of  the 
new  spring,  and  he  asked  his  daughter  to  bring  him  some  of 
the  water.  "  If  the  Holy  Virgin  is  the  author  of  that  spring," 
said  he,  "  she  will  restore  my  sight."  The  water  was  brought ; 
raising  his  heart  to  God,  and  imploring  the  intercession  of 
Mary,  the  suppliant  bathed  his  eye,  and  immediately  he 
could  distinguish  objects  with  considerable  clearness ;  he  con- 
tinued the  application  at  intervals  until  the  following  morn- 
ing, when  he  announced  to  his  physician,  Dr.  Dozous,  who 
had  attended  him  from  the  day  of  the  accident,  that  his  sight 
was  perfect.  The  medical  man,  who  had  hitherto  believed 
in  little  save  human  science,  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and 
told  his  patient  that  the  diseased  eye  could  never  regain  its 
powers  ;  that  all  of  the  doctor's  care  had  been  extended 
merely  in  order  to  assuage  Bourriette's  pain.  "  But  I  do 
not  say  that  you  have  cured  me,"  cried  the  exultant  one  ;  "  it 
is  the  Holy  Virgin  of  the  Grotto  that  has  cured  me."  Doz- 
ous having  persisted  in  his  incredulity,  and  Bourriette  hav- 
ing reiterated  his  declaration  that  he  saw  well  with  his  right 
eye,  the  physician  quietly  tore  a  leaf  from  his  pocket-diary, 
and  having  written  a  few  words  thereon,  he  handed  the  paper 
to  the  obstinate  man,  telling  him  to  close  his  left  eve,  and 
to  repeat  what  had  been  written,  "  If  you  do,"  proclaimed 
Dozous,  I  shall  believe  what  you  have  said."  Bourriette 
looked  with  his  right  eye  alone  at  the  paper,  and  im- 
mediately read  aloud  :  "  Bourriette  has  an  incurable  amau- 
rosis ;  he  will  never  be  cured."  Then  the  physician  announced 
that  however  he  himself  and  his  brethren  of  the  Faculty 
might  be  displeased  with  the  denouement,  he  was  forced  to 
admit  that  the  cure  was  not  ascribable  to  natural  influences  ; 
and  both  he  and  Dr.  Verges,  a  professor  in  the  Faculty  of 
Montpellier,  so  testified  before  the  episcopal  commission 
which  afterward  examined  the  manifestations  at  the  grotto. 


472  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

"Bourriette  was  not  cured,"  cried  some  of  the  "philoso- 
pJiers  of  the  day.  "  Bourriette's  eye  was  never  diseased," 
exclaimed  others.  "  Bourriette  imagines  that  he  sees  with 
tlie  right  eye,"  insisted  many.  "  There  is  no  such  a  person 
as  Bourriette,"  j)roclaimed  a  few. 

During  the  next  few  interviews  between  the  "  lady  "  and 
Bernadette,  there  occurred  nothing  which  the  child  thought 
proper  to  reveal ;  but  on  March  2,  she  again  waited  on  the 
cure,  and  insisted  that  he  should  see  to  the  construction  of 
the  chapel  demanded  by  her  celestial  visitor.  The  time  had 
come  when  the  Abbe  Peyramale  could  yield  to  his  natural 
expansiveness  of  heart  when  talking  with  the  maiden  ;  but  he 
was  still  governed  by  prudence  when  he  replied  :  "  I  believe 
you  now,  my  daughter  ;  but  it  is  not  my  province  to  grant 
your  request.  That  concession  depends  on  the  decision  of 
our  bishop,  to  whom  I  have  submitted  a  report  of  all  that 
has  happened  at  the  grotto."  But  Mgr.  Laurence,  the  bishop 
of  Tarbes,  one  of  the  most  prudent  and  judicious  members 
of  the  French  episcopate  of  that  day,  thought,  as  he  declared 
in  a  Pastoral  published  at  the  time,  that  "  the  hour  had 
not  arrived,  when  the  episcopal  authority  should  intervene 
in  the  matter";  he  contented  himself  with  the  receipt  of 
daily  reports,  made  by  witnesses  of  undoubted  probity  and 
of  approved  capability,  concerning  all  that  happened  at  the 
Massabielle  Kocks,  and  concerning  every  rumored  cure  that 
took  place.  Bernadette  bore  this  delay  with  her  habitual 
patience  and  serene  confidence  that  her  "  lady  "  would  work 
all  things  well.  But  the  civil  authorities  of  Lourdes  and  its 
neighborhood  were  less  calm  than  the  prelate,  and  less  serene 
than  Bernadette;  even  the  Baron  Massy,  Prefect  of  the 
Hautes-Pyrenees,  an  excellent  Catholic,  but  whose  adminis- 
trative zeal  seemed  to  lead  him  to  a  belief  that,  as  Lasserre 
expresses  the  idea,  "  the  part  of  God  (in  the  affairs  of 
France)  was  regulated  by  both  the  Orthodox  Creed  and  the 
Concordat,"  conceived  it  to  be  his  duty  to  order  the  police 
and  garrison  of  Lourdes  to  hold  themselves  prepared  for  any 
events  and  to  watch,  by  day  and  by  night,  the  grotto  and  all 
its  approaches.  The  government  entered  on  a  course  of 
insulting  suspicion,   but  the  people  continued  to  manifest 


THE    MIRACLES    OF   LOURDES.  473 

their  interest  and  devotion,  merely  smiling  at  the  regiment 
of  cavalry  whioh  "preserved  order  "  ;  fortunately  the  immense 
majority  of  the  soldiers  and  the  police  were  good  Catholics, 
and  the  chagrin  of  the  people  was  neutralized  by  the  air  of 
sincere   respect  which  both  police  and  soldiers  manifested 
toward  the  grotto,  and  especially  toward   Beruadette.     On 
March  4,  at  least  twenty  thousand  persons  knelt   with  the 
voyaute    as    she    began    her    customary    recitation    of    the 
Rosary  ;  and  in  the  afternoon,  five  or  six   hundred   of  these 
were  still  praying,   when  there  burst  on  the   scene  a   dis- 
tracted  mother,    carrying  a  dying    child  two  years  of  age. 
Croisine  Bouhohorts,  to  the  great  fright  of  her  husband  and 
sympathizing  neighbors,  had  snatched  the  little  consumptive 
from  its  dying  couch,  crying  that  she  would  place  its  emaci- 
ated frame  in  the  hands  of  the  Lady  of  the  Grotto.     Praying 
aloud  to  the  Mother  of  the   Afilicted,   the  wretched  parent 
ascended  on  her  knees  to  the  miraculous  spring;  she  stripped 
the  babe,  apparently  in  its  last  agony,  of  every  bit  of  cloth- 
ing ;  and  then  having    made    the    Sign   of   the    Cross    over 
herself  and  the  little  body,  she  plunged  the  babe,  all  save  its 
head,  into  the  glacial  water.     Turning  indignantly  to  those 
who  cried  that  she  was  killing  her  infant,   and  who  tried  to 
lift  it  from  the  spring,  she  exclaimed  :  "  Leave  me  !  I  must 
do  what  I  can  ;  the  good  God  and  the  Holy  Virgin  will  do 
the  rest."     The  crowd  retired  a  few  steps,  saying  that  the 
babe  was  already  dead,  and  that  the  crazy  mother  should 
be  humored.     During  fifteen  minutes  the  immobile,  corpse- 
like frame  remained  in  its  icy  bed  ;  then  the  mother  carried 
it  to  her  cottage.     "  You  have  killed  him"  ;  cried  the  father. 
"  No,"  replied  Croisine  ;  "  the  Holy  Virgin  has  cured  him." 
So  it  had  happened  ;  the  babe  slept  well  that  night,  and  in, 
the  morning  he  who  had  never  walked  a  step  was  running 
around  the  cottage.     Dr.  Peyrus,  the  physician  who  had 
attended  the  child,  and  Drs.  Verges  and  Dozous,  testified  to 
the  sitpernatural  nature  of  this  cure,  drawing  attention   to 
the  lenf^th  of  the  immersion,  to  the  immediate  effect,  and  to 
the  acquisition  of  the  power  of  walking,  which  the  babe  had 
never  evinced,  and  which  he  continued  to  enjoy.     Several 
other  miracles  occurred  at  this  time,  but  we  shall  adduce  only 


474  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

that  of  Blaise  Maumus,  who  was  cured  of  an  enormous  wen 
bj  plunging  his  hand  into  the  spring,  the  wen  disappearing 
immediately  ;  tliat  of  a  widow  named  Crozat,  who  was  cured 
of  an  all  but  absolute  deafness  by  an  application  of  the 
water  ;  and  that  of  a  cripple  named  Auguste  Bordes,  whose 
crooked  leg  was  restored  to  its  natural  form  and  pristine 
strength  by  the  same  means.  In  the  face  of  all  these  at 
least  presumed  facts,  what  course  was  pursued  by  the 
incredulist  servants  of  the  imperial  government?  Lasserre 
replies  :  "  The  Administration,  the  Parquet  (the  prosecuting 
officers),  the  Police,  did  nothing ;  but  turning  aside,  they 
deemed  it  prudent  to  not  risk  a  public  examination  of  facts 
which  were  notorious  throughout  the  land.  In  the  presence 
of  such  striking  prodigies,  what  does  this  abstention  signify  ? 
It  shows  that  incredulism  is  prudent.  Even  amid  its 
extravagancies  and  its  passions,  the  spirit  of  party  has  a 
certain  instinct  of  self-preservation  which  warns  it  of  danger 
when  it  is  on  the  point  of  falling  into  that  danger. ...  A 
change  of  front  then  takes  place,  and  a  petty  warfare  is 
undertaken  on  a  less  perilous  field.  In  the  military  order, 
such  a  course  is  proper ;  but  in  the  order  of  ideas,  similar 
prudence  is  scarcely  compatible  with  good  faith.  It  implies 
a  doubt  and  even  disquietude  as  to  the  truth  of  its  own 
thesis.  Nay,  I  must  say  that  it  indicates  a  suspicion  that 
what  it  combats  is  true. ...  In  spite  of  the  many  invitations 
extended,  incredulism  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  everything  which 
would  procure  a  public  debate  concerning  these  wonderful 
cures.  It  affected  a  complete  indifference  in  regard  to 
striking  phenomena  which  were  objects  of  the  senses,  and 
which  were  notorious  and  easy  of  study ;  it  preferred  to 
advance  theories  on  hallucinations— to  occupy  a  very  indis- 
tinct field,  where  one  could  declaim  at  his  ease  without  being 
troubled  by  the  brutality  of  visible,  palpable,  and  irrefutable 
facts.  In  fine,  the  Supernatural  offered  debate  ;  Free  Inves- 
tigation declined  that  debate,  sounded  a  retreat,  and  thus 
proclaimed  its  defeat."  Of  course  the  incredulists  used 
ridicule  as  an  argument  against  the  "besotted"  Catholics 
who  proclaimed  their  belief  in  miracles  by  their  belief  in 
the  prodigies  of   Lourdes ;   and  the  same  devotees  of  Free 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  L0URDE8.  475 

Thouglit  did  uot  forget,  on  this  occasion,  their  favorite 
weapon,  brazen  mendacity.  Thus,  the  governmental  journal 
i'^/e  Im2>erialc,  in  its  issue  of  March  6,  asked  its  readers  to 
believe  that  the  partisans  of  Beruadette  proclaimed  that 
during  her  ecstasies  a  dove  continually  fluttered  over  her 
head  r  that  those  partisans  declared  that  their  idol  had 
giveu'sight  to  a  blind  child,  by  blowing  into  his  eyes  ;  that 
they  insisted  that  when  a  certain  peasant  of  the  vale  of 
Campan  had  refused  to  credit  the  assertions  of  the  voyante, 
she  changed  his  sins  .into  snakes,  and  that  the  reptiles  so 
efficaciously  devoured  the  irreverent  wretch,  that  not  an  atom 
of  his  body  remained. 

Since  the  last  day  of  the  fortnight  designated  by  her  "  lady 
for  the   visits  to  the  Massabielle  Rocks,  Bernadette  had 
<Tone  thither  several  times  before  she  again  beheld  the  appa- 
rition.    It  was  on  March  25,  the  Feast  of  the  Annunciation, 
that  she  was  once  more  raised  almost  to  the  height  of  heav- 
enly bliss,  and  it  was  then  that  she  obtained  the  answer  to 
the  question  which  the  Abbe'  Peyramale  had  told  her  to  pro- 
pound to  her  mysterious  visitor.     As  soon  as  the  "  lady  " 
had  appeared,  the  child  expressed  the  great  desire  of  her 
lieart  :  "Please,  my  Lady,  do  tell  me  your  name,  and  who 
you  are !  "     Thrice  the  demand  was  repeated,  but  saving  an 
indulgent  smile,  no  answer  was  vouchsafed  ;  however,   the 
fourth  repetition  was  followed  by  a  declaration  which  tran- 
scended the  very  uutheological  capacity  of  the  still  ill-in- 
formed mind  of  Bernadette.     Separating  her  hands,   which 
had  remained  joined  in  the  attitude  of  prayer  as  they  had 
been  during  all  the  apparitions,  the  "  lady  "  allowed  them  to 
fall  to  her  side  ;  then  raising  them  toward  heaven,  while  an 
ineffable  expression  of  gratitude  shone  on  her  countenance, 
she  exclaimed  :  ''lam  the  Immacuiate  Conception;'  and  im- 
mediately disappeared.     Beruadette,  as  we  have  observed, 
was  still  very  imperfectly  informed  concerning  even  the 
essential  truths  of  religion  ;  she  had  never  heard  of  an  "Im- 
maculate Conception"  ;  and  as  she  wended  her  way  toward 
the  house  of  the  cure,  she  continually  repeated  the  words, 
so  that  being  well-fixed  in  her  memory,  they  might  be  cor- 
rectly reported  to  the  priest.     Undoubtedly  the  reader  has 


476  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

wondered  why  the  Blessed  Virgin  used  that  peculiar  phrase- 
ology, instead  of  one  of  the  apparently  more  correct  exjDres- 
sions  :  "  I  am  the  Immaculate  Mary,"  or  "  I  am  she  who  was 
conceived  without  sin."  The  reader  may  possibly  have 
suspected  that  the  phrase  ascribed  to  Mary  might  have  indi- 
cated that  it  had  originated  in  the  still  comparatively  rude 
mind  of  Bernadette.  If  such  an  objection  has  been  con- 
ceived, it  must  be  remembered  that  not  only  such  an  idea  as 
that  of  an  Immaculate  Conception  was  utterly  foreign  to  the 
imagination  of  the  voyante,  but  that  the  words  of  Mary 
admirably,  and  more  forcibly  than  those  ordinarily  used, 
expressed  her  wonderful  and  unique  prerogative.  As  Las- 
serre  remarks  :  "  These  words  sound  as  though  Mary,  if  she 
wished  to  say  that  she  is  pure,  would  not  say  :  '  I  am  pure,' 
but  rather  :  '  I  am  purity  ' ;  as  though  she  would  not  say  : 
'  I  am  a  virgin,'  but  rather,  '  I  am  Living  and  Incarnate 
Virginity.'  "  On  April  7,  the  Wednesday  after  Easter,  when 
Bernadette  knelt  at  the  grotto  in  the  presence  of  nearly  ten 
thousand  persons  (1),  she  held  in  her  hand  a  very  long 
lighted  candle  which  she  rested  on  the  ground.  When  the 
visitor  appeared,  and  the  ecstasy  began,  the  child,  in  order 
to  join  her  hands  in  suppliant  adoration,  slipped  them  up 
to  the  lighted  end  of  the  candle,  holding  it  between  her 
wrists,  while  the  fingers  were  interlaced  in  the  flame  which 
was  plainly  seen  curling  around  them  and  waving  with  the 
gentle  motion  of  the  air.  She  remained  for  fifteen  minutes, 
according  to  Dr.  Dozous,  who  took  care  to  time  this  feature 
of  her  ecstasy,  insensible  to  any  pain.  When  the  ec- 
stasy terminated,  the  nearest  persons  seized  her  hand,  and 
examined  it  ;  there  was  no  sign  of  its  having  been  burnt. 
Then  one  of  the  spectators,  having  taken  the  candle  from 
her,  held  the  flame  quite  near  to  her  hand ;  whereupon 
she  retreated  a  step,  crying  :  "  Monsieur,  you  are  burning 
me,"  and  then  calmly  joined  the  companions  of  her  every- 
day life.  And  here  we  must  note  that  although  the  name  of 
"  Bernadette  the  voyante  "  was  already  on  many  thousands 

(1)  In  Letter  No.  86,  written  br  the  Mayor  of  Lourdes  to  the  Prefect,  it  is  stated  that  on 
this  occasion  <rovernmental  agents  had  been  appointed  to  count  the  number  in  attendance ; 
and  that  it  was  found  that  there  were  9,060  persons,  of  whom  4,238  were  strangers  to 
Lourdes. 


THE   MIRACLES   OF  L0URDE8.  477 

of  lips;  althovigh  she  was  continually  visited  by  many  of 
the  most  illustrious  persons  in  society  ;  her  simplicity  was 
ever  as  marked  us  it  had  been  when  she  was  tending  the 
sheep  of  her  foster-parents.  None  of  the  children  in  her 
school  enjoyed  pl«iy  more  than  Beruadette  ;  in  fine,  until 
the  day  when  she  donned  the  robe  of  a  Sister  of  Charity, 
and  was  freed  from  the  admiring  persecutions  of  the  world, 
that  world  saw  nothing  in  her  that  was  not  child-like.  Some 
of  her  remarks,  however,  were  quaint  and  very  much  to  the 
point.  Thus,  when  M.  de  Resseguier,  a  counsellor-general 
and  former  deput}'  for  the  Basses-Pyrenees,  brought  several 
ladies  of  the  elite  to  see  her,  and  then  told  her  that  she  uttered 
an  untruth  when  she  asserted  that  her  "  lady  "  addressed  her 
in  the  dialect  of  the  Pyrenees,  since  "  the  good  God  and  the 
Holy  Virgin  do  not  know  that  miserable  language."  She 
asked :  "  If  they  do  not  know  it,  how  comes  it  that  we  know 
it  ?  "  When  the  law ver  asked  her  whether  the  Blessed 
Virgin  was  as  beautiful  as  the  ladies  there  present,  she  made 
a  little  pout  of  something  like  disdain,  saying  :  '*  Ah  !  the 
beauty  of  Our  Lady  is  very  different  from  font  cehy  When 
she  was  asked  what  she  would  do,  if  the  cure  were  to  forbid 
her  to  go  any  more  to  the  grotto,  she  replied  that  she  would 
obey  ;  and  when  she  was  asked  what  she  would  do,  if,  after 
that  prohibition,  her  "lady  "  should  command  her  to  go,  she 
answered :  "  I  would  beg  for  permission  from  the  cure." 

On  April  28,  there  occurred  at  Nay,  in  the  Basses-Pyre- 
nees, one  of  the  most  striking  of  the  events  which  were  then 
corroborating  the  truth  of  the  asseverations  of  Beruadette. 
Two  years  previously,  a  boy  laamed  Henri  Busquet,  then 
thirteen  years  of  age,  had  been  afflicted  with  a  violent  ty- 
phoid fever.  The  malady  left  him  with  an  abscess,  as  large 
as  an  ordinary  fist,  which  covered  the  right  side  of  his  neck  ; 
and  the  pain  was  at  times  so  terrific,  that  he  would  roll  on 
the  floor  in  his  agony.  Dr.  Subervielle,  one  of  the  most  re- 
nowned practitioners  in  Southern  France,  had  tried  every 
known  remedy  in  vain,  when  the  hoy  insisted  on  l)eiug  taken 
to  the  Grotto  of  Lourdes.  It  was  deemed  impossible  for 
the  lad  to  live  after  s;ich  a  journey,  and  therefore  he 
besought  his  father  to  procure  for  him  some  of  the  water 


478  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

from  the  holy  spring  ;  and  when  it  had  been  brought,  Henri 
removed  his  bandages,  bathed  the  ulcer  with  the  water, 
although  the  physicians  had  warned  him  never  to  use  cold 
fluids  for  that  purpose,  and  then  tried  to  compose  himself  to 
sleep.  His  rest  during  that  night  was  perfect ;  and  in  the 
morning,  he  found  that  his  pains  had  vanished  entirely,  and 
that  a  scar,  which  appeared  like  one  that  had  been  formed 
years  before,  was  all  that  reminded  him  of  his  terrible  ulcer. 
Occurrences  such  as  this,  and  there  were  many  of  them,  en- 
raged the  philosophists  of  the  day ;  and  they  racked  their 
brains  in  order  to  devise  some  means  of  checking  what  they 
termed  the  unbridled  audacity  of  the  fanatics,  Mesmer- 
izers  undertook  to  subject  Bernadette  to  their  influences, 
trusting  that  they  might  procure  from  her  avowals  of  fraud- 
ulent practices  ;  but  she  proved  to  be  insusceptible  to  the 
magnetic  fluid.  Traps  were  laid  in  the  hope  that  it  might 
be  shown  that  the  Soubirous  were  exploiting  certain  powers 
of  their  daughter  for  purposes  of  gain  ;  but  it  was  notorious 
that  the  family  remained  as  poor  as  they  had  ever  been, 
and  that  they  had  refused  to  accept  all  donations  which  their 
many  visitors  had  pressed  upon  them.  Then  a  grand  idea 
was  conceived ;  Bernadette  was  to  be  pronounced  a  victim 
of  hallucination,  and  for  that  reason  was  to  be  confined  in  a 
madhouse.  The  imperial  Prefect  was  induced  to  order  an 
examination  of  the  child  by  two  physicians,  each  of  them 
A  determined  foe  of  the  supernatural ;  but  the  result  of  the 
investigation  was  a  declaration  that  while  the  girl  was  asth- 
matic, her  brain  had  no  lesions,  her  nerves  were  normal, 
and  all  her  faculties  were  in  perfect  equilibrium.  However, 
added  the  wise  men,  she  might  be  subject  to  hallachiations. 
Armed  with  this  might,  the  imperial  Prefect  inaugurated  the 
Month  of  May  in  one  of  the  most  Catholic  portions  of  France 
by  an  address  to  all  the  mayors  of  the  Canton^  of  Lourdes, 
in  which,  according  to  the  official  journal,  VEre  Imperiale 
of  May  8,  "  he  showed  how  the  scenes  at  the  grotto  had 
covipromised  the  good  name  of  religion  ;  and  how  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  oratory  at  the  grotto  had  constituted  an  ille- 
gality,  since  the  law  forbids  the  erection  of  a  public  chapel  or 
oratory  without   the   previous   consent   of  the  government." 


THE  >rinArLEs  of  loukdes,  479 

Aud  then  this  zf ahnis  otKfial  .•iuu(MinL'etl  that  he  had  ordered 
the  arrest  of  Beruadette  as  a  "  dissemiuator  of  false  news," 
the  said  Bernadette  to  be  confined  for   the  present  in  the 
asylum  in  Tarbos  ;  and  he  also  informed  the  mayors  that  he 
had  ordered  the  removal  of  every  object  of  devotion  from  the 
grotto.     Afraid  of  the  effect  of  this  ukase  on  his  fellow-cit- 
izens, the  Mayor  of  Lourdes  besought  the  imperial  procur- 
ator,  Dutour,    to    accompany    him   on   a   visit   to  the  Abb6 
Peyramale,  in  order  to  enlist  that  influential  clergyman  in 
the  cause  of  "  legality  "  ;  but  as  he  must  have  anticipated, 
the   priest   interrupted   the   explanations  of  the  procurator 
with  this  indignant  protest  :  "  That  child  is  innocent,  sir ; 
and  the  proof  of  her  innocence  is  found  in  the  fact  that  you, 
in  spite  of  interrogatories  of  every  kind,  have  discovered  no 
pretext  for  prosecuting  her."     The  procurator  vainly  adduced 
a  number  of  sophisms  in  favor  of  the  "  legality  "  of  the  pre- 
fect's action  ;  the  cure  protested  :  "  This  prosecution  is  inex- 
cusable.     As   priest   and  as    cure-doyen  of  the  Canton   of 
Lourdes,  I  belong  to  all,  more  especially  to  the  weak  ;  and 
if  I  see  an  armed  man  attacking  a  child,  I  shall  defend  that 
child,  even  at  the  risk  of  my  life,  and  even  though  that  man 
were  the  prefect,  armed  with  an  iniquitous  passage  of  an  in- 
iquitous law.     Go,  sir,  to  Baron  Massy,  and  tell  him  that  his 
police  will  find  me  at  the  door  of  this  poor  family,  and  that 
his  agents  will  trample  me  under  their  feet,  before  they  suc- 
ceed in  touching  a  hair  on  the  head  of  Bernadette  !    As  for  the 
dismantling  of  the  grotto,  let  the  prefect,  if  he  wishes,  in  the 
name  of  the  law  and  of  his  own  piety,  appropriate  the  objects 
which  innumerable  Catholics  have  dedicated  to  the  honor 
of  the  Holy  Virgin.     The  faithful  will  grieve,  and  will  be  in- 
dignant ;  but  the  prefect  may  rest  assured  that  the  inhabi- 
tants of  these  districts  respect  the  civil  authority,  even  when 
it  is  delirious.     They  say  that  already  at  Tarbes  cavalry  are  in 
the  saddle,  awaiting  the  prefect's  signal  to  charge  on  Lourdes. 
Well,  let  the  troopers  dismount ;  for  hotheaded  though  my 
people  may  be,  lacerated  though  their  hearts  may  be,  they 
obey  my  words.     If  the  troops  do  not  come,  I  answer  for 
the  tranquillity  of  my  flock  ;  if  the  soldiers  show  themselves, 
I  shall  not  be  responsible  for  the  consequences."     The  mayor 


480  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

reported  tliese  words  to  Massj,  and  declared  that  lie  would 
not  act  in  the  matter  of  the  proposed  arrest  of  Bernadette ; 
tliat  if  the  prefect  refused  to  reconsider  his  determination, 
the  outrage  would  necessarily  be  committed  by  some  other 
person  than  the  mayor.  The  prefect  did  reconsider  his  res- 
olution, and  Bernadette  was  not  disturbed  ;  but  Jacomet,  the 
Commissioner  of  Police,  was  ordered  to  despoil  the  grotto. 
Lasserre  gives  many  interesting  details  of  this  sacrilegious 
operation  which  horrified  the  thousands  of  weeping  spec- 
tators. We  merely  note  that  the  woman  who  mercenarily 
loaned  her  cart  to  Jacomet  for  the  transportation  of  the 
sacred  furniture,  after  every  other  owner  of  carts  and  horses 
had  refused  to  be  his  accomplices  even  for  gain,  fell  from  her 
hay-loft  on  the  following  day,  and  broke  several  of  her  ribs ; 
that  at  the  same  time  a  joist  crushed  both  feet  of  the  man 
who  had  loaned  to  Jacomet  a  hatchet  with  which  to  demolish 
the  railing  which  had  been  placed  around  the  grotto.  These 
occurrences  were,  of  course,  mere  coincidences  in  the  eyes  of 
the  philosophists  ;  and  the  contrary  opinion  of  the  devout 
served  only  to  impel  the  foes  of  the  supernatural  to  adopt 
more  subtle  means  for  the  annihilation  of  "  superstition." 
On  June  8,  the  prefect  issued  a  decree  whereby,  after  a  de- 
claration that  he  was  acting  only  in  the  interests  of  religion 
by  obviating  a  repetition  of  the  regrettable  scenes  lately 
witnessed  at  the  Massabielle  Rocks  ;  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  civil  authority  to  safeguard  the  public  health  by  a  care- 
ful examination  oiinineraltoaters  :  and  that  finally  it  was  well 
known  that  no  person  could  exploit  mineral  waters  without 
the  previous  consent  of  the  government ;  he  prohibited  all 
persons  from  taking  water  from  the  spring  at  the  grotto,  and 
for  the  more  efficacious  observance  of  his  decree  he  ordered 
that  the  local  authorities  should  not  allow  any  person  to 
approach  the  grotto.  But  in  spite  of  this  decree  ;  in  spite 
of  the  barriers  which  were  erected  around  the  grotto  ;  and 
in  spite  of  the  guards  (very  frequently,  it  must  be  admitted, 
devoted  sons  of  Mary)  ;  the  salutary  waters  continued  to  be 
drawn  from  the  spring,  and  the  local  magistrate,  one  Duprat, 
vainly  tried  to  put  an  end  to  the  "  evil "  by  rendering  each 
culprit  responsible  not  only  for  his  or  her  particular  fine  of 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  LOURDES.  '181 

five  francs,  but  also  for  the  fines — en  soUdarite — of  all  the 
other  criminals.  Not  every  recalcitrant,  however,  was 
dragged  before  this  magisterial  genius  ;  if  Massy,  Jacomet, 
and  their  brethren  knew  nothing  about  theological  epikeia, 
they  realized  the  propriety  of  admitting  an  "  exception  of 
persons."  When  the  wife  of  Admiral  liruat,  the  governess 
of  the  Prince  Imperial,  made  known  her  identity  after  her 
arrest,  she  was  dismissed  with  profuse  apologies. 

By  this  time  the  philosophists  had  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  supposition  of  hallucination  could  no  longer  be 
presented  as  accounting  for  the  wonderful  cures  effected  at 
Lourdes ;  they  now  suddenly  opined  that  those  cures  were 
real  indeed,  but  that  they  were  purely  natural  effects  of 
wondrously  powerful  medicinal  waters.  On  April  28,  Dr. 
Lary,  a  worthy  physician  of  the  Canton  who  disbelieved  in 
the  miraculous,  had  written  to  a  colleague  as  follows  concern- 
ing one  of  the  prodigies :  "  This  woman,  Mme.  Galop,  had 
been  so  afflicted  by  rheumatism  in  her  left  hand,  that  she 
could  grasp  nothing  with  it.  . .  .  For  eight  months  she  had 
neither  made  her  bed,  nor  sewed  a  stitch  ;  but  after  one  trip 
to  Lourdes,  where  she  used  the  water  internally  and  externally, 
she  sewed  with  great  ease,  she  made  her  bed,  she  drew  water 
from  the  well,  she  washed  and  carried  her  china  to  the 
table — in  fine,  she  used  her  left  hand  nearly  as  well  as  the 
right.  . . .  She  intends  to  return  to  the  grotto,  and  I  shall  see 
that  she  calls  on  you,  so  that  you  may  be  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  what  I  have  said.  On  examination  you  will  perceive 
that  she  has  an  incomplete  ankjdosis  of  the  metacarpo- 
phalangial  articulation  of  the  index-finger — the  sole  remnant 
of  the  olden  trouble.  If  a  reiterated  use  of  the  water  of  the 
grotto  banishes  this  morbid  condition,  the  disappearance 
will  be  a  proof  of  the  alkalinity  of  that  water."  In  fact, 
after  the  second  visit  to  the  grotto,  Mme.  Galop  was  entirely 
cured  ;  and  the  letter  of  Dr.  Lary  was  immediately  quoted 
by  the  incredulists  as  having  furnished  the  explanation  of  all 
the  wonders  of  Lourdes.  These  gentry  were  determined  to 
recognize  nothing  supernatural ;  anything  extra-natnml  was 
welcome,  but  on  no  account  was  any  credit  to  be  given  to  God. 
They  feigned  to  regard  as  of  no  value  the  reflections  ot  the 


482  STUDIES   IN  CHUKCH   HISTOEY. 

"  fanatics  "  on  the  fact  that  this  presumed  "  medicinal  "  water 
had  been  discovered  by  Bernadette  while  she  was  in  a  state 
of  ecstasy  superinduced   by  her  celestial  visions    (real   or 
false),  and  that  the  discovery  seemed  to  prove  the  heavenly 
origin  of  the  apparition.     They  laughed  at  the  assertion  that 
Bernadette   discovered  the  spring  while  she  obeyed  the 
supernatural  injunction  (real  or  imaginary)  to  go  and  drink 
at  that  spot  where  water  had  never  flowed.     Great  was  their 
glee  when  the  chemist  of  the  Administration,  Latour  de  Trie, 
after  an  analysis  of  the  water,  declared  that  "  its  constituent 
substances  showed   that  'perliaps  medical  science  would  in 
time   perceive  that   the   spring  possessed   special   curative 
power"  (1) ;  but  it  was  rather  unfortunate  for  the  eclat  of  the 
fancied  triumph  of  the  prefect,  that  he  had  forgotten  to  warn 
his  official  journal  of  the  imminent  triumph  of  chemistry 
over  superstition,  and  that  because  of  that  neglect,  on  the 
Yery  day  when  Latour  de  Trie  submitted  his  report.  May  6, 
the  zeal  of  LEve  Imperiale  led  it  to  qualify  as  mere  "  dirty 
water"  that  which  the  governmental  chemist  was  lauding  as 
probably  beneficent :  "  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  famous 
grotto  floods  our  Department  with  miracles  ;  at  every  turn  in 
the  fields  you  hear  people  talking  about  the  thousands  of 
cures  which   have  followed  the  use  of  this  eau  malpropre. 
Very  soon  physicians  will  have  lost  their  occupation ;  all 
rheumatics  and   consumptives  will  have  disappeared   from 
the  Department."     The   governmental  chemist   could  have 
afforded  a  pitying  smile  to  the  unscientific  journalist  ;  but 
his  own  report  appeared  unsatisfactory  to  many  who  con- 
sidered the  variety  and  suddenness  of  so  many  of  the  operated 
cures.     And  a  chemist  of  some  repute,  Thomas  Pujo,  soon 
followed  by  many  others,  even  insisted  that  the  analysis 
effected    by  himself  had  demonstrated   that   the   water   in 

(1)  We  submit  the  result  of  the  official  chemical  examination :  "  The  water  of  the  grotto 
of  Lourdes  is  very  limpid,  inodorous,  and  with  no  pronounced  taste.  Its  specific  gravity  is 
very  near  that  of  distilled  water ;  its  temperature  at  the  spring  is  15°  centigrade.  Its  con- 
stituents:  I.  Chlorides  of  soda,  calx,  and  magnesia;  abundant.  II.  Carbonates  of  calx 
.»nd  magnesia.  III.  Silicates'  of  calx  and  alumine.  IV.  Oxide  of  iron.  V.  Sulphate  of 
soda  and  carbonate  of  soda.  VI.  Traces  of  Phosphate.  VII.  Organic  matter:  ulmine. 
In  the  composition  of  this  water  there  is  a  complete  absence  of  sulphate  of  calx  or 
selenlte  ;  and  this  quality,  very  remarkable,  is  to  its  advantage,  forcing  us  to  conclude 
«hat  it  aids  digestion  and  gives  to  the  animal  economy  a  disposition  which  benefits  the 
equilibrium  of  the  vital  action.    We  run  no  risk  in  saying  that   '  etc.,  as  above. 


THE   MIRACLES   OF   LOUKDES.  483 

question  was  the  ortlinary  articlo,  utterly  (lostitiite  (^f  any 
special  therapeutic  value.  Much  was  written  on  both  sides 
of  the  dispute ;  and  finally,  without  consulting  the  prefect, 
the  Municipal  Council  of  Lourdes  requested  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  chemists  of  the  century,  Prof.  Filhol,  of  the 
Faculty  of  Toulouse,  to  analyze  the  water.  This  task  was 
imposed  on  M.  Filhol  on  June  3,  the  day  on  which  Berna- 
dette  received  her  Sacramental  Lord  for  the  first  time  ;  and 
on  Aug.  7,  the  professor  submitted  the  result  of  his  investiga- 
tions to  the  mayor  of  Lourdes — an  analysis  which  completely 
nullified  the  conclusions  of  M.  Latour  de  Trie.  "  Tiiis 
analysis  shows  that  the  water  from  the  grotto  of  Lourdes  lias 
the  constituents  of  all  the  drinkable  waters  whicli  are  found 
in  mountains  where  the  soil  is  richly  calcareous.  As  for  the 
extraordinary  eifects  which  are  said  to  have  followed  the  use 
of  this  water,  said  effects  cannot  be  explained,  at  least  in  the 
present  condition  of  science,  by  the  nature  of  the  salts  which 
analysis  has  found  in  the  water.  The  said  water  contains  no 
active  substance  which  would  be  capable  of  endowing  it  with 
the  indicated  therapeutic  properties "  (1).  It  is  evident 
therefore,  that  the  naturalistic  theorizers  had  at  least  not 
proved  their  hypothesis  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  truly  scien- 
tific men  ;  that  is,  the  incredulist  foes  of  the  supernatural 
had  not  demonstrated  the  presumed  hallucination  of  the 
voyante  of  Lourdes  by  any  proof  of  the  natural  therapeutic 
value  of  the  water  whicli  testified,  in  the  opinion  of  thousands 
of  Catholics,  to  the  reality  of  Bernadette's  visions. 

On  July  28,  Mgr.  Laurence,  the  bishop  of  Tarbes,  appoint- 
ed an  episcopal  commission  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
the  answers  to  four  questions  of  consummate  importance  : 
Whether  the  alleged  cures,  operated   by  the  drinking  of 

(1)  Lasserre  gives  this  report  in  its  entirety  ;  we  shall  quote  merely  the  results  of  the 
analysis:  "  The  water  of  the  grotto  holds  in  solution  :  I.,  Oxygen.  H.,  Azote.  UI.,  Car- 
bonic acid.  IV.,  Carbonates  of  calx,  magnesia,  and  a  trace  of  Carbonate  of  iron.  V.,  A 
Carbonate  or  an  alkaline  silicate  of  the  chlorides  of  potassium  and  sodium.  VI.,  Traces 
of  sulphate  of  potassium  and  of  soda.  VII.,  Traces  of  Ammonia.  VIII.,  Traces  of  lodium. 
The  quantative  analysis  of  the  water,  eflected  by  the  ordinary  method,  gave  the  following 
results  in  one  kilogramme :  Carbonic  acid,  8  centigrammes  ;  Oxygen,  .5  centigr. ;  Azote,  12 
centigr.  ;  Ammonia,  traces  ;  Carbonate  of  calx,  .(•%  milligr.  ;  Carbonate  of  magnesia,  .017 
milligr. ;  Carbonate  of  iron,  traces;  Carbonate  of  soda,  traces;  Chloride  of  sodium,  .008 
milligr. ;  Chloride  of  potassium,  traces;  Silicate  of  soda  and  traces  of  Silicate  of  potassium. 
.018  milligr. ;  Sulphate  of  potassium  and  of  soda,  traces;  lodium,  traces.  Total,  434  mll- 
Itgrammes. 


484  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

water  from  the  grotto  of  Lourdes,  or  by  means  of  bathing 
with  said  water,  could  be  explained  naturally,  or  whether  they 
should  be  attributed  to  a  supernatural  cause  ;  whether  the  pre- 
sumed visions  of  Bernadette  Soubirous  were  real,  and  whether 
in  that  case,  they  could  be  explained  naturally,  or  should  rath- 
er be  regarded  as  impressed  with  a  supernatural  and  divine 
character  ;  whether  the  personage  seen  by  Bernadette  (if 
really  seen)  had  made  demands  on  the  child,  or  manifested 
•certain  intentions  to  her  ;  and  whether  the  spring,  now  flow- 
ing in  the  grotto  of  Lourdes,  existed  before  the  presumed 
visions  of  Bernadette  occurred.  The  commission  Avas  com- 
posed of  nine  canons  of  the  Cathedral  of  Tarbes,  the  superi- 
ors of  the  Grand  and  Preparatory  Seminaries,  the  superior  of 
the  diocesan  missionaries,  the  cure  of  Lourdes,  and  the  pro- 
fessors of  dogmatic  theology,  moral  theology,  and  physics, 
in  the  Grand  Seminary.  Scarcely  had  the  commission  been 
appointed,  when  the  bishop  received  from  M.  Kouland,  the 
imperial  Minister  of  Worship,  a  letter  which,  coupled  with 
the  episcopal  reply,  will  dispense  us  from  detailing  some 
episodes  which  had  recently  occurred  at  the  grotto  and  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Lourdes.  The  imperial  director  of  the  re- 
ligious affairs  of  France  informed  the  prelate  that  he  had 
lieard  how  "  the  affair  of  Ijourdes  was  of  a  nature  which 
necessarily  afflicted  all  persons  who  were  truly  religious." 
He  sternly  condemned  "  the  blessing  of  Rosaries  by  children, 
.and  all  manifestations  in  which,  in  the  front  ranks,  women 
'of  equivocal  morals  were  prominent."  He  reprobated  the 
"  grotesque  ceremonies  which  parodied  those  of  true  relig- 
ion," because  he  feared,  in  his  apostolic  zeal,  that  "  Prot- 
estant journals  would  take  advantage  of  them."  And  he 
hesought  the  bishop  "  to  publicly  condemn  all  similar  profan- 
ations." The  reply  of  the  bishop  was  as  follows  :  "  Monsieur 
He  Ministre  ;  your  communication  has  astonished  me.  I  am 
■well  informed  concerning  everything  that  happens  at  Lourdes, 
■and  as  a  bishop  I  am  deeply  interested  in  a  reprobation  of 
whatever  might  injure  religion  or  the  faithful.  I  can  assure 
you  that  the  scenes  mentioned  by  you  have  not  been  of  the 
nature  which  you  describe  ;  and  I  can  also  assure  you  that  if 
certain  regrettable  things  have  occurred,  they  have  been  so 


THE    MIRACLES   OF    LOURDES.  485 

transient  as  to  leave  no  trace  lieliiud  them.  Your  Excellency 
alludes  to  things  which  happened  after  the  grotto  was  closed 
to  the  public,  and  in  the  early  part  of  July.  Then  two  or 
three  children  of  Lourdes  played  the  part  of  visionaries,  and 
emitted  certain  extravagancies  in  piiblic.  The  grotto  hav- 
ing been  closed,  as  I  have  remarked,  these  boys  contrived 
to  pass  the  barriers,  and  approaching  the  visitors  who  were 
praying  on  the  other  side,  ofltered  to  take  Rosaries  from  those 
visitors  in  order  to  touch  the  beads  to  the  interior  of  the 
grotto,  and  also  to  deposit  offerings  which  they  appropri- 
ated to  themselves.  One  of  these  children,  the  most 
remarkable  for  conduct  which  was  far  from  edifying,  was  oue 
of  the  choir-boys  of  the  church  of  Lt^urdes  ;  and  tlie  cnre 
reprimanded  him  severely,  expelled  him  from  the  catechism 
class,  and  banished  him  from  the  service  of  the  altar.  The 
disorder  was  a  passing  oue,  and  the  people  regarded  it  as  a 
boyish  frolic  which  would  cease  under  threats  of  punish- 
ment. Such  are  the  facts  which  have  been  reported  by 
superfluously  zealous  parties  as  permanent  scandals.  I 
would  be  pleased.  Monsieur  le  Ministre,  if  you  would  derive 
your  information  concerning  Lourdes  from  its  regular  inhabi- 
tants and  from  the  child  who  declares  that  she  saw  the 
apparition,  as  well  as  from  the  many  respectable  personages 
who  have  visited  the  grotto — persons  like  the  bishops  of 
Moutpellieraud  Soissons,  thearchbishopof  Audi,  the  wife  of 
Admiral  Braut,  Louis  Yeuillot,  etc.  The  prudence  of  the 
clergy  of  the  district  has  been  admirable  ;  they  have  refrained 
from  visiting  the  grotto,  and  have  even  favored  the  measures 
adopted  by  the  authorities.     And  nevertheless,  these  priests 

have  been  denounced    as    favorers    of  superstition On 

June  8,  the  Mayor  of  Lourdes  prohibited  all  access  to  the 
grotto  (by  order  of  the  Prefect) ;  and  the  alleged  reasons 
w^ere  based  on  a  presumed  care  for  the  interests  of  religion 
and  of  the  public  welfare.  Religion  was  made  an  excuse  for 
this  action,  although  the  bishop  had    not  been  consulted  ; 

and   nevertheless,  the    prelate   formulated   no  protest 

Now,  however  yielding  to  pressure  from  all  sides,  I  have 
determined  to  give  my  attention  to  this  matter  ;  and  accord- 
ingly I  have  appointed  a  Commission  which  will  gather  the 


486  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

data  necessary  to  enable  me  to  come  to  a  decision  on  a  sub- 
ject which  seems  to  interest  the  whole  of  France."  This 
letter  produced  no  change  in  the  philosophistic  and  tyran- 
nous policy  of  Roulaad  ;  Massy  and  Jacomet  continued  to 
arrest  those  who  dared  to  pray  before  the  grotto,  otherwise 
than  from  the  opposite  side  of  the  Gave,  and  Duprat  con- 
tinued to  impose  his  fines.  But  during  a  visit  of  Napoleon 
III.  to  Biarritz  in  September,  the  archbishop  of  Auch,  Mgr. 
de  Salinis,  waited  on  His  Majesty ;  and  besought  him,  in  the 
name  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  to  withdraw  the  matter 
of  Lourdes  from  the  cognizance  of  Minister,  Prefect,  and 
Police  Commissioner,  and  to  act  in  accordance  with  his  own 
sense  of  justice  and  of  humanity.  The  emperor  immedi- 
ately wrote  a  dispatch  to  the  Prefect  of  Tarbes,  ordering  him 
to  cancel  his  prohibitory  decree,  and  to  permit  the  people 
to  have  free  access  to  the  grotto.  On  Oct.  5,  the  barriers 
were  removed. 

It  would  certainly  interest  the  reader  if  we  were  to  quote 
at  some  length  from  the  lucubrations  of  the  Liberal  journal- 
istic quidnuncs  of  that  time,  as  they  prognosticated  concern- 
ing the  probable  outcome  of  the  investigation  ordered  by 
Mgr.  Laurence.  Such"  journals  as  the  Siede,  the  Journal 
des  Dehats,  the  Presse,  the  Independance  Beige,  as  well  as 
nearly  all  the  secular  journals  of  England,  the  United  States, 
and  Germany,  teemed  with  effusions  no  more  honest  or 
reasonable  than  an  ebullition  of  the  Amsferdarnsche  Courant 
in  its  issue  of  Sept.  9,  with  which  our  limits  compel  us  to  be 
satisfied:  "A  new  manifestation,  designed  to  rekindle  and 
nourish  the  ardor  of  the  faithful  in  the  worship  of  the  Virgin, 
was  imminent.  The  deliberations  of  the  bishops  on  this  point 
resulted  in  the  preparation  of  the  famous  miracle  of  Lourdes. 
Recently  the  bishop  of  Tarbes  .appointed  a  Commission  in- 
structed to  enquire  into  this  miracle  ;  but  the  so-called  con- 
clusions of  the  report  of  this  Commission  were  prepared  long 
previous  to  its  first  session.  Bernadette,  the  pretended  shep- 
herdess, is  no  innocent  little  peasant-girl ;  she  is  a  very  well 
educated  and  very  cunning  young  woman  of  the  hourgeoUie, 
who  resided  for  many  months  in  a  cloistered  nunnery  where 
she  was  taught  the  part  that  she  was  to  play.     Long  before 


THE   MIRACLES   OF   LOURDES.  487 

the  drama  was  presented  in  pnblie,  it  was  rehearsed  iu  this  con- 
vent before  a  small  nnniber  of  select  spirits.  If  ever  there  is 
a  dearth  of  sorry  dramatists  iu  Paris,  it  can  easily  be  supplied 
bv  the  Tipsier  clergy.  However,  the  Liberal  press  has  so 
ridiculed  this  farce  from  beginning  to  end,  that  it  is  not  im- 
possible that  the  priests  will  be  prudent,  out  of  regard  for 
their  own  interests."  All  the  philosophists  of  the  day  did 
not  confide  iu  the  "  prudence  "  of  the  clergy  of  Lourdes  i 
many  called  on  the  emperor  to  prevent  the  Commission  from 
rendering  any  decision  in  the  matter  of  the  apparition.  Pre- 
vost-ParadoI,  who  was  soon  to  commit  suicide  while  repre- 
senting his  country  in  Washington  (1870),  even  dared  tc 
argue  that  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  the  other  religions 
tolerated  by  the  State,  if  God  were  suj^posed  to  manifest  a 
particular  interest  in  any  special  religion  :  "  It  is  evident," 
said  this  coryphee  of  Masonic  enlightenment,  "  that  by  any 
striking  manifestation  iu  favor  of  one  religion,  the  Deity 
openly  attests  its  truth,  its  superiority  over  all  others,  and 
its  incontestable  right  to  govern  souls.  This  decision,  there- 
fore, will  naturally  be  followed  by  many  desertions  from 
the  ranks  both  of  dissidents  and  incredulists  ;  it  will  be,  in 

a  word,  an  instrument  of  proselytism It  will  tend,  to 

some  extent,  to  destroy  in  France  the  proper  equilibrium 
between  the  religious  and  the  civil  power.  The  ministers  of 
the  favored  religion,  the  one  which  the  prodigies  will  have 
favored,  are  not  those  whom  the  Concordat  foresaw,  organ- 
ized, and  regulated  ;  they  exercise  another  influence  over  the 
people,  and  in  case  of  conflict,  they  will  guide  the  people  in^ 

depeudenth'  of  Prefects  and  Councils  of  State Nothing 

can  be  done  legally  in  France  without  a  previous  authoriza- 
tion of  the  Administration.  If,  as  M.  de  Morny  once  well 
said,  a  stone  cannot  be  moved  or  a  ditch  dug  without  the 
consent  of  the  Administration,  much  less,  without  that  con- 
sent, can  a  miracle  be  approved  or  a  pilgrimage  be  instituted. 
Whoever  has  any  acquaintance  with  religious  affairs  knows 
perfectly  well  that  the  administrative  authority  has  on  its  side 
not  one  means,  but  ten  ;  not  one  law,  but  twenty  or  thirty 
which  accord  to  it  supreme  power  iu  such  matters.  The 
sessions    of  the  Commission  of  Tarbes  can  be  prevented  oi 


488  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

dissolved  in  a  liundred  wajs  by  an  invocation  of  tlie  Con- 
cordat, of  the  Penal  Code,  of  the  law  of  1824,  of  the  decree 
of  Feb.,  1852,  or  of  municipal  and  every  other  kind  of  authrr- 
ity  "  (1).  However,  the  imperial  government  did  not  allow 
itself  to  be  tempted  to  this  ridiculous  pretension  to  a  legiti- 
mate competency  in  the  premises  ;  the  emperor  may  have 
been  influenced  by  his  pious  consort,  or  he  may  have  appre- 
ciated these  remarks  of  Louis  Yeuillot  :  "  We  do  not  doubt 
the  existence  of  ordinances  permitting  the  government  to 
interfere  with  the  sessions  of  the  episcopal  Commission  ; 
but  the  wisdom  of  the  ruling  powers  ought  to  convince  them 
that  their  interference^  would  favor  superstition.  Govern- 
mental intervention  would  give  free  rein  to  popular  credulity, 
since  then  the  bishop  would  be  unable  to  decide  the  matter 
in  question  "  (2).  When  the  Commission  entered  on  its  task, 
it  found  that  hundreds  of  alleged  miraculous  cures  awaited 
its  consideration.  It  decided  that  an  investigation  of  only 
thirty  would  suffice  for  its  pin-poses  ;  and  it  selected  those 
whose  instautaueousness  rendered  them  especially  remark- 
able, carefully  ignoring  those  which  were  alleged  to  have 
occurred  while  the  subject  was  under  medical  treatment,  since, 
as  the  secretary  said  iii  his  report:  "Although  in  these  cases 
the  iuefficaciousness  of  the  remedies  had  been  sufficiently  de- 
monstrated, nevertheless,  the  cures  could  not  be  rigorously  and 
exclusively  ascribed  to  a  supernatural  virtue  of  the  water  of 
the  grotto,  since  it  had  been  used  simultaneously  with  those 
remedies."  The  report  of  the  Commission  divided  the  in- 
vestigated prodigies  into  three  classes :  In  the  first  class 
were  six  cures  which,  striking  though  they  indubitably  were, 
could  possibly  be  explained  by  the  laws  of  nature  ;  in  the 
second  class  were  nine  prodigies  which  were  deemed  by  the 
testifying  physicians  to  present  supernatural  conditions,  but 
in  which  those  supernatural  conditions  were  not  necessarily 
to  1)6  acknowledged  ;  in  the  third  class  were  fifteen  cases  which 
the  Commission  declared  to  be  undeniably  of  a  supernatural 
character.  All  of  these  cases  in  the  third  class  were  of 
widely  different  maladies ;  nevertheless,  all  had  yielded  to 

(1)  Thus  wrote  Prevost-Paradol  in  the  Jonrnal  dcs  Dehatf!,  Sept.  3,  1859. 
'2)  LTiiivn-s.  Fept.  10.  1858. 


THE   MIRACLES   OF   LOURDES. 


489 


the  application  of  one  and  the  same  thing— a  fact  which  is 
not  in  accorJauce  with  the  natural  and  scientific  order,  since 
according  to  that  order  each  remedy  is  beneficial  in  certain 
classes  of  maladies,  but  injurious  in  others.     It  cannot  be 
said,  therefore,  declared  the  report,  that  it  was  some  inher- 
ent natural  property  of  the  water  of  the  Massabielle  Rocks 
that  produced  effects  not  only  so  extraordinary,  numerous, 
and  sudden,  but  also  diverse  in  their  nature.     In  the  medical 
report  we  read :  "  When  we  first  examined  these  cases  (of 
the  third  class)  we  were  surprised  by  the  ease,  promptness, 
nay,  instantaneousness,  with    which   the   effects   had   been 
produced  ;  by  the  complete  violation  of  all  therapeutic  laws 
in  each  case  •  by  the  contradictions  of  all  the  precepts  and 
provisions  of  science  which  each  case  displayed  ;  by  a  sort 
of  disdain  manifested  in  regard  to  the  duration  and  deep- 
seatedness  of  disease  ;  by  a  kind  of  hidden  but  real  care  in 
so  arranging  and  combining  the  circumstances,  as  to  show 
that  in  the  cure  it  would  be  evident  that  all  had  been  effected 
outside  of  the  habitual  order  of  nature.     These  phenomena 
are  beyond  the  comprehension  of  the  human  mind.      How 
indeed  can  we  understand  an  opposition  between  the  means 
and  the  grandeur  of  the  result ;  between  the  oneness  of  the 
remedy  and  the  diversity  of  the  maladies  ;  between  the  brief 
application  of  the  curative  agent  and  the  length  of  the  treat- 
ment  prescribed   by   science  ;   between  the  sudden   effica- 
€iousness  of  the  first  and  the  long  futility  of  the  second  ; 
between  the  chronicity  of  disease  and  the  instantaneousness 
of  the  cure  ?     Certainly  there  must  be  here  a  contingent  force 
which  is  superior  to  those  derived  from  nature,  and  which  is 
consequently  foreign  to  the  water  which  it  uses  for  a  manifes- 
tation of  its  power."     To  a  mind  ill-informed  concerning  the 
habitual  attitude  of  the  authorities  of  the  Church  in  regard 
to  matters  of  a  reputed  miraculous  nature,  this  report  miglit 
seem  capable  of  producing  in  the    mind   of  tlie  episcopal 
judge  a  conviction  that  the  visions  of  Bernadette  were  real, 
and" that  the  prodigies  effected   by    the    water   of   Lourdes 
were  true  miracles.     But  Mgr.  Laurence  demanded  further 
proof ;  he  wished  to  be  assured  as  to  the  permanency  of  the 
reputed  cures ;  and  not  until  Jan.  18,  1862,  more  than  three 


490  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

years  after  he   had  received   the   favorable   report   of   th(j 
Commission,  did  he  issue  the  much-desired  approbation  in 
an  apposite  Pastoral  to  his   flock.      In   this  document   the 
prelate  begins  by  reminding  his   people   how,    at   intervals 
during  the  entire   history   of   humanity,    there    have  been 
marvellous  communications  between  heaven  and  earth  :  how 
in  the  very  first  days  of  that  history,  God  appeared  to  our 
first  parents  in  order  to  rebuke  them  for  their  disobedience ; 
how  in  the  succeeding  centuries   God  conversed  familiarly 
with  the  Patriarchs ;  and  how,  as  we  read  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  children  of  Israel  were  often  favored  with  celestial 
apparitions.     And   the   bishop   carefully   notes   that  these 
divine  favors  could  scarcely  be  expected  to  terminate  with 
the  Old  Law;  nay,  he   insists,    such    manifestations   were 
naturally  to  ba  more  numerous  and  more  striking  under  the 
Law  of  Grace,  and  history  attests  that  they  were  not  restrict- 
ed to  the  first  days   of   Christianity — that  ever   since   that 
period  they  have  frequently'  occurred  for  the  glory  of  religion 
and  the  edification  of  the  faithful.     Then  the  bishop  nar- 
rates briefly  the  wonderful  experiences  of  Bernadette,  but  he 
also  reminds  his  flock  that  "  the  Church  is  wisely  slow  in 
forming  a  judgment  concerning  reputed  supernatural  occur- 
rences ;  that  she  demands   certain   proofs    of   their   super- 
naturalness,  since  from  the  date  of  the  original  fall  of  man, 
and  especially  in  matters  of  this  kind,  humanity  has  ever 
been  subject  to  error,  yielding  now  to  the  deceptions  of  its 
own  weak  reason,  and  then  to  the  wiles  of  the  demon  who 
often  transforms  himself  into  an  angel  of  light."      We  are 
told  how  the  bishop  had  studied  the  manifestations  at  the 
Massabielle  Kocks   for   nearly   four   years  ;   and   that   his 
convictions  had  been  formed  not  onlv  because  of  the  testi- 
mony of  Bernadette,  but  because  of  the   events   which   fol- 
lowed the  apparitions,  and  which  could  have  been  efi'ected 
only  by  divine  interposition.     And  as  for  the  testimony  of 
the  little  girl  herself,  the  prelate  regards  it  as  indubitably 
trustworthy.     "  In  the  first  place,"  he  insists,  "  her  sincerity 
is  unquestionable.     Who  does  not  admire,  ii  he  approaches 
this  child,  her   simplicity,    candor,   and   mod3st;y  ?    While 
everybody  talks  about  the  wonders  that  she  has  seen  and 


THE   MIRACLES   OF   LOURDES.  491 

heard,  slie  remains  silent ;  she  speaks  only  when  she  is 
interrogated,  and  then  she  narrates  without  affectation,  her 
answers  to  the  nnmerous  questions  being  always  to  the 
point,  and  evidently  proceeding  from  firm  conviction.  She 
was  never  influenced  by  threats ;  she  always  rejected  the  most 
generous  offers  of  assistance  (whether  for  herself  or  for  her 
family).  Always  consistent,  she  never  varied  in  the  slight- 
est degree  in  her  narrative,  during  the  many  interrogatories 
to  wliicli  she  was  subjected.  But  it  has  been  asked  whether, 
if  not  herself  a  deceiver,  Bernadette  may  not  be  a  victim 
of  hallucination  ?  We  cannot  harbor  this  suspicion.  The 
wisdom  of  her  replies  reveals  a  rectitude,  a  calmness  of 
imagination,  and  a  good  sense,  which  are  superior  to  those 
possessed  usually  by  children  of  her  age.  In  her,  religious 
sentiment  has  never  been  exaltedness  ;  she  has  never  mani- 
fested any  weakness  of  intellect  or  any  mutabilitj'  of  views, 
any  extravagancies  of  character,  or  any  morbidness  which 
might  dispose  her  to  freaks  of  imagination.  . , .  But  the 
testimony  of  Bernadette,  so  important  in  itself,  is  corrob- 
orated by  the  wonderful  events  which  occurred  after  the  first 
apparition  ;  if  we  may  judge  of  a  tree  by  its  fruit,  that 
apparition  was  supernatural  and  divine,  since  it  produces 
supernatural  and  divine  efi'ects."  In  conclusion,  the  bishop 
declares :  "  Having  invoked  the  Holy  Name  of  God,  and 
following  the  rule  established  by  Pope  Benedict  XIV.  for 
the  discernment  of  true  and  false  apparitions  (1)  ;  having 
read  the  favorable  report  presented  by  the  Commission 
appointed  by  us  to  consider  the  apparition  at  the  Grotto  of 
Lourdes  and  its  consequences  ;  having  read  the  testimony  of 
the  physicians  whom  we  consulted  concerning  the  numerous 
cures  which  have  followed  applications  of  the  water  from 
the  grotto  ;  and  considering  firstly,  that  the  fact  of  the 
apparition,  whether  it  be  regarded  in  reference  to  the  child 
who  narrated  the  event,  or  whether  it  be  regarded  in  refer- 
ence to  the  extraordinary  effects  which  it  has  produced,  can 
be  explained  only  by  a  recognition  of  the  intervention  of  a 
supernatural  cause  ;  considering  secondly,  that  this  cause 
could  be  no  other  than  divine,  since  its  effects   were   such 

(1)  CawmizatUin  nf  Saints.  Bk.  iii.,  ch.  56. 


492  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

perceptible  results  of  grace  as  the  conversion  of  sinners,  or 
such  derogations  from  the  law  of  nature  as  miraculous  cures 
— effects  which  could  be  produced  only  by  the  Author  of 
grace  and  the  Master  of  nature  ;  considering,  finally,  that  our 
conviction  is  strengthened  by  the  immense  and  spontaneous 
attendance  of  the  faithful  at  the  grotto — an  attendance 
which  has  been  continual  since  the  first  apparitions,  and 
the  purpose  of  which  has  been  the  receipt  of  favors  or 
thanksgiving  for  benefits  already  obtained  ;  therefore,  in 
order  to  satisfy  the  legitimate  impatience  of  our  clergy  and 
people,  and  that  of  so  many  pious  persons  who  have  long 
asked  us  to  pronounce  a  decision  which  motives  of  prudence 
compelled  us  to  defer,  and  wishing  also  to  yield  to  the 
desires  of  many  of  our  colleagues  in  the  episcopate  ;  and 
having  invoked  the  light  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  aid  of 
the  Most  Holy  Virgin  ;  we  have  declared  and  do  declare  as 
follows  :  Art.  I.  We  judge  that  the  Immaculate  Mary, 
Mother  of  God,  on  Feb.  11,  1858,  and  on  eighteen  follow- 
ing occasions,  did  really  appear  to  Bernadette  Soubirous  ; 
that  this  apparition  presents  every  characteristic  of  truth, 
and  that  the  faithful  may  safely  credit  it.  However,  we 
humbly  submit  this  our  judgment  to  that  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff,  who  is  entrusted  with  the  government  of  the  Uni- 
versal Church.  Art.  II.  We  authorize  the  cult  of  Our 
Lady  of  the  Grotto  of  Lourdes  in  our  diocese  ;  but  we  for- 
bid the  publicatioD  of  any  particular  formula  of  prayer,  or 
of  any  canticle  or  book  of  devotion,  referring  to  the  appari- 
tion, without  our  approbation  in  writing.  Aif.  III.  In 
order  to  conform  to  the  desire  which  the  Holy  Virgin  ex- 
pressed during  several  of  her  appearances — a  desire  that  a 
sanctuary  should  be  erected  near  the  grotto,  that  is,  on  land 
which  has  recently  become  the  property  of  the  bishops  of 
Tarbes  ;  and  since  the  steepness  and  other  difficulties  of  the 
site  will  entail  a  need  of  long  labor  and  relatively  large 
sums  of  money  for  the  construction  of  the  edifice  ;  we 
appeal  for  the  requisite  means  to  the  clergy  and  faithful  of 
our  diocese,  to  those  of  all  France,  and  to  those  of  all  lands 
who  are  zealous  for  the  honor  of  the  Immaculate  Conception 
of  the  Virgin  Mar)-. 


APPENDIX. 


PnpeK. 

Holy  RimuDi  Eiutjcror. 

Date  of  Election. 

Pius  V 11. 

1800 

Francis    II,   at    the  coni- 

}^o  XII. 

1823 

uiaud    of    Naiiolfon    in 

Pius  VIII, 

1829 

1806,  cwised   to  l)*-  <ier- 

(ire^rorv  XVI. 

1831 

iiiati     einpV.    and     as- 

Pius  IX. 

184»i 

snuiHil  the  title  of  emp'r 

Lio  XIII, 

1878 

of  Austria  as  Francis  I. 

KingK  of  Enuhind. 

Emperors  of  AuKtria. 

Date  of  Death. 

Date  of  Death. 

CHRONOLOGICAL     TABLE 

0/  the  lioman  Pontiffs,  Rulers  of  Principal  Nations,  Princi- 
pal Councils,  Ecclesiastical  Writers,  and  Sectarians. 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

Kings.  Emperors,  etc.. 
Of  Prance. 

Napoleon,    abdicate'd    in 

"^l'"',  (i.  in  ISLM 

Louis  XVIII.  (].  ih2-< 

Charles  X.  (iep.  1830 

Louis    Philippe.    al)d.   in 
18-48.   inakinK    wav   for 
Se<'(.nd   Repiit.ll<'.     which 
was    followed     bv    Ibe 
Second  Krn|)ire  in'  18.')2 

Naixileon  111,  emperor,  ab- 
Georsre  III.  supplanted  by         Francis  I.  1K}5      dicated  in  1870.  and  was 

a  regency  in   1800.  and  Ferdinand  I.  abdicated  in  succeerled  by  the 

d.  in  1820       1818.  in  favor  of  Third  Kepublic. 

(Jeorge  IV.  1S30  Fiancis  Joseph,  now 

William  IV.  1837      reigning  Kintjs  of  tipain. 

Victoria,  now  refgning  Date  of  Death. 

Kinfis  of  PruKi<ia. 
CzavKof  Rmitia.  Date  of  Denth.  Charles  IV,  abcUcated  in 

Date  lif  Death.  ]ai8.  d.  in  1819 

Fred.  Win.  Ill,  1840  Ferdinand  VII.  1833 

Paul  I,  1801  Fred.  Wni.  IV.  1861  Regencv  of  Christina   un- 

Alexander  I,  1825  William     I.  became  Ger-  til      1841.    followed    bv 

Nicholas  I.  185.5      man  emp'r  in  1870      that  of   Kspjiriero  until 

Alexander  II.  1881  1843   when   Queen    Isa- 

Alexander  III,  1894  German  Empexorx.  b<'Iia  II.  was  declared  of 

Nicholas  II.  now  reigning  Date  of  Death.  age. 

Isal)ella  II.  abdicated  in    1870 
William  I,  1888  Alfcn-'o  XII.  1885 

Frederick  III,  1888  Regency  of  Maria  Chris- 

William  II,  now  reigning  tina.  m  the  name  of 

Alfonso    XIII.   who  may 
reiun  in  1903 

Eccle-tifUfticnl  Writrri^:  Picot.  Joseph  d"^  Maistre.  Cardinal  Maury.  Barriiel.  Frayssinous, 
Bausset,  Lamentiais,  Bnyer,  Carrlere.  Gosselin.  Go'isset.  Parisis.  Giier.inger.  Lacordaire, 
Cardinal  Pie.  S('gur.  Pitra.  Perro  le.  Patrizzi.  Tosti.  Aiidisio.  Cuhm.  Ventura.  RosminI, 
Passaglia,  Bnlmes.  Lingard.  Milner.  Cardinal  Wiseman.  Cardinal  M^inning.  Cardinal  New- 
man. Cardinal  Moraii.  (iasquet.  MfPhler.  Theiner.  Hefele.  Cardinal  Hergennpther.    Hurter. 

Councils:  The  Council  of  the  Vatican  (Nineteenth  General).     Atiout  200  others. 

Sectarians  :  Anti-Concordatarians,  Ronge,  Vintras,  Traditionalists,  Socialists,  Natural- 
ists, Satanists,  Fieemasons,  Spiritualists,  Mormons,  "  Old  Catholics." 


493 


UPPLEME.NT. 


THE   IDENTITY    OF   THE    THREE   MAGI.  497 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  IDENTrry  OF  THE  THREE  MAGI  OR  WISE  MEN    OF   THE   EAST.  * 

Such  of  our  readers  as  are  of  Italian  or  German  origin,  or 
who  have  resided  for  any  length  of  time  in  Italy  or  in  the 
Catholic  portions  of  Germany,  must  have  been  impressed  by 
the  devotion  exhibited  in  those  regions  toward  the  Wise  Men 
of  the  East, — those  favored  persons  who  came  from  among 
the  Gentiles  to  adore  the  Expected  of  Nations,  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Clirist,  having  been  notified  of  His  advent 
by  the  appearance  of  a  new  star,  which  their  wisdom  had 
taught  them  to  regard  as  a  sign  that  God  was  about  to  work 
some  prodigy  in  favor  of  fallen  man.  The  devotion  to  th  ft 
Three  Kings,  or  Magi,  is  more  prevalent  in  Italy  and  Ger- 
many than  in  other  regions  of  the  Western  Patriarchate  ;  but 
every  Catholic  student  will  w^elcome  a  few^  reflections  on  the 
condition  of  life,  nationality,  etc.,  of  those  Gentiles  who  werA 
the  first  of  their  kind  to  adore  the  God-Man,  and  who,  there- 
fore, were  our  first  ancestors  in  the  Christian  faith.  We  some- 
times speak  of  these  holy  men  as  the  Three  Kings ;  but  we 
generally  denote  them  by  the  term  "  Magi  "  or  "Wise  Men." 
Now,  the  question  arises  w^hether  these  persons  were  really 
magicians,  as  the  term  "  Magi "  would  seem  to  indicate. 
That  up  to  the  time  of  their  extraordinary  vocation  (for  as 
such  we  may  designate  it)  they  had  been  veritable  sorcerers, 
was  believed  by  St.  Justin  Martyr,  Origen,  St.  Basil,  and  St. 
Jerome.  But  that  they  were  merely  astronomers — or,  as 
more  modern  men  would  say,  scientists, — was  held  by  such 
excellent  judges  as  St.  John  Cbrysostom,  St.  Cyril  of  Alex- 
andria, Theodoret,  and  Pope  St.  Leo  I.  We  know  that  the 
word  magus  was  commonly  used  in  the  East  when  men  spoke 
of  any  very  learned  man  or  philosopher ;  and  hence  Baronio, 
Maldonado,  Calmet,  Gotti,  and  nearly  all  modern  Catholic 
biblicists  reject  the  idea  that  the  Three  Kings  iiad  ever  been 
guilty  of  the  crime  of  sorcery  or  incantation  (1). 

*  This  chapter  appeared  in  The  Ave  Maria.  Vol.  XLU. 

(1)  That  the  word  magus  was  used  by  the  aDciencs  to  signify  a  philosopher  is  clear  from 
Cicero,  In  histreatlse  On  mvmaxion,  Bk.  i.,  ch.  23. 


iytJ  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

It  may  be  asked,  secondly,  whether  the  Magi  were  really 
kings  in  our  sense  of  the  term.  Calvin  and  Beza  denied  the 
royalty  of  the  Wise  Men  ;  and  several  Catholic  critics — e.  g., 
Tillemont,  Baillet,  and  Serry — have  held  the  same  opinion. 
It  is  difficult,  however,  to  resist  the  arguments  of  the  general- 
ity of  Catholic  critics,  led  by  such  authorities  as  Baronio, 
Sponde,  Maldonado,  Sandini,  Onorato  di  Santa  Maria,  and 
Gotti.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  Wise  Men 
were  great  monarchs.  or  even  kings  in  the  ordinary  sense  of 
the  latter  designation.  Every  Scriptural  scholar  knOws 
that  Holy  Writ  frequently  applies  the  term  "  king"  to  the 
ruler  even  of  an  insignificant  village  ;  and  the  classical  stu- 
dent is  aware  that  the  Latin  word  re.r  is  merely  the  correl- 
ative of  7^egere—"  to  rule."  We  need  cite  only  a  few  Script- 
ural passages  in  defence  of  the  position  held  by  most  Cath- 
oli?  polemics  in  the  i^remises.  In  Isaiah,  ch.  49,  we  read  : 
"  Kings  shall  see,  and  princes  shall  rise  up  and  adore  for  the 
Lord's  sake."  The  entire  context  of  this  chapter  indicates 
that  the  j)rophet  is  treating  of  God's  summons  to  the  Gen- 
tiles to  adore  His  Incarnate  Son  ;  and  therefore  exegetists 
unhesitatingly  apply  it  to  the  adoration  of  the  Magi.  The 
same  must  be  said  of  ch.  60,  v.  3  :  "  And  the  Gentiles  shall 
walk  in  Thy  light,  and  kings  in  the  brightness  of  Thy  rising  " ; 
as  well  as  of  Psalm  71,  verse  10  :  "  The  kings  of  the  Arabians 
and  of  Saba  shall  bring  gifts."  Many  of  the  Fathers  of 
the  Church  testify  to  the  royalty  of  the  Wise  Men.  Thus 
TertuUian  tells  us  :  "  Nearly  all  the  East  and  Damascus  had 
kings  for  their  magi  "  (1).  St.  Ambrose  says  :  "  The  Magi 
are  said  to  have  been  kings  "  (2).  About  A.  D.  310  the  poet 
Juvencus  wrote  :  "  These  lords  were  called  Magi ;  and  they 
were  accustomed  to  note  carefully  the  rising  and  the  course 
of  the  stars.  The  said  lords  made  a  long  journey  to  Jeru- 
salem, and  went  before  their  King "  (3).  And  Claudius 
Mamertus  says  :  "  The  Chaldean  kings  brought  their  gifts  to 

(1)  Agaiiist  the  Jews,  ch.  9. 

(2)  In  Homily  on  the  Epiphany. 

(3)  "  Astrorum  solers  ort\tsque  ohitusque  notare, 
Huj^ts  pi-imot'es  nomen  tenuere  Magorum. 
Hinc  lecti  proceres  Solymas  per  hmga  viarura 
Deveniunt,  Regemque  adeunt." 


THE    IDENTITY    OF   THE   THHEE    MAGI.  4i)'J 

Thee  :  myrrh  to  Thee  as  mau,  gohl   to    Tliee    as    kiug,    and 
iuceuse  to  Thee  as  (toiI  "  (1). 

Those  who  eouteiul  that  the  Wise  Men  were  not  kings  rely 
upon  the  silence  of  St.  Matthew  as  to  their  royal  condition  ; 
and  tliis  objection  seems  to  gather  force  when  we  notice  that 
St.  John  is  careful  to  note  that  one  of  the  beneficiaries  of  Our 
Lord  was  the  son  of  a  certain  ruler — rcgnhm  (petty  king). 
But  if  St.  Matthew  does  not  mention  the  regal  dignity  of  the 
Wise  Men,  he  says  nothing  which  would  contradict  it ;  and 
we  may  hold  with  Melchior  Cauus  that  it  was  eminently 
proper  for  the  Evangelist,  wishing  to  obtain  credit  among 
the  Gentiles  for  his  narrative,  to  lay  stress  upon  the  intel- 
lectual calibre  of  the  Magi,  rather  than  upon  their  more  ad- 
ventitious splendor  (2).  Again,  it  is  certain  that  the  con- 
doling friends  of  Job  were  kings  or  rulers ;  but  the  sacred 
text  in  Tobias  does  not  so  term  them.  It  is  urged,  sec- 
ondly, that  Herod  treated  the  Wise  Men  not  as  equals,  but 
as  inferiors.  In  the  supposition  that  they  were  kings,  how 
are  we  to  account  for  the  monarch's  brusqueness  in  telling 
them  to  go  after  accurate  information  as  to  the  whereabouts 
of  the  Divine  -Babe  ?  To  this  objection  it  is  not  necessary 
to  reply  with  Canus  that  Herod  simply  displayed  an  innate 
rutliauliness  on  this  occasion.  The  more  natural  answer  is 
implied  in  the  belief  that  the  Magi  were  reaJly  petty  kings 
or  rulers,  and  therefore  of  dignity  inferior  to  that  of  Herod. 
And  we  must  not  necessarily  discern  an  arrogant  command  in 
the  words  of  the  monarch.  They  ai*e  easily  interpreted  as  : 
"  Do  you  find  this  Messiah.  That  accomplished,  I  also  will 
go  and  adore  him."  A  third  objection  is  made  by  heterodox 
writers,  alleging  that  it  was  only  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury that  Theophylactus,  the  first  to  style  the  Magi  kings, 
flourished.  The  futility  of  this  difficulty  is  shown  by  tlie 
testimonies  of  TertuUian,  St.  Ambrose,  Claudius  Mamertus, 
and  Juvencus,  which  we  have  already  given  ;  and  the  reader 
will  find  additional  evidence  in  the  writings  of  St.  Caesnrius 
and  many  other  Fathers  of  the  Church. 

(1)  "  Dant  Tiln  (VialcUei  prcenuntia  muncra  reges  ; 
Myrrliam  humo,  rex  aurum,  svmciijcthura  Dcus.'^ 

(2)  Theological  Sources,  Bk.  H.,  ch.  5. 


500  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

Ecclesiastical  writers  are  not  accordant  in  their  views  a^  to 
the  nationality  of  the  Magi.  Some  think  that  they  were  Chal 
deans  ;  others  describe  them  as  coming  from  Arabia  Felix : 
while  many  assign  either  Ethiopia,  Mesopotamia  or  India  as 
their  country.  The  most  common  opinion  is  that  iliej  jour 
neyed  from  Arabia  Felix ;  and  certainly,  if  we  reflect  that  Sa- 
ba is  a  part  of  Arabia,  we  shall  find  a  basis  for  that  view  in  the 
words  of  the  royal  psalmist  :  "  The  kings  of  the  Arabians 
and  of  Saba  shall  bring  gifts."  Again,  this  opinion  is 
strengthened  by  Tertullian  (1)  and  by  St.  Justin  Martyr  (2)  ; 
for  both  expressly  pronounce  it.  Finally,  the  gifts  tendered 
by  the  Magi,  especially  the  myrrh  and  incense,  were  such  as 
an  Arab  would  deem  most  appropriate.  But  it  is  urged  that 
the  Magi,  or  Wise  Men,  were  a  monopoly  of  the  Chaldeans. 
This  is  not  correct ;  for  we  read  that  Job  and  his  friends 
were  good  philosophers.  And  St.  Cyril  of  Alexandria  in- 
forms us  that  Pythagoras  and  Porphyrins  went  for  their 
studies  to  Chaldea  and  to  Arabia  (3).  There  is  no  strength  in 
the  allegation  that  the  olden  pictures  and  medals  represent 
the  Magi  as  of  diflbrent  complexions,  and  therefore  as  of 
diverse  nationalities.  In  the  first  place,  the  adduced  fact 
is  not  universal.  In  the  picture  given  by  Papebroch,  copied 
from  very  ancient  rituals,  all  three  kings  are  shown  as  white 
men.  Secondly,  we  know  that  artists  often,  and  sometimes 
righteously,  insist  on  great  latitude  in  regard  to  the  obser- 
vance of  historical  exactness  in  their  compositions.  Now, 
a  diversity  of  costume  in  the  component  figures  of  a  picture 
adds  greatly  to  its  attractiveness  ;  and  how  much  more  im- 
pressiveness  is  obtained  by  the  introduction  of  various  fa- 
cial characteristics !  Finally,  why  should  we  conclude  from 
the  black  visage  of  one  of  the  Magi,  even  though  it  occupied 
a  legitimate  place  in  the  picture,  that  all  three  of  the  adorers 
did  not  come  from  Arabia  ?  Were  there  no  negro  tribes  in 
Arabia  ? 

A  very  interesting  question  is  raised  concerning  the  time 
when  the  Magi  appeared  before  the  Infant  Jesus.  Eusebius 
says  that  the  event  occurred   two    years  after    the    divine 

(1)  Loc.  cit.  (2)  Agaimt  Tiijphon. 

(3)  Against  Julian,  Bk.  x. 


THE    IDENTITY    OF   THE    THUEE    MAGI.  oOi 

l)irth  (1) ;  and  St.  Epiph.-iuius  contends  for  the  same  view  (2). 
Then  the  celebrated  authors  of  the  BoUaudist  Lives  of  the 
Sauifs  placed  the  advent  of  the  Wise  Men  precisely  on  the  first 
anniversary  of  the  birth.  They  hold  also  that  the  guiding 
Star  of  the  Magi  had  appeared  tweuty-oue  mouths  before 
what  they  regarded  as  the  first  Epiphany, — /.  e.,  it  is  said  to 
have  been  created  on  the  day  when  Our  Lady  gave  her  con- 
sent to  the  Incarnation  of  the  Word  in  her  own  bosom  (3). 
And  there  is  still  another  theory  as  to  the  date  of  this  event. 
Tillemout,  Calmet,  Dupiu,  and  Baillet  regard  it  as  having 
occurred  a  little  before  or  a  little  after  the  Purification  of  the 
Blessed  Mother.  However,  there  are  excellent  arguments 
which  seem  to  evince  clearly  that  the  correct  date  of  the  first 
Epiphany  was  the  6th  of  January,  the  thirteenth  day  after 
the  Nativity  of  Christ.  Firstly,  St.  Matthew  narrates  that 
the  Magi  found  Our  Lady  and  the  Blessed  Child  in  Bethle- 
hem ;  but  if  they  had  arrived  in  Bethlehem  one  or  two  years 
after  the  birth  of  Jesus,  they  would  not  have  found  the 
Holy  Family  in  that  village.  When  the  days  of  her 
Purification  were  completed,  Mary,  accompanied  by  St. 
Joseph,  took  her  Divine  Babe  to  Jerusalem,  and  thence  to 
Nazareth  (4).  Secondly,  the  authority  of  St.  Justin  Martyr 
and  St.  Jerome  is  of  great  weight,  especially  in  this  case. 
The  former  says  :  "  Mary  bore  Christ,  and  placed  him  in 
the  Manger,  where  the  Magi,  having  come  from  Arabia, 
found^Him  "  (5).  And  St.  Jerome  writes  :  "  Behold  the  great 
Lord  of  the  earth  born  in  this  little  nook  of  the  earth  ! 
Here  He  was  seen  by  the  Shepherds  ;  here  he  was  adored 
by  the  Magi  "  (6).  Are  we  to  suppose  that  the  Holy  Family 
inhabited  that  stable  for  a  year  or  two  ?  Thirdly,  St.  Mat- 
thew seems  to  indicate  that  the  adoration  of  the  Magi  oc- 
curred immediately  after  our  Saviour's  birth  ;  for  he  says  : 
"  When  Jesus  was  born  .  .  .  behold,  there  came  Wise  Men," 
etc.  This  use  of  the  word  "  behold  "  in  the  circumstances 
shows  that  the  Magi   arrived  very  soon   after   the   glorious 

(I)  Oironicle.  (2)  Hereaifit,  Nos.  30  and  31. 

(3)  Zaccaria  observes  that  Papebroch,  after  having  assigned  the  day  of  the  Annunciation 
as  the  date  of  the  first  appearance  of  the  Star,  anticipates  that  date  by  making  it  concor- 
dant with  the  day  of  the  conception  of  St.  John  the  Baptist. 

(4)  .Sf .  Luke,  ch.  2.  (5)  To  Marcella.  (6)  Loc.  cU. 


502  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

event  ;  for  such  is  its  meaning  in  most  Biblical  passages 
where  we  find  it.  Fourthly,  in  the  Bollandist  supposition, 
the  Star  ought  to  be  styled  the  Star  of  the  Baptist  rather 
than  "  His  Star,"  as  the  Magi  termed  it.  Fifthly',  it  seems 
certain  that  Herod  died  three  months  after  the  nativity  of 
Christ,  and  therefore  the  Bollandist  theory  is  untenable. 

CHAPTEK  II. 

THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  WANDERING  JEW.* 

Few  legends  are  so  pathetic,  none  more  weird,  than  that 
which  we  now  present  for  the  consideration  of  the  student. 
Poems  of  merit  and  entrancing  novels  have  been  based  upon 
it ;  but  the  genius  who  will  do  it  justice  has  yet  to  appear. 
If  it  should  ever  be  taken  in  hand  by  a  thoroughly  Christian 
writer,  one  who  also  possesses  an  accurate  knowledge  of 
ecclesiastical  as  well  as  of  profane  history,  who  is  capable  of 
constructing  dramatic  scenes  in  both  telling  and  simple  form, 
and  who  is  endowed  with  Heaven's  choicest  gift  to  a  knight 
of  the  pen — true  poetic  fire,  then  men  will  enjoy  a  production 
which  will  be  worthy  of  its  subject,  and  which  will  not  be 
ephemeral.  The  apposite  poems  of  Schubert  and  A.  W. 
Schlegel  are  fairly  interesting  ;  but  no  higher  praise  can  be 
accorded  to  them.  They  lose  sight  of  the  main  point  of  the 
legend,  when  they  represent  the  accursed  of  God  as  receiv- 
ing the  boon  of  death.  Goethe  had  designed  to  compose  an 
epic  in  which  he  would  trace  the  travels  of  Ahasuerus,  and 
would  make  of  him  an  experienced  guide  through  the  regions 
of  profane  history  and  into  the  mazes  of  the  history  of 
religion.  But  the  world  has  lost  little  by  Goethe's  abandon- 
ment of  his  project ;  for  little  could  have  been  effected  in 
the  premises  by  one  who  believed,  or,  what  is  worse,  affected 
to  believe,  that  "  beautiful  and  healthy  nature  needs  no  morals 
nor  natural  law  nor  political  metaphysics  ;  and  one  may  add 
that  she  needs  to  take  no  account  of  a  Deity  or  of  an  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  "  (1). 

♦  This  dissertation  appeared  in  the  Ave  Maria.  Vol.  xxxlx. 
(1)  In  a  letter  to  Goethe,  his  friend  Schiller,  once  a  Protestant  but  then  an  atheist,  said 
of  these  views  of  the  master :  "  You  are  rieht." 


THE  LEGEND  OF  THE  WANDERINC.  JEW.        oO.'J 

Tlie  first  Europeau  author  to  sjieak  of  tlie  le<;jeud  of  tlie 
Wandering  Jew  was  the  very  unreliable  English  chronicler 
Matthew  Paris  (often  iucorrectlj  designated  as  Matthew  of 
P(iris),  who,  writing  in  tlie  thirt(^entli  centurv,  tells  us  that 
there  arrived  in  England  in  1229  an  Armenian  archbishop, 
who  gave  to  the  ishiuders  much  interesting  information  con- 
cerning the  Orient.  When  asked  as  to  whether  he  knew  any- 
thing about  a  certain  "  Josepli  "  of  whom  many  strange  re- 
ports had  reached  Britain — for  instance,  that  said  Joseph 
had  been  among  the  living  at  the  time  of  the  Saviour,  and 
had  talked  with  Him, — the  prelate  replied  that  he  had  con- 
versed with  Josepli,  and  that  what  was  narrated  concerning 
the  mysterious  man  was  indubitably  true.  Then,  continues 
Matthew  Paris,  the  dragoman  of  the  archbishop  entered 
into  some  details  about  Joseph.  This  strange  being  had 
dined  with  the  prelate,  and  during  the  repast  had  given  a 
minute  account  of  his  life.  According  to  his  own  words,  he 
had  been  a  janitor  at  the  time  of  the  Passion,  and  was  called 
Calphiirnius.  He  was  standing  at  the  door  of  his  house 
when  Jesus,  after  His  condemnation,  was  led  alouf^  the  street. 
As  Our  Lord  paused  a  little,  Calphurnius  struck  the  Divine 
Victim  on  the  back,  crying  :  "  Walk  on,  Jesus  ;  walk  on  !  " 
The  Saviour  gazed  mournfully  at  the  miserable  man,  and 
said  :  "  I  shall  Avalk  on,  but  thou  shalt  remain  until  I  return." 
In  time  Calphurnius  was  baptized  by  xlnanias,  taking  the 
name  of  Joseph,  and  thenceforth  he  was  a  homeless  wan- 
derer over  the  earth.  Once  in  every  century,  said  the  drag- 
oman, Joseph  falls  into  sickness,  and  becomes  rejuvenated, 
always  appearing  at  the  time  of  recuperation  to  be  thirty 
years  old,  his  age  when  he  insulted  Oar  Lord.  The  next 
mention  of  the  Wandering  Jew  is  in  the  chronicles  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  According  to  DuduhBus  (1),  the  records 
of  that  period  represent  the  iinfortunate  as  appearing  in 
Hamburg  in  1547.  He  was  very  tall  and  emaciated,  and 
in  the  rags  of  a  beggar.  He  told  several  persons  that 
when  Jesus,  wishing  to  rest  at  his  doorway  when  on  the 
road  to  Calvary,  paused  for  a  moment,  he  struck  his  Lord, 

(1)  History  of  a  Jew  Who,  hy  a  Strange  Fatality,  Has  Wandered  Since  the  Time 
of  Ow  Lord  Jesus  Christ.    Hamburg,  16-34. 


504  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

and  then  heard  those  fearful  words  :  "  I  would  have  rested 
here  ;  but  thou  shalt  walk  until  I  return,"  The  involuntary 
pilgrim  was  once  accosted  bj  Paul  Eizen,  afterward  bishop 
of  Schleswig,  while  he  was  praying  in  a  church  at  Hamburg ' 
in  1564: ;  and  then  he  called  himself  Ahasuerus,  and  seemed 
to  be  about  fifty  years  old  (1).  Boulenger  says  that  Ahasue- 
rus was  also  known  as  Gregory  and  as  Buttadeus  (2). 
Dudulaeus  states  that  he  was  seen  in  Naumburg  shortly 
after  his  appearance  in  Hamburg  ;  and  that  he  never  sat 
down,  being  forced  to  a  continuous  walk.  The  same  writer 
naively  remarks  that  Ahasuerus  made  considerable  money 
by  the  recital  of  his  experiences.  In  1616  his  history 
and  portrait  could  be  bought  in  Tourna}-.  He  is  said  to 
have  appeared  in  England  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Colerus,  a  lawyer  of  Lubeck,  says  that  the 
wanderer  displayed,  so  far  as  men  could  judge,  an  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  every  circumstance  of  the  careers  of  the 
various  Apostles  ;  and  that  the  most  learned  professors, 
with  whom  he  frequently  discoursed,  were  astounded  at  his 
apparently  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  events,  trivial 
as  well  as  great,  of  the  past  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 
In  vain  did  they  devise  cunning  traps  in  order  that  he  might 
be  compelled  to  admit  that  he  was  an  impostor  (3).  He 
next  appeared  on  the  Matterhorn  and  in  France  and  Hungary. 
The  narrative  of  the  interview  between  Eizen  and  Ahasuerus 
is  so  interesting,  that  the  reader  will  be  pleased  with  a  brief 
synopsis  (4).  The  alleged  wanderer  said  that  he  belonged  to 
the  Tribe  of  Xephthali  ;  that  his  father  was  a  carpenter,  and 
his  mother  a  seamstress,  employed  at  the  Temple  of  Jeru- 
salem in  embroidering  the  vestments  of  the  Levites.  He  was 
born  in  the  year  of  the  world  3962.  His  father  trained  him 
in  a  knowledge  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  and  taught  him  many 
wonderful  historical  facts,  which  were  all  narrated  in  an 
immense  parchment  volume  which  he  had  inherited  from  his 

(1)  Hedeck  :  Stnru  nfa  Pilgrim  CnlUd  Ahastierttit,  a  Jew  U'hn  Lived  at  the  Time 
of  ttte  Crucinxiim  nf  ChriM,  aiid  Who  is  Said  to  StillWander.    Hamburg,  1681. 

(2)  Historu  of  His  Times.     Paris.  1628. 

(3)  See  Calmet  ;  Bihlicnl  Dictionary,  Vol.  viii.    Paris,  1731. 

(4)  Thilo  :  Histor}/  of  the  Wandei-inij  Jew.  Wittenberg,  1668.— Schcltz  ;  Dissertatior. 
on  the  Immortal  Jew.  Konigsberg.  1668.— Anton  ;  Dissertation  in  ^Vhich  the  Flimsy 
Fable  nf  the  Immortal  Jew  Is  Investigated.    Helmstadt,  1756. 


TIIK     lEGEND    OF   THE    WANDERING    JEW.  505 

jiiKH'sturs.     One  i)f  these  not  generally  known  facts  concerned 
the  death  of  Adam,      When  our  tirst  parent  felt  that  he  was 
about  to  die,  he  sent  Seth  to  the  entrance  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  where  the  Angel  Gabriel  stood  on  guard  with  a  flaming 
sword.     Set! I  was  to  beg  the  Angel  to  allow  Adam  to  look 
once  more  upon  Eden.     The  boy  made  the  request  in  vain  ; 
but  when  he  was  about  to  depart  Gabriel  handed  him  three 
seeds  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  telling  him  that  when  his  father 
was  dead  he  should  place  them  upon  his  tongue,  and  then 
bury  the  body.     So  it  was  done  ;  and  over  the  grave  of  Adam 
soon  appeared  three  beautiful  trees,  from  one  of  which  Moses 
took  the  rod  with  which  he  worked  such  prodigies.     In  time 
these  trees  were  transplanted  to  Jerusalem,  and  as  a  boy 
Ahasuerus  had  often  played  in  their  shade.     It    was  from 
their  wood  that  the  cross  of  Christ  was  made.     The  reader 
should  know  that  among  the  many  beautifulh'    ingenious 
fancies  invented   by  the  vivacious  faith  of  the  Middle  Age 
was  that  of  our  Saviour  dying  on  a  cross  made  from  the 
seed  of  that  tree  which  was  so  fatal  to  the  human  race, — 
from  a  seed  which  had  matured  out  of  the  dust  of  the  mortal 
frames  of  our  first  progenitors.     The  idea  was  carried  even 
further,  our  ancestors  imagining  that  the  cross  was  erected 
over  the  grave  of  Adam  and  Eve,  so  that  the  Sacred  Blood 
drenched  it,  and,  as  it  were,  vivitied  the  ashes  therein  con- 
tained.    As  Ahasuerus  continued  his  tale,  his  hearers  were 
made  acquainted  with  many  details  of  the  mortal  life  of  the 
Son  of  God ;  details  which  in  great  part  he  probably  took 
from  the    apocryphal  Gospels — documents    which,  though 
not  inspired,  are  by  no  means  to  be  utterly  despised  by  the 
historian.      According    to  his  story,  when  Ahasuerus   was 
nine  years  old  his  father  told  him  that  he  had  just  heard  of 
the  arrival  of  three  kings  from  the  Orient,  who  were  seeking 
for  some  royal  Babe  just  born,  whom  they  wished  to  adore. 
The  boy  went  to  see  the  kings,  followed  them  to  the  Manger, 
and  witnessed  their  adoration  of  Jesus.     The  flight  of  the 
Holy  Family  into  Egypt  is  graphically  described.     While 
on  their  journey  they  were  once  captured  by  robbers  and  led 
to  a  cave.     They  were  on  the  point  of  being  despoiled  of 
what  little  property  they  had,  when  the  Divine  Babe  smiled 


506  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTOE\. 

SO  sweetly  on  the  evil  men  that  their  hearts  were  touched, 
and  the  leader  told  the  travellers  lo  go  in  peace.  But  before 
the}^  departed  the  leader's  wife  took  the  little  Jesus  and 
bathed  His  sacred  limbs  ;  then  when  she  had  performed  the 
same  office  for  her  own  child,  who  had  dropsy,  she  found 
the  little  one  suddenly  cured.  The  captain  spoke  to  the 
Infant  Je»us,  saying  that  he  felt  that  He  was  more  than  man, 
and  he  begged  Him  to  pity  his  miserable  life.  That  robber,, 
said  Ahasuerus,  was  afterward  the  Penitent  Thief  of  Calvary. 
Many  other  interesting  incidents  of  the  sojourn  in  Egyjjt 
were  narrated ;  and  if  the  reader  has  opportunity  to  consult 
one  of  the  cited  works,  his  curiosity  will  be  well  repaid. 

When  Ahasuerus  came  to  speak  of  the  Passion  of  Christy 
his  hearers  trembled  with  excitement.  He  gave  quite  a 
minute  account  of  Judas,  saying  that  the  wretch  had  been  a 
thief  and  a  murderer  before  he  followed  our  Saviour.  "  I 
was  standing  at  my  door,"  said  Ahasuerus,  "  when  the  crowd 
which  accompanied  Jesus  to  Calvary  approached.  I  lifted 
up  mj  child,  that  he  might  have  a  good  look  at  the  Victim. 
When  Jesus,  staggering  under  the  great  weight  of  the  cross, 
had  arrived  in  front  of  us,  he  stopped  as  though  He  would 
like  to  rest.  '  Away  with  you  from  my  door  ! '  cried  I.  '  No 
ribald  shall  rest  here.'  Then  Jesus  directed  a  sorrowful 
glance  upon  me  and  said  :  '  I  go,  and  shall  find  repose ;  but 
thou  shalt  travel  and  find  no  rest.  Thou  shalt  walk  while  the 
world  is  the  world  ;  and  then  thou  shalt  behold  Me  on  My 
throne  at  the  right  hand  of  My  Father,  when  I  judge  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel  who  are  now  about  to  crucify  Me.'  I  put  away 
my  boy  and  followed  Jesus.  The  first  person  whom  I  met  was 
Yeronica,  who  was  just  approaching  to  wipe  the  perspiration 
from  Christ's  holy  face.  As  you  know,  the  imprint  of  His  feat- 
ures was  fixed  upon  the  towel.  Then  I  saw  Mary  and  other 
weeping  women.  A  workman  was  carrying  a  hammer  and 
some  nails  very  near  to  us,  and  I  seized  one  of  the  nails,  and 
thrusting  it  directly  under  tiie  eyes  of  the  Mother  of  Jesus, 
I  gloatingly  cried  :  '  Look,  woman  !  This  is  one  of  the  nails 
which  will  fasten  thy  Son  to  the  cross.'  Then  came  the 
crucifixion."  Ahasuerus  narrated  its  details,  and  described 
the  convulsions  of  nature  sympathizing  with  its  outraged 


THE   LEGEND   OF  THE    WANDEKING  JEW.  507 

God.  When  Christ  had  expired  "  Longiuus  pierced  His  side 
with  a  hiuce,  aud  the  Sacred  Blood  flowed  to  the  grouud, 
was  soaked  in,  aud  bathed  the  ashes  of  Adam  aud  Eve,  who 
were  there  buried."  Ahasuerus  now  cast  a  mournful  look  on 
Jerusalem  aud  begau  his  travels.  "  I  knew  not  whither  I 
was  goiug ;  I  crossed  high  mountains,  aud  could  not  pause- 
Even  now,  gentlemen,  while  I  am  talking  to  you,  I  feel  as 
though  I  were  standing  on  hot  coals.  If,  bj  chance,  I  sit 
down  for  a  moment,  my  legs  seem  to  be  moving."  He  tells 
how  he  journeyed  for  an  entire  century  before  he  saw  Jeru- 
salem again;  how  he  yearned  for  death,  for  all  relatives, 
frieuds,  and  even  acquaintances  were  gone.  He  soon  started 
again  on  his  mournful  journey,  and  ere  long  he  began  a 
series  of  attempts  to  lose  his  life.  He  fought  in  many  bat- 
tles, receiving  thousands  of  apparently  deadly  strokes  ;  but 
he  could  not  even  be  wounded,  for  "  his  body  was  hard  as  a 
rock  and  impenetrable  by  mortal  weapon."  Many  a  time  he 
suffered  shipwreck,  but  he  could  not  drown  :  "  he  walked  on 
the  waves  or  floated  like  a  feather."  He  sometimes  ate,  but 
he  needed  no  food.  He  never  had  serious  illness.  When 
Ahasuerus  arose  to  depart,  Eizen  oflfered  him  money,  but  he 
refused  it  as  something  to  him  entirely  superfluous.  He 
needed  no  food,  he  insisted  ;  and  as  for  shoes  aud  clothes,, 
they  never  wore  out.  That  many  persons,  during  the  course 
of  the  Christian  era,  have  claimed  to  be  this  mysterious  in- 
dividual is  as  certain  as  any  fact  of  history  ;  but  few  of  the 
claimants  seem  to  have  so  favorably  impressed  men  with  an 
idea  of  their  veracity  as  did  this  Ahasuerus  of  Wittenberg. 
One  account  says  that  the  bishop  of  Schleswig  was  preach- 
ing, by  invitation  of  Eizen,  afterward  his  successor  in  the 
cathedral  of  Wittenberg,  when  he  observed  beneath  the  pul- 
pit an  old  white-bearded  man,  who  struck  his  breast  and 
groaned  painfully  whenever  the  name  of  our  Saviour  was 
mentioned.  The  good  prelate,  thinking  that  the  poor  man 
might  be  in  sore  need  of  spiritual  succor,  sent  a  servant  to 
invite  him  into  the  episcopal  residence  after  the  service. 
For  a  long  time  the  stranger  refused  to  give  any  account  of 
himself,  but  finally  he  was  influenced  by  the  cordiality  of 
the  host  ;  and  joining  the  company  at  dinner,  he  manifested 
his  identity. 


508  STUDIES   IN    CHUECH    HISTORY. 

In  T602  there  was  issued  at  Leipsic  a  popular  history  of 
the  Wandering  Jew  (1),  in  which  it  was  declared  that  thia 
Ahasuerus  led  the  Magi  to  Bethlehem,  that  he  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  St.  John  the  Baptist,  that  he  had  talked  with 
Judas,  and  that  he  had  helped  to  make  the  cross  on  which 
Our  Lord  was  nailed.      Quite  naturally,  among  the  writers 
who  speak  of  this  Ahasuerus  or  Calphurnius  there  is  a  great 
diversity  of  opinion  as  to    the  genuineness  of  his    claims. 
Matthew  Paris  entertains  no  doubt  of  his  veracity.     Dudu- 
leeus,  Hedeck,  and  others  of  the  seventeenth  century,  show 
some  hesitancy.     Bartholin  thinks  that  the  presumed  Jew 
may  have  been  an  emissary  of  Satan.     Boulenger  dismisses 
the  legend  with  :  "  Credat   Judceus   Apella  ;  iion  ego !  "     It 
is  noteworthy  that  most  of  the  consideration  accorded  to  this 
legend  has  been  given  by  very  incredulous  parties — namely, 
German  Protestants  ;  and  that  the  wanderer  is  said  to  have 
manifested  himself  in  Teutonic  lands  in  every  instance  but 
two.      But  long  before  European  imaginations  began  to  be 
affected  by  ^hia  weird  and  improbable  tale,  it  had  circulated 
widely  in  the  East.     According    to  Herbelot,  the  Arabs  of 
the  seventh  century  were  wont  to  narrate  how,  in  the  sixteenth 
year  of  the  Hegira,  one  of  their  princes,  Fadhil  by  name, 
having  penetrated  into  a  lonely  valley  to  perform  his  devo- 
tions, heard  each  one  of  his  prayers  repeated  by  some  invisible 
personage.  He  exclaimed  :  "  If  thou  who  repeatest  my  pray  era 
art  an  angel,  may  the  favor  of  Allah  remain  with  thee  !     But 
if  thou  art  from  the  Evil  One,  I  want  nothing  to  do  with  thee  I 
And  if  thou  art  a  man,  show  thyself."     Then  there  came  forth 
a  venerable,  bald-headed  man,  who  appeared  to  be  a  dervish^ 
and  who  leaned  heavily  upon  a   staff.     Addressing  Fadhil,, 
this  personage  said  :  "  I  am  Zerib,  son  of  the  Prophet  Elias. 
Jesus  Christ  ordered  me  to  remain  in  this  life  until  His  second 
coming.     Even  since  that  day  I  have   been  waiting  for  the 
Lord,  the  Source  of  every  good."     We  must  here  note  that 
this  phrase  would  indicate  that  the  legend  was  not  of  Moham- 
medan  manufacture  ;  for  no   good   Islamite  could  give  to 
Jesus  a  title  which  belongs  only  to  God,  since,  according  to 

(1 )  Witnderful  Story  of  a  Jew  Born  in  JcrvMkm,  and  Called  Ahasuerus,  Who  Pre 
tended  to  Have  Been  Present  at  the  Crucifixion  of  Christ.    First  Printed  in  Leyden. 


THE    LEGEND   OF  THE   WANDEIUNG    JEW.  509 

his  faith,  Jesus  .lud  His  Apostles,  like  Abraham,  were  good 
Moslems, — that  is,  children  of  Islam — the  religion  of  trust 
in  God.  Jesus,  according  to  Mohammed,  was  the  tirst  among 
the  prophets,  and  he  (Mohammed)  continued  His  work. 
Jesus  is  to  come  again  upon  earth,  says  the  Koran  ;  and 
therein  the  apparition  talks  like  an  Islamite,  but  none  save 
a  Christian  would  term  Jesus  the  Source  of  all  good.  Prob- 
ably the  Arabs  derived  the  legend  from  Eastern  Christians. 
Prince  Fadhil  is  said  to  have  asked  when  Jesus  would  come 
again  upon  earth,  and  Zerib  replied  :  "  When  men  and 
women  shall  live  promiscuously,  without  distinction  of  sex  ; 
when  abundance  of  food  does  not  prevent  famine  ;  when  the 
blood  of  innocents  shall  be  shed  ;  when  the  poor  beg  and  re- 
ceive no  alms  ;  when  mercy  shall  have  vanished  from  the 
earth  ;  when  the  Sacred  Scriptures  shall  be  set  to  music  ; 
when  the  temples  of  the  One  and  True  God  shall  be  tilled 
with  idols."  If  any  of  our  readers  credit  this  legend,  they 
will  probably  find  in  the  prophecy  of  Zerib  an  indication 
that  the  days  of  Antichrist  are  already  upon  us.  At  any  rate, 
the  Arabs  found  in  the  prediction  a  description  of  the  time 
when  the  Last  Judgment  would  be  imminent.  It  is  strange, 
however,  that  gross  as  Mohammedan  ignorance  was  then, 
and  has  ever  been,  it  was  not  perceived  that  the  story  of 
Zerib  asserted  an  anachronism  in  its  assignment  of  a  son  of 
Elias  to  the  time  of  Christ.  But  such  was  the  legend  of  the 
Wandering  Jew  as  it  was  credited  in  the  East  twelve  cen- 
turies ago.  That  the  story  was  accepted  hy  many  Christians 
as  well  founded  in  its  essential  features,  is  not  at  all  surpris- 
ing ;  for  probably  it  was  regarded,  when  it  first  originated,  as  a 
mere  allegory,  illustrative  of  the  condition  of  the  Jewish  people 
since  their  final  dispersion — scattered  over  the  earth,  deprived 
of  their  national  existence,  and  immovably  obstinate  in  their 
rejection  of  Christianity.  In  Joseph,  Ahasuerus  and  Zerib 
was  recognized  the  Jewish  race,  bearing  the  consequences  of 
their  self-imprecation  :  "  His  Blood  be  upon  us  and  upon  our 
children ! "  Destined  to  subsist,  as  testimonies  to  Christ 
and  His  Church,  until  time  is  no  more,  the  Jews,  according 
to  some  Fathers,  are  to  be  reconciled  with  God  at  the  end  of 
the  world.     Ahasuerus,  therefore,  was   represented  as   ex- 


510  STUDIES    IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

pecting  the  end  of  liis  puuishment  to  arrive  when  Jesus  would 
ascend  His  judgment  throne.  To  us,  and  probably  to  most 
Christians,  the  most  interesting  point  to  be  debated  in 
this  legend  is  the  implication  that  the  Jewish  people,  as  the 
end  of  the  world  approaches,  will  recognize  Jesus  as  their 
Messiah  and  their  God. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

THE  ALLEGED  IDOLATRY  OF  POPE  ST.  MARCELLINUS. 

Writing  to  the  Emperor  Michael  in  the  year  865,  Pope 
Nicholas  I.  said  :  "  In  the  reign  of  the  sovereigns  Diocletian 
and  Maximian,  Marcellinus,  Bishop  of  the  city  of  Kome, 
who  afterward  became  an  illustrious  martyr,  was  so  per- 
secuted by  the  Pagans  that  he  entered  one  of  their  temples, 
and  there  offered  incense.  Because  of  this  act,  an  inquiry 
was  held  by  a  number  of  bishops  in  Council,  and  the  Pontiff 
confessed  his  fall."  Platiua  amplifies  the  reputed  fact  with 
these  details  :  "  When  Pope  Marcellinus  was  threatened  by 
the  executioners,  he. yielded  to  fear,  offered  incense  to  the 
idols,  and  adored  them.  But  when,  soon  afterward,  a  Coun- 
cil of  180  bishojjs  met  in  Sinuessa,  a  city  of  Terra  di  Lavoro, 
Marcellinus  appeared  in  the  assembly  clothed  in  sackcloth, 
and  begged  the  synodals  to  impose  upon  him  a  penance,  be- 
cause of  his  infidelity.  But  no  member  of  the  Council  dared 
to  condemn  him,  all  declaring  that  St.  Peter  had  sinned 
similarly,  and  had  merited  pardon  by  his  tears  "  (1).  Bel- 
larmine  admits  the  sin  of  St.  Marcellinus,  and  the  demand 
for  pardon  at  Sinuessa,  contenting  himself  with  a  refutation 
of  the  conclusions  drawn  b}'  heretics  from  the  presumed 
fact  (2).  And  also  Baronio,  although  he  had  been  the  first 
to  question  the  genuineness  of  the  Acts  of  Sinuessa,  and 
consequently  the  truth  of  the  charge  against  St.  Marcel- 
linus, thought  that  he  served  the  cause  of  historical  truth 
when,  in  his  second  edition,  he  said  of  the  arguments  which 
militated  for  the  innocence  of  the  Pontiff  :  "  Although  they 

(1)  Lives  of  the  Pontiffs.    Venice,  1674. 

(2)  Roman  Pontiff,  Bk.  il.,  ch.  36  ;  iv..  6  and  8. 


THE  ALLEGED  IDOLATRY  OF  POPE  ST.  MARCELLINUS.  611 

appear  to  be  weighty,  we  do  not  tiud  them  sufficiently  strong 
to  demonstrate  the  entire  falsity  of  the  Acta."  And  strange 
to  say,  even  the  Bollandists,  although  they  afterward  changed 
their  opinion  (1),  at  one  time  averred  the  weakness  of  the 
Pontift'  (2).  When  such  Catholic  authorities  as  these  en- 
couraged them,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  rank  and  file 
of  Protestant  polemics,  beginning  with  the  Centuriators 
of  Magdeburg,  exultantly  proclaimed  the  idolatry  of  St. 
Marcellinus,  especially  as  they  regarded  the  alleged  fall  as 
an  argument  against  Papal  Infallibility  ;  being  unaware,  or 
perhaps  feigning  not  to  know,  that  this  special  prerogative 
of  the  Roman  See  does  not  imply  any  personal  impeccability 
on  the  part  of  the  Pontiff.  However,  one  of  the  most  em- 
inent of  these  Protestant  polemics,  Samuel  Basuage,  having 
perceived  that  the  guilt  of  St.  Marcellinus  could  be  evinced 
only  by  an  acceptation  of  the  Acts  of  Sinurssa  as  genuine, 
was  constrained  by  a  fear  of  the  teachings  of  those  Acts  to 
denounce  the  incriminating  story  as  a  mere  fable.  The  pre- 
sumed Acts  had  declared  that  "  The  first  See  can  be  judged 
by  no  one  " — a  doctrine  which  the  zealous  Protestant  rec- 
ognized as  much  more  to  be  feared  by  the  children  of  the 
Eeformation  than  an  unwilling  admission  of  the  innocence 
of  the  accused  Pontiff;  therefore  he  reluctantly  avowed: 
"The  story  is  a  fable  ;  the  Acts  of  Sinuessa  are  also  fab- 
ulous "  (3). 

Among  Catholic  authors  who  have  combatted  the  gen- 
uineness of  the  Acts  of  Sinuessa,  and  who  therefore  have 
denied  the  idolatry  of  St.  Marcellinus,  the  first  place  must 
be  accorded  to  the  illustrious  Galilean  historian,  Noel 
Alexandre,  whose  natural  predilections  could  not  prevent 
him  from  discerning  the  contradictions  and  absurdities  pre- 
sented in  the  Acts  of  Sinuessa.  That  other  eminent  cory- 
phee of  Gallicanism,  Claude  Fleury,  is  silent  in  the  matter  ; 
therefore  as  it  was  the  interest  of  his  school  to  make  known 
every  instance  of  Pontifical  weakness,  we  may  conclude  that 
this  historian  also  discredited  the  melancholy  story.  Amat 
de  Graveson  deems  the  tale  "  a  badly  constructed  fable  "  (4). 

(1)  When  treating  of  the  month  of  May.  (2)  At  April  20. 

(3)  PoUtico-EccleiiiOMtical  Annals.    Amsterdam.  1692. 

(4)  Ecclesiastical  History,  Dialogue  ii.  on  Cent.  V.    Venice.  1761. 


512  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

Cardiual  Noris  (1),  Francis  Anthony  Zaccaria  (2),  Cardinal 
Orsi  (3),  and  Audisio  (4),  find  that  it  does  not  stand  the  test 
of  historical  criticism.     Why  the  more  recent  Catholic  his- 
torians, Palma  and  Alzog,  should  have  ignored  the  question 
is  incomprehensible  ;  but  a  still  later  Catholic  scholar   of 
eminence,  the  late  Cardinal  Galimberti,  while  he  was  filling 
the  chair  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  Urban  College  of 
the   Propaganda,    published    an    exhaustive    monogram    in 
which  he  may  be  said  to  have  pronounced  the  last  word  in 
defence    of  Fope    Marcellinus  (5),     clearly    evincing    that 
throughout  the  whole  of  his  career  the  Pontiff  was  integer 
vUa\  scelerisque  2nirm.       Certainly  none  of  the  writers  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries  have  any  words  of  condemnation 
for  this  saint ;  whereas,  on  the  contrary,  Theodoret  (386-457) 
expressly  qualifies  him  as  "  one  who  was  illustrious  under 
persecution — eum  qui  jjersecuiioius  lempore   incIaruW  (6). 
Are  we   to  suppose  that   Theodoret  would   have   assigned 
fidelity  under  persecution  as  a  characteristic  of  a  pontificate 
which  had  unfaithfulness  for  its  most  striking  feature  ?     And 
how  is  it  that  no  contemporary  or  quasi-contemporary  of  our 
Pontiff  even  alludes  to  an  event  which,  from  its  very  nature, 
was  of  transcendent  interest  to  Christendom,  if  it  had  really 
happened  ?     Not  a  word  of  this  accusation  was  heard  until 
the  Donatists,  like  all  heretics,  wishing  to  debase  the  au- 
thority which  had  striken  them  with  anathema,  declared  that 
Pope  Melchiades  was  not  to  be  obeyed,  because  he  had  re- 
ceived Orders  from  the  Pope  Marcellinus  "  who  had  fallen  in- 
to idolatry."     To  this  calumny  St.  Augustine  replied  :  "  What 
necessity  is  there  for  refuting  the  incredible  calumnies  which 
he  (Petilianus)  urges  against  the  bishops  of  the  Koman  See  ? 
He  charges  that  Marcellinus  and  his  priests,  Melchiades, 
Marcellus,  and  Sylvester,  were  wicked  and  sacrilegious  men, 
who  had  delivered  the  holy  books  (to  the  persecutors),  and 

(1)  History  of  the  DonatUts.    Venire,  1690. 

(3)  Collection  of  Dissertations  on  Ecclesiastical  History.    Rome,   1790.    Anti-Feb- 
bronio.    Pesaro,  1767. 
0)  Ecclesiastical  H'lstory,  Bk.  ii.,  ch.  41.    Rome,  1746. 
f4)  Religious  and  Civil  History  of  the  Popes.    Rome,  1880. 

(5)  Apology  for  Pope  Marcellimis.    Rome,  1876. 

(6)  "  Sylvester  was  the  successor  of  that  Miltiades  who  ruled  the  Church  after  that  Mar= 
cellinus  who  was  ilhistrious  under  persecution."    Ecclesiastical  History,  Bk.  1.,  ch.  3. 


THE   ALLEGED    IDOLATBY   OF  TOrK  ST.    MARCELLINUS.       613 

hi,d  offered  iucense  (to  the  idols).  /  reply  that  these  men 
'vere  innocriif  ;  auii  why  should  I  work  to  prove  the  truth 
j[  n.y  assertiou,  when  he  has  uot  tried  iu  the  least  to  support 
his  accusatiou  ?  "  (1).  A^aiu,  the  most  ancient  documents 
adduced  in  proof  of  the  idolatry  of  St.  Marcelliuus  seem  to 
bear  upon  their  face  evidence  of  their  unreliability  iu  this 
matter — evidence,  that  is,  of  interpolation.  These  doc- 
uments are  the  Pontifical  Book  and  its  prol)able  parent,  the 
Second  Catalogue  of  the  Popes,  in  both  of  which  we  read  : 
"  Marcellinus  was  led  to  a  temple,  and  ordered  to  offer  in- 
cense ;  and  he  complied.  But  after  a  few  days,  he  repented, 
and  was  beheaded  for  the  faith  of  Christ  by  the  same  Dio- 
cletian." Now,  as  Beucini  observes  in  his  commentary  on 
Anastasius  the  Librarian,  whom  some  mediieval  writers 
credited  with  the  authorship  of  the  Pontifical  Book,  Diocle- 
tian could  not  have  been  in  Rome  at  the  time  of  the  martyr- 
dom of  St.  Marcellinus.  Rel3ang  on  the  testimony  of  Lac- 
tantius,  who  was  "  probably  at  that  time  in  Rome,"  Beucini 
finds  that  Diocletian  came  to  Rome  for  the  vicennalia  which 
were  to  be  celebrated  on  the  Twelfth  of  the  Kalends  of 
December,  303  ;  and  that  "  when  the  vicennalia  had  been 
celebrated,  Diocletian,  unable  to  bear  the  arrogance  of  the 
Roman  people,  suddenly  rushed  from  the  city  just  before  the 
Kalends  of  January,  when  the  consulate  was  to  be  re-ten- 
dered to  him.  This  circumstance  not  having  been  remem- 
bered by  the  inventor  of  the  guilt  of  Marcellinus,  he  ruined 
the  value  of  his  Jets  of  Sinaessa  " — that  is,  since  it  is  certain 
that  St.  Marcellinus  received  his  palm  on  April  26,  304,  he 
could  not  have  been  condemned  by  an  emperor  who  was  not 
in  Rome.  However,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  arrest 
and  execution  of  the  Pontiff  might  have  been  effected  by  the 
orders  of  even  an  absent  emperor  ;  therefore  we  abandon 
this  line  of  argument,  and  turn  our  attention  to  the  question 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  Acts  of  Siiuiessa,  upon  the  solution 
of  which  depends  absolutely  and  entirely  that  of  the  guilt  or 
innocence  of  St.  Marcellinus. 

(I)  "Ego  inrwce^itefi  fuisxe-  re.s)xtnden.  QuidUiborrm  prnharc  dcfcimoncm  mtam. 
cum  Gle  ti€c  tenuiter  probare  conattm  Kit  aocwiaiinnem  ntam  ?  "  In  book  on  One  Bai> 
fii(m.  ch.  16. 


514  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Wlio  can  believe,  if  lie  is  conversant  with  the  circumstances 
of  Christendom  during  the  reign  of  Diocletian,  that  a  Coun- 
cil of  180  bishops,  as  Platina  alleges,  or  of  300,  as  The  Ads  of 
Sinnessa  pretend,  could  have  met  in  any  city  of  the  empire  ? 
Even  at  the  Council  of  Nice,  when  peace  had  been  given  to 
the  Church,  when  her  prelates  and  priests  were  protected 
and  aided  by  the  imperial  authority,  only  308  synodals  an- 
swered to  their  names.  Elsewhere  we  have  descanted  on  the 
horrors  and  the  universality  of  the  persecution  under  Dio- 
cletian (1)  ;  here  let  it  sufl&ce  to  say  with  Lactantius  :  "  The 
entire  world  was  tormented  ;  from  East  to  West  three  fero- 
cious beasts  hunted  for  prey . . .  the  emperor  (Diocletian) 
raged  not  only  against  his  own  household,  but  against  all. 
. . .  Priests  and  assistants  were  seized,  and  without  trial  were 
led  to  execution. . . .  Persons  of  every  age  and  sex  were 
thrust  into  the  flames,  not  merely  one  at  a  time,  for  so  great 
was  the  multitude  that  they  were  collected  into  a  heap,  and 
fire  built  around  them  "  (2).  It  has  been  said  that  bishops 
from  Africa  might  easily  have  crossed  for  a  Council  into  Italy ; 
but  we  know  from  Optatus  of  Milevi  that  "  the  tempest  raged 
through  the  whole  of  Africa,  making  martyrs  of  some,  con- 
fessors of  others  "  (3).  And  if  African  bishops  went,  in  any 
number,  how  comes  it  that  no  memory  of  such  a  Council 
subsisted  in  Africa  in  the  days  of  St.  Augustine,  when  there 
certainly  lived  many,  w^hose  fathers  had  been  contemporary 
with  the  great  assembly  ?  Many  historians,  among  whom  it 
seems  strange  to  perceive  Baronio,  Pagi,  and  Basnage,  find 
an  argument  against  the  genuineness  of  the  Acts  of  Sinnessa 
in  a  supposition  that  such  a  city  as  Sinnessa  never  existed ; 
but  unfortunately  for  one  who  would  expect  to  solve  the 
present  question  in  summary  style,  the  existence  of  Sinnessa 
is  known  by  every  careful  student  of  Livy  and  of  Martial  (4), 
and  Ughelli  demonstrates  that  it  was  an  episcopal  city,  two 
of  its  bishops,  whom  he  identifies,  having  been  crowned  with 

(1)  In  our  Vol.  i.,  p.  56,  et  scqq.  (2)  Deaths  of  the  Persecutors,  ch.  19,  et  seqq. 

(3)  Against  Parmeniaii,  Bk.  i. 

(4)  Liyy  tells  us  (Bk.  X.,  ch.  31)  that  the  city  of  Sinope,  a  Greek  foundation,  Falernutn 
contingente  agrum,  was  termed  Sinuessa  by  the  Romans ;  and  Strabo  (Bk.  V.)  says  that 
the  latter  name  was  given  to  it  because  it  was  in  the  heart,  in  siini,  of  the  Vescino. 
Martial  praises  the  wine  of  Sinuessa  in  his  Bk.  XIII..,  Epigram  3. 


THE  ALLEGED  IDOLATIJY  OF  I'OrE  8T.  MAIU  ELLINUS.         515 

martyrdom  (1).  However,  as  (xaliiuberti  roinarks,  if  ge- 
ograpliy  does  not  c(}udemu  the  Acts  of  Si)itiessa,  clirou- 
ology  will  etiect  the  purpose.  The  presumed  Acts  assert  : 
"  Wliile  Diocletian  was  engaged  iu  the  Persian  War,  he  heard 
that  300  bishops,  thirty  priests,  and  three  deacons,  had 
united  iu  the  oue  condemnation  ;  and  that  Marcellinus  him- 
self, first  of  all,  agreed  in  his  own  anathematization  by  his 
own  subscription  to  the  decree.  Then  Diocletian  became 
furious,  and  sent  (officers)  to  that  city. . .  and  Marcellinus 
was  condemned  snojudicio  on  the  Tenth  of  the  Kalends  of 
September."  Now  it  is  certain,  firstly,  that  Maximian,  not 
Diocletian,  then  ruled  at  Rome  and  in  the  contiguous  regions ; 
secondly,  that  all  the  ancient  Martyrologies  contradict  the 
assertion  that  Marcellinus  was  condemned  in  September  ; 
and  thirdly,  which  at  once  subverts  the  authority  of  the  Acts, 
that  the  Persian  War  had  been  terminated  either  in  301  or 
iu  302,  two  years  or  thereabout  before  the  alleged  idolatry, 
the  alleged  anathematization,  and  the  martyrdom  of  St. 
Marcellinus.  How  could  Diocletian  have  "  raged  against 
Marcellinus,"  arrested,  and  condemned  him,  while  the  em- 
peror "  was  engaged  in  the  Persian  War,"  since,  according 
to  Eusebius,  it  was  only  after  that  war  that  the  sovereigns, 
having  met  in  Nicomedia,  issued  the  decree  of  persecution 
which  overwhelmed  our  Pontiff?  This  anachronism  alone 
must  suffice  to  prove  that  the  Acts  of  Sinuessa  are  forgeries  ; 
but  it  will  be  interesting  and  profitable  to  examine  the  ab- 
surdities, of  which  they  are  redolent — absurdities  which 
caused  Le  Nain  de  Tillemont  to  say  :  "  The  way  in  which 
Marcellinus  talks  in  these  Acts  ;  the  lie  that  he  utters  when 
he  denies  his  crime,  and  the  terms  that  he  uses  when  he  con- 
fesses that  crime  ;  are  all  less  like  the  lamentations  of  a 
sincere  penitent,  than  they  are  like  the  foolish  excuses  of  a 
schoolboy  who  is  about  to  be  whipped." 

The  following  are  the  words  with  which  the  presumed 
Acts  describe  the  alleged  crime  of  our  Pontiff  :  "  Then  Dio- 
cletian deemed  it  prudent  to  shower  blandishments  on  Mar- 
cellinus ;  and  his  caressing  language  succeeded  so  well,  that 
he  was  able  to  lead  the  Pontiff  to  the  Temple  of  Vesta. 

(1)  These  bishops  were  Sts.  Castus  and  Secundiniis.    Sacred  Italy.    Veiiiee,  1717. 


516  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

He  was  accompanied  by  two  deacons,  Cains  and  Innocentius , 
and  by  three  priests,  Urbanus,  Castorius,  and  Juvenalis. 
When  these  had  seen  Marcellinus  enter  the  temple,  but  be- 
fore he  had  offered  incense,  tiiej  went  away,  and  proceeding 
to  the  Vatican,  they  informed  their  priestly  colleagues  as  to 
what  they  had  seen.  In  the  meantime,  many  Christians 
who  had  entered  the  temple,  in  order  to  see  what  was  being 
done,  beheld  Marcellinus  offering  incense."  And  this 
pontifical  renegade,  succumbing  to  an  oily  tongue,  is  the 
"  Marcellinus  who  was  illustrious  under  persecution  "  ;  the 
same  who  "  confirmed  the  faith  of  the  soldiers  of  the 
Theban  Legion,  so  that  they  might  rather  die  under  the 
sword,  than  deny  the  holy  faith  of  Christ  which  they  had 
embraced  !  "  (1).  But  can  we  believe  that  in  the  height  of 
the  persecution  of  Diocletian,  many  Christians  left  their 
hiding-places,  and  visited  a  pagan  temple,  the  home  of 
"  those  false  gods  who  were  demons,"  in  order  to  witness 
a  denial  of  the  faith  by  one  of  themselves  ?  All  of  those  Chris- 
tians, whom  the  inventor  of  the  Acts  of  Sinuessa  re-presentB 
as  yielding  to  a  curiosity  "  to  see  what  was  being  done  "  in 
one  of  the  sanctuaries  of  the  foul  deities  whom  they  both 
contemned  and  hated,  proclaimed  with  Tevtullian  :  "  If  we 
keep  our  throats  and  stomachs  clean,  how  much  more 
should  we  keep  far  from  our  eyes  and  ears  all  idolatrous 
pleasures — things  that  are  not  merely  taken  into  our  intes- 
tines, but  are  digested  in  our  very  souls,  the  cleanliness  of 
which  God  desires  more  than  that  of  our  bodies  ?  "  (2).  But 
listen  to  the  Ads  as  they  present  what  purports  to  be  a 
-Chapter  on  "  The  Synod,  and  the  Denial  of  His  Idolatry  by 
Marcellinus  "  :  "  The  synod  met,  but  all  the  clergy  had  not 
assembled,  because  of  the  persecution  then  in  vigor.  Marcel- 
linus having  entered,  he  denied  that  he  had  offered  incense." 
We  are  not  told  the  authority  by  which  this  synod  was  called. 
And  why  is  a  stress  laid  on  the  absence  of  many  because 
of  the  persecution  ?  Certainly,  if  there  were  300  bishops 
present,  it  was  a  very  respectable  convention.  But  how  did 
those  300  prelates,  from  so  many  interdistant  dioceses,  man- 
age to  travel  safely  in  that  direful   time  ?     Then    we   hear  ,• 

(1)  BOLLANDiSTS  ;  Acts  of  the  Saints,  al  Sept.  22.  (2)  On  Spectacles,  ch.  13. 


THE  ALLECtEI)  IDOLATUY  OF  I'Ol'E  ST.    MAIUEIJJNIH.         ol? 

"  Fourteeu  wituesses  entereil,  untl  saiil :  "  We  saw  tliee 
(Marcelliuus)  oftering  iuceuse  to  Hercules,  Jupiter,  and 
Saturn."  The  forger  showed  iu  this  passage  that  he  knew 
nothing  about  the  pagan  liturgy ;  for  the  temple  in  (piestion 
was  dedicated  to  Vesta,  and  no  worship  of  other  deities 
would  have  been  tolerated  in  it.  "  When  was  it,"  the  Pon- 
tifl"  is  represented  as  asking  the  witnesses,  "  that  you  saw 
me  ofi'ering  incense  ?  "  The  reply  is  given  as  :  "  On  the 
day  when  3011  discarded  your  purple  garments,  and  donned 
scarlet  ones,  Diocletian  thereupon  rejoicing."  If  the  read- 
er believes  that  iu  that  day,  and  even  in  a  time  of  persecu- 
tion, a  Roman  Pontitl'  wore  distinctive  robes  of  purple,  he 
will  not  smile  at  this  passage.  We  are  told  that  when  con- 
jured to  reph'  truly  to  his  accusers,  Marcelliuus  protested  : 
"  I  did  not  sacrifice  to  the  gods  ;  1  simply  placed  some  grains 
of  incense  on  the  fire."  Can  it  be  supposed  that  a  Koman 
Pontiff,  a  priest  necessarily  accpiainted  with  the  story  of 
Ezechiel  and  the  prohibited  food,  would  proffer  such  a  puer- 
ile explanation  to  an  assembly  of  three  hundred  Christian 
prelates?  Finally,  say  the  Acts,  when  the  Pontiff  was 
exhorted  to  judge  in  his  own  cause — "  thou  shalt  be  con- 
demned by  your  own  judgment,  not  by  ours,"  he  threw 
himself  on  the  ground,  and  :  "  As  he  remained  there  pros- 
trate and  hesitating,  they  condemned  him."  Then  it  is 
said  that  soon  afterward  "  Marcellinus,  Bishop  of  the  city 
of  Borne,  exclaimed  in  a  loud  voice  :  '  I  have  sinned  in  your 
sight,  and  I  ought  not  to  remain  in  the  priestly  order  (?), 
for  I  have  been  corrupted  by  gold  '  ;  whereupon  they  signed 
his  condemnation,  and  expelled  him  from  the  city.  Bishop 
Melchi<!.des  was  the  first  to  sign  this  condemnation  ;  and  he 
said  iu  a  clear  voice  :  '  He  has  been  condemned  justly 
by  his  own  mouth.  .  .  for  the  first  See  will  never  he  judged 
hi/  any  one.' "  And  nevertheless,  according  to  the  Ads, 
the  bishop  of  bishops  was  judged  by  his  inferiors,  and  was 
"  expelled  from  the  city.  "  No  wonder  that  Tillemont  could 
not  understand  how  it  is  that  these  pretended  Acts  of 
Sinuessa  have  been  allowed  to  retain  a  position  among  the 
received  Acts  of  the  Councils.  Concluding  our  examination 
of  the  absurdities  of  the  composer   of   these   suj)posititiou3 


538  STUDIES  IN  CHUECH  HISTORY. 

Acts,v^e  must  uote  that  the  phrase  "  the  First  See  is  judged 
by  no  one,"  a3  purporting  to  be  uttered  by  one  of  the 
members  of  the  alleged  Sinuessan  Synod,  would  indicate 
that  the  synodals  were  very  bad  theologians,  since  they  tacit- 
ly, at  least,  approved  a  doctrine  which,  according  to  their 
hypothesis,  would  be  false  and  absurd.  That  the  decisions 
of  the  Holy  See  in  matters  of  doctrine  are  per  se  irreforma- 
biles,  and  therefore  "  to  be  judged  by  no  one  "  in  other  than 
a  spirit  of  obedience,  is  a  matter  of  faith  ;  but  it  is  false  that 
in  an  hypothesis  like  that  asserted  to  have  been  verified  in 
a  synod  at  Sinuessa,  a  Roman  Pontiff  "  could  be  judged  by 
no  one."  Of  course  we  hold  with  Bellarmine  and  the 
majority  of  theologians  that  "  it  is  probable,  and  may 
piously  be  believed,  that  even  as  a  private  person  the  Roman 
Pontiff  cannot  be  a  heretic,  obstinately  teaching  anything 
contrary  to  faith  "  (1).  But  if  we  were  able  to  suppose,  as 
the  presumed  Sinuessan  Synod  was  said  to  have  supposed, 
that  a  Pontiff  could  fall  into  apostasy,  then  certainly  we 
would  be  obliged  to  admit  that  such  a  Pontiff  could  be 
subjected  to  an  inquiry  an  to  tlie  fact.  That  three  hundred 
bishops  could  advance  the  contrary  theor}',  and  at  the  very 
moment  when  they  ''  condemned  Marcellinus,  and  expelled 
him  from  the  city,"  we  must  refuse  to  believe. 

But  we  are  asked  to  remember  that  the  Roman  Breviary 
explicitly  records  the  idolatry  of  St.  Marcellinus.  This 
objection  can  be  seriously  adduced  only  by  one  who  is  unac- 
quainted with  the  nature  of  the  Breviarij.  As  Pope  Gela- 
sius  observed,  the  Church  does  not  present  the  lives  of  the 
saints,  which  are  sketched  in  the  Breviary,  "  as  a  Gospel." 
The  same  Pontiff  tells  us  to  "  examine  all  (the  presumed 
facts),  and  to  hold  to  what  is  correct "  ;  and  his  advice  was 
reasonable,  for,  as  all  ought  to  know,  the  historical  features 
of  the  Breviary,  being  based  on  human,  not  on  divine  faith, 
can  properly  be  made  subjects  of  historical  criticism.  Sev- 
eral Pontiffs,  notably  St.  Pius  V.,  Clement  VIII.,  Urban  VIII., 
and  Benedict  XIV.,  reformed  the  text  of  this  monumental 
work  ;  they  all  understood,  as  all  future  Pontiffs  will  under- 
stand, that  historical   assertions  in  the  Breviary   have  no 

(I)  The  Roman  Poniiff,  Bk.  iv.,  cb.  6. 


THE  ALLEtiED  IDOLATRY  OF  POI'E   ST.    MAIUELLIM'S.        ol9 

more  value  than  that  ])ossesse(l  hv  tlie  sources  from  wliicli 
they  are  tleriveil.  Thatpre-eniiueiitly  h^aniecl  aud  judicious 
Pope,  Benedict  XIV.,  speakiug  of  the  authority  of  the  Brevi- 
(irij,  says  :  "  Tt  is  thouj^ht  that  Pope  Nicliohis  TIL  (1277-1280j 
tinall}'  decreed  that  in  all  the  churches  iu  the  city  of  Kome 
those  Offices  should  be  recited,  and  those  books  read,  which 
the  Franciscans  were  accustomed  to  use  ;  and  that  all  tlie 
more  ancient  Offices  and  Books  of  Chant  should  be  there- 
after proscribed.  . . .  Gavanti  (Ij,  speaking  of  the  Roman 
Breviary  as  we  now  have  it,  gives  lis  in  his  already-men- 
tioned work  (The  Lessons)  an  account  of  the  corrections  of  the 
Lessons  iu  the  Second  Nocturu  which  were  made  by  Car- 
dinals Baronio  and  Bellarmine  in  the  time  of  Clement  VIII.  ; 
and  he  testifies  to  the  difliculty  experienced  in  reforming 
those  Lessons  concerning  the  saints  according  to  the  de- 
mands of  historical  trutli,  and  with  the  least  possible  change. 
He  even  admits  that  certain  legends  of  tlie  saints,  which 
good  historians  pronounce  inexact  and  perhaps  without  good 
foundation,  were  generally  retained,  because  of  the  possibil- 
ity that  they  might  be  true.  .  .  .  Although  it  may  safely  be 
asserted  that  an  insertion  in  the  Roman  Breviari/  gives  no 
little  weight  to  historical  narratives,  nevertheless,  it  must 
not  be  thought  that  there  is  any  prohibition  against  laying 
before  the  Apostolic  See  any  historical  difficulties  (in  refer- 
ence to  those  narratives),  in  order  that  said  difficulties  may 
be  considered,  whenever  another  correction  of  the  Breviary 
is  undertaken  "  (2).  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  when  we 
consider  the  positive  auguments  which  militate  for  the  inno- 
cence of  St.  Marcellinus,  the  contrary  testimony  of  the  Roman 
Breviary  is  not  necessarily  to  be  received.  We  must  say  of 
the  credulity  of  the  compilers  of  the  Breviary  what  Pape- 
brocli  remarked  concerning  that  which  Pope  Nicholas  I.  dis- 
played in  his  letter  to  Emperor  Michael  :  "  He  alleged  in 
good  faith  a  report  which  was  regarded  as  true  in  his 
time."  It  may  be  noted,  however,  that  this  is  not  the  sole 
historical  error  committed  by  Nicholas  I.  in  the  same  letter. 
He  speaks  of  a  Roman  Council  having  been  convened  by 

(\)  See  our  Vol.  iv.,  p.  49. 

(2)  CnmniizatUm  <if  Saints,  Pt.  ii.,  BV.  iv..  ch.  13.    Rome,  1747. 


520  STUDIES  IN  CHUKCH  HISTOBY. 

Pope  Xjstiis  III.  for  the  purpose  of  judging  Polyclirouius, 
bishop  of  Jerusalem ;  and  both  Baronio  and  Papebroch  dem- 
onstrate that  no  such  bishop  of  Jerusalem  ever  existed. 
The  same  remark  as  to  inculpable  credulity  might  be  made' 
in  regard  to  the  author  of  the  Second  Catalogue  or  Ponti- 
fical Book,  a  work  which  is  ascribed  to  the  sixth  century 
— to  a  period  two  centuries  later  than  the  questioned  event — 
by  nearly  all  erudite  chronologists,  notably  by  Papebroch 
Pearson,  and  Dodwell ;  but  the  innocence  of  this  author 
becomes  problematical,  when  we  reflect  on  the  absurdities 
which  he  utters,  and  on  the  silence  of  the  First  Catalogue — 
a  more  ancient  work  which  he  must  have  read — concerning 
any  guilt  of  St.  Marcellinus. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

CONSECKATED  VIRGINS  AMONG  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS. 

In  the  very  first  days  of  the  infant  Church  we  find  fol- 
lowers of  that  state  of  perfection  which  Our  Lord  had  chos- 
en for  Himself  and  for  His  Mother.  Virginity  was  the  por- 
tion of  some  of  the  apostles,  absolute  coutinency  of  all.  The 
ancient  records  show  us  SS.  Peter  and  Paul  receiving  the 
vow  of  chastity  from  St.  Petronilla  ;  St.  Matthew  from  St. 
Iphigene,  and  St.  Clement  from  Flavia  Domitilla.  Not  a 
Father  of  the  Church  fails  to  show  his  admiration  of  those 
who  are  "  to  follow  the  Lamb  wherever  He  goetli."  St. 
Ignatius,  fresh  from  the  instructions  of  the  virgin  St.  John, 
tells  the  people  of  Tarsus  to  "  honor  the  virgins  who  are 
consecrated  to  Christ."  St.  Justin  sings  the  praises  of  those 
who  have  grown  old  in  voluntary  celibacy.  St.  Cyprian  de- 
clares "  that  the  greater  the  number  of  virgins,  the  greater 
the  joy  of  the  Church."  And  so  tenderly  did  the  early 
Church  cherish  these  imitators  of  Mary,  that,  as  a  rule,  they 
were  supported  by  ecclesiastical  funds.  Some  writers,  fol- 
lowing St.  Athanasius,  ascribe  the  first  cloister  to  a  sister  of 
St.  Anthony,  about  the  year  313 ;  and  they  insist  that  be- 
fore Constantine  gave  peace  to  the  Church,  all  the  sacred 


CONSECRATED  VIRGINS  AMONG  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS.      H'il 

virf^ins  lived  iu  the  world,  although,  of  course,  not  "of  it." 
But  there  is  good  reason  for  the  assertiou  that,  at  least  in 
Syria  and  Mesopotamia,  cloisters  were  known  before  the 
fourth  century.  Tertulliau  (ir)0-*24r))  and  St.  Cyj^rian  (d.  258) 
are  cited  by  Balto,  in  his  Prefucv  to  the  Acts  of  St.  Febronin, 
as  alluding  to  such  establishments  (1).  And  St.  Ephrem 
(d.  379)  speaks  of  them  as  having  existed  in  his  country 
long  before  his  day.  But  the  Acts  of  St.  Febronia,  as  tran- 
scribed in  the  Martyrology  of  the  Western  Church,  in  the 
•Greek  Menology,  iu  the  Calendavfi  of  the  Copts  and  of  the 
Muscovites,  would  remove  all  doubt  in  the  matter.  These 
authentic  Acts  tell  us  that  when  Silenus,  Lisymachus,  and 
Primus,  fulfilling  the  command  of  Diocletian,  iu  304,  to  pun- 
ish all  Christians  with  death,  had  arrived  at  Sibapolis  in 
Assyria,  they  there  found  "  a  monastery  of  fifty  women  under 
the  government  of  Bryene,  who  had  hitherto  followed  the  rule 
assigned  them  by  one  Plato,  a  deacon."  However,  it  seems 
certain  that  cloisters  were  unknown  in  the  AVest  during  the 
days  of  pagan  persecution ;  then  our  religious  resided  at 
home,  carefully  avoiding  all  worldly  amusements,  and  sub- 
ject, so  far  as  circumstances  permitted,  to  what  we  call  a 
"  rule  "  Writing  to  the  virgin  Eustochia,  St.  Jerome  says  : 
"  May  the  intimate  privacy  of  thy  chamber  protect  thee ! 
May  thy  Spouse  ever  rejoice  in  thy  heart !  When  thou  pray- 
est,  thou  speakest  to  thy  Spouse  ;  when  thou  readest,  He 
talks  to  thee.  All  of  3'ou  know  well  the  Hours — Prime, 
Tierce,  Sext,  None,  and  Vespers.  Twice  or  thrice  a  night 
thou  must  arise  and  recall  to  thy  mind  the  lessons  of  Script- 
ure. Leaving  home,  let  prayer  arm  thee ;  returning,  at 
once  prayer  must  meet  thee."  As  to  the  obligation  of  per- 
severance on  the  part  of  these  consecrated  virgins,  the  Coun- 
cil of  Elvira  (2)  decreed,  in  its  thirteenth  canon,  that  a  vio- 
lation of  their  vow  should  entail  a  denial  of  Communion  even 
at  the  hour  of  death. 

With  the  triumph  of  Constantine  came  tliat  of  Christianity ; 
and  just  as  magnificent  basilicas  took  the  place  of  hidden 
and  often  subterranean  churches,  so  the  system  of  the  clois- 

(1»  TERTCI.LIAX  ;  Oil  thf  Viulinu  of  Viroi/i.s.— St.  Cyprian  ;  DiitciiiUne  of  Virginia. 
•:.'i  This  Couni'il  wa.s  probably  held  ui'.V2i.  but  some  writers  assisrn  it  to  tlie  year  252. 


522  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

ter  replaced  the  independent  religious  life.  Palladius,  writ- 
ing at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  says  that  Pacomius 
built  a  convent  for  his  sister  on  the  bank  of  the  Nile  op- 
posite his  own  monastery  ;  that  while  the  latter  counted  four- 
teen hundred  monks,  the  former  sheltered  four  hundred 
nuns  (1).  St.  Basil  built  many  convents,  and  drew  up  a  rule 
for  their  inmates.  In  the  Thebaid  the  Abbot  Elias  directed 
three  hundred  virgins  ;  and  in  the  city  of  Ossirintum,  says 
Rufinus,  there  were  twenty  thousand  (2).  The  delicate  la- 
dies of  Rome  seem  to  have  shown,  at  first,  but  little  inclina- 
tion for  the  severe  life  of  the  cloister.  Most  of  its  votaries 
were  for  a  time  from  the  lower  classes  ;  indeed,  Ave  learn  from 
St.  Jerome  that  St.  Paula  so  far  yielded  to  the  prejudices 
of  her  noble  subjects  as  to  locate  the  others,  unless  when  at 
prayer,  in  separate  buildings  (3).  But  very  soon  the  ex- 
ample of  Marcella  and  her  daughter  affected  ladies  of  even  the 
highest  rank,  and  the  aristocracy  gave  more  than  a  reason- 
able quota  of  its  daughters  to  the  holy  level  of  convent  dis- 
cipline. At  the  time  of  Pope  St.  Gregory  the  Great  (590- 
604)  the  number  of  cloistered  women  in  Rome  was  so  large, 
that  during  a  period  of  scarcity  of  food,  the  Pontiff  himself 
fed  and  clothed  more  than  three  thousand  (4).  Just  as  in 
our  day,  parents  were  accustomed  to  confide  the  education 
of  their  daughters  to  the  care  of  religious.  Writing  from 
Bethlehem,  St.  Jerome  earnestly  advises  Leta,  a  widow,  to 
send  even  an  infant  to  the  care  of  Paula,  over  whose  convent 
the  holy  doctor  exercised  supervision  :  "  Try  not  to  bear  a 
burden  which  is  too  great  for  you,  but  so  soon  as  you  have 
weaned  her,  let  her  be  consigned  to  the  monastery  ;  let  her 
live  in  a  virginal  choir,  knowing  not  the  world.  ...  If  you 
send  her  to  Paula,  I  promise  to  be  her  teacher  and  her 
guardian.  I  will  carry  her  on  my  shoulders,  and  my  age  will 
direct  her  hesitating  words."  Many  of  these  girls  were  des- 
tined by  their  jDarents  (if  they  afterward  should  deem  them- 

(1)  Lausiac  History.  (2;  Lives  of  the  Fatheis,  Bk.  i.,  ch.  5. 

(3)  Plures  virgines,  quas  e  diversis  provinciis  congregarat,  tarn  nobile,  quam  medii 
et  i)iflmi  generis,  in  tim  ttir mas  wotia^terinque  divisit,  dumtaxat  ita  ut  in  opere  et 
ill  cibo  separatee,  psalmodiin  et  orationibu!<  jungerentur. .  .  unumqnodquc  agmen 
matrem  propriam  sequ^batiir."  Thus  in  his  letter  to  Eustocbia  on  the  epitaph  of 
Paula. 

(i)  Bb.  vi..  letter  23. 


CONSECRATED  VIRGINS  AMONG  THE  EARLY  CHHlSTfANS.      52IJ 

selves  so  called)  to  the  conventual  life,   and  their  training 
was  accordingly  directed  with  that  view. 

Religious  profession  was  allowed  at  sixteen  (Ij ;  but  St. 
Jerome  says  that  his  friend  Asella  made  her  profession  at 
ten  (2).  Consecration,  which  corresponded  to  the  solemn 
or  definitive  profession  of  our  day,  was  given  only  at  twenty- 
five,  as  we  learn  from  the  2Gth  canon  of  the  Third  Council  of 
Carthage,  held  in  397.  The  age  at  which  a  nun  might  l)e 
made  an  abbess  was  put  at  sixty  by  St.  Basil ;  but  tlie  Coun- 
cils of  Chalcedou  and  Trullo  deemed  forty  a  sufficient  guar- 
antee of  prudence.  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  writing  to  the 
bishop  of  Syracuse,  said  :  "  We  absolutely  prohibit  the  ap- 
pointment of  young  abbesses  ;  Your  Fraternity  will  appoint 
only  such  as  are  sixty  years  old."  This  requirement  of 
very  advanced  age  was  extended  at  one  time  even  to  a  conse- 
cration. St.  Leo  I.,  having  learned  that  certain  cruel  parents 
forced  their  daughters  to  take  the  veil,  decreed  in  458 
that  no  religious  she  uld  be  invested  before  the  age  of  forty  ; 
but  in  the  course  of  time  the  age  of  twenty -five  was  re-estab- 
lished, to  remain  until  the  twelfth  century,  when  twenty  be- 
came customary.  It  was  quite  natural  that  all  these  women, 
whether  members  of  the  cloister  or  consecrated  to  a  partic- 
ular service  of  God  at  home,  should  adopt  some  distinctive 
dress,  while,  of  course,  they  abandoned  all  garments  which 
might  savor  of  vanity,  however  harmless.  The  latter  gener- 
ally wore  clothing  of  wool  and  of  a  dark  color ;  the  former, 
owing  to  the  variety  of  institutes,  in  time  came  to  present  as 
many  different  uniforms  as  they  formed  families.  But  there 
was  one  distinctive  mark  for  all  religious  women,  which  dat- 
ed at  least  from  the  fourth  century,  and,  with  the  exce])tion 
of  a  very  few  modern  Congregations  (3),  they  have  always 
worn  it — the  veil.  ICveu  Tertulliau  seems  to  allude  to  this 
vestiire  when  he  says  :  "  True  and  entire  virginity  fears 
nothing  more  than  itself ;  it  cannot  bear  the  eyes  even  of 
women,  and  retires  under  its  veil  as  behind  a  shield  which 
protects  its  treasure  "  (4).     St.  Jerome  speaks  of  those  who, 

(1)  Basil;  To  Am i)hilochim,  ep\3t.  2.  (2)  T<i  MarciUa. 

(3)  Thus,  the  Sisters  of  Charity  have  no  veil.    When  their  founder,  St.  Vincent  de  Paul, 
was  interrogated  on  this  point,  hu  replieil :  "  Their  virtues  will  be  their  veils." 
(V  Luc.  cif.— Amons  the  Orientals,  unmarried  females  never  went  out  unveiled.    We 


524  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

"  when  tliey  swear  to  preserve  their  virginity,  hide  their  feat- 
ures under  a  dark  mantle." 

Although  the  veil  was  often  assumed  without  ceremony,  it 
was  frequently  blessed  and  solemnly  imposed  by  the  bishop  ; 
thus,  St.  Jerome  exhorts  Demetrias  to  perseverance  in  her 
obligations,  assumed  when  "  the  prayer  of  the  Pontiff  laid 
the  virginal  insignia  on  her  head."  This  solemn  profession 
at  the  hands  of  a  bishop  was,  in  the  first  centuries,  always 
made  on  a  principal  feast ;  thus,  St.  Ambrose,  in  his  elegant 
exhortation  to  virgins,  says  :  "  The  Paschal  day  has  arrived, 
and  all  over  the  world  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism  is 
conferred,  and  virgins  receive  the  veil."  And  Pope  Gelasius 
(492),  writing  to  the  bishops  of  what  is  now  Portugal,  men- 
tions Christmas,  the  Epiphany,  and  Low  Sunday  as  days 
when  "  especially  the  veil  is  to  be  given  by  bishops."  In 
the  course  of  time  this  ceremony  was  peformed  also  on  Sun- 
days and  on  anniversaries  of  Our  Lady  and  of  the  martyrs. 
Catalani  shows  that  the  bishop  usually  pronounced  an  appro- 
priate discourse  on  the  occasion  (1).  Sometimes,  but  only  in 
very  extraordinary  circumstances,  the  Supreme  Pontiff  en- 
hanced the  solemnity  of  the  function  by  himself  officiating  ; 
thus,  as  St.  Ambrose  informs  us,  on  a  Christmas  Day,  Pope 
Liberius  gave  the  veil  to  his  sister  Marcellina  in  the  Vatican 
Basilica  (2).  In  the  days  of  St.  Jerome,  and  in  Rome,  the 
religious  veil  was  of  purple,  and  the  saint  explains  the  mys- 
tic sense  of  the  color  :  "  The  sacred  virgins  invest  tlieir  hair 
with  sobriet}^  modesty,  and  continence,  as  well  as  with  th  e 
entire  company  of  the  virtues  ;  and,  covered  by  the  veil  pur- 
pled with  the  blood  of  Our  Lord,  they  show  His  mortifica- 

read  of  Rebecca  (Genesis,  xxiv.  65)  that  wben  she  saw  Isaac,  her  future  husband,  from  a 
distance,  she  covered  herself  with  her  veil.  On  the  contrary,  the  ancient  Roman  girls 
showed  their  faces  in  public,  while  the  married  women  were  veiled  ;  in  fact,  the  primitive 
meaning  of  tmbere  (to  marry)  was  to  veil  one's  self.  The  privilege,  of  course,  pleased  the 
young  women  ;  but  the  severe  TertuUian  condemned  them  for  availing  themselves  of  it 
In  church,  and  it  was  with  this  object  that  he  composed  his  treatise.  The  Veiling  of 
Virgins.  He  was  told  that  the  privilege  was  appropriate  to  the  candor  of  innocence,  and 
that,  when  the  virgins  were  seen  to  be  thus  unique  in  church,  they  invited  others  to  ima- 
fatethem.  But  he  answered  that  where  there  was  complacency  there  came  vanity. 
Interest,  constraint,  weakness  ;  and  a  cons'rained  virginity  was  a  source  of  crime. 

(1)  Commeyitary  o?i  the  Pontifical  Book,  title  19. 

(2)  Benedict  XIV.  ;i740-58)  gave  the  veil  to  one  of  the  Colonna  princesses,  and  delivered 
on  the  occasion  one  of  his  most  erudite  and  majestic  sermons.  We  have  met  with 
no  more  modern  in<tance  of  such  pontiflcal  action. 


CONSECRVrED  VIHGINS  AMONG  THE  EAHLY  CHItlSTIANS.         ".2,) 

tious  in  their  owu  frames"  (1).  St.  Optjitus  of  Milevi  says 
that  there  was  no  precept  as  to  the  material  of  the  purple 
veil  (2).  Generally-,  however,  the  veil  was  black.  In  some 
places,  as  is  shown  in  the  learned  dissertation  by  the  Bene- 
dictine (St.  Maur)  Anthony  Mege,  publislied  in  1()8*.),  there 
were  eight  different  veils  :  1.  The  veil  of  probation,  given  to 
any  one  who  asked  for  it ;  2.  That  of  reception,  for  uovices, 
and  this  was  white  ;  3.  That  of  profession,  which  was  red  ;  4 
That  of  consecration,  blessed  by  the  bishop,  and  given  onl}' 
to  virgins ;  5.  That  of  "  ordination,"  so  termed,  given  to 
deaconesses  on  their  appointment ;  C.  That  of  "  prelacy  "  or 
authority,  for  abbesses ;  7.  That  of  continence,  for  widows  ;  8. 
That  of  penance,  for  any  religious  who  had  been  guilty  of 
grave  scandal.  As  to  cutting  the  hair  of  a  novice,  it  was  not  in 
vogue  in  some  places,  but  in  others  it  was  customary  from  time 
immemorial ;  the  operation  was  performed  by  the  superior- 
ess. From  the  Acfs  of  St.  Satarninus  and  His  Companions, 
and  from  many  other  testimonies  adduced  by  Martene  (3), 
we  learn  that  the  first  religious  did  not  cut  their  tresses, 
but  wore  them  hidden. 

And  now  a  few  remarks  as  to  the  order  of  "  deaconesses  " 
— women  consecrated  to  the  service  of  the  Church,  who,  al- 
though known  even  in  Apostolic  days  (4),  have  not  been  seen 
in  the  West  since  the  twelfth  century,  nor  in  the  East  since 
the  thirteenth.  But  in  very  modern  times  the  Ambrosian 
rite  provides  for  asimiliar  organization  of  matrons — vetulo- 
nes, — who  furnish  the  bread  and  wine  for  the  Sacrifice  (o). 
It  was  the  duty  of  the  deaconesses  to  perform  toward  females 
those  offices  at  baptism,  then  conferred  by  immersion,  which 
the  deacons  fulfilled  toward  men  ;  to  act  as  vergers  or  bead- 
les in  that  part  of  the  church  assigned  to  women  ;  to  visit 
the  poor  and  sick  of  their  own  sex  ;  and,  when  circumstances 
would  not  allow  a  deacon  to  do  so,  to  strengthen  by  exhor- 
tation the   courage  of  the  women   during   persecution  (6). 

(1)  TTic  InMitntc  of  Viroiux.  (2)  Agaitigt  the  Danatintx. 

(3)  Ancient  Jfifes  of  the  Church. 

(4)  St.  Paul   speaks  of  them  In  the  EpMle  to   the  Rumniis  ;  aud   Pliny  the  Younper, 
writing  to  Trajan,  says  that  he  has  put  two  miniiitrce  to  the  torture. 

(5)  Mackr  ;  Hierolexicou.  art.  Deacottexxes. 

(G)  BAiiiAMON  ;  canon  8  of  ihe  Council  of  Laodicea.— Assemani  ;  Oriental  Library,  Vol. 
-'1..  pb   1.3. 


520  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

The  CouDcil  of  Trullo,  in  the  year  692,  uses  the  word  cJiei- 
rotonein  (to  impose  hands)  in  speaking  of  the  consecration 
of  deaconesses  ;  however,  it  is  certain  that  such  "  imposition." 
was  not  Sacramental,  but  merely  ceremonial,  for  the  Nine- 
teenth Canon  of  the  Nicene  Council  expressly  places  these 
women  among  laics.  At  first  the  deaconesses  were  widows 
who  had  been  married  but  once,  and  their  reception  as  dea- 
conesses was  an  impediment  to  a  second  marriage ;  in  time, 
as  is  shown  by  Zonaras  and  Balsamon,  virgins  also  were  en- 
rolled. The  modern  Greeks,  both  the  United  and  the  Schis- 
matic, give  the  name  of  deaconesses  to  the  wives  of  their  dea- 
cons, but  these  have  no  office  in  the  Church.  The  same  is  to 
be  noted  of  those  women  who  are  sometimes  mentioned  dur- 
ing the  early  Christian  centuries  as  priestesses,  bishopesses, 
etc.  (1) ;  they  were  separated  wives  of  men  who  had  become 
priests,  etc.,  and  they  are  specially  denominated  laics  by 
Pope  Soter  (175).  These  were  bound  to  a  life  of  continual 
prayer  and  mortification,  and  were  excommunicated  if  they 
broke  their  vows. 

In  the  olden  time,  female  religious  were  often  styled  "  can- 
onesses,"  because  their  lives  were  arranged  by  the  ecclesi- 
astical Canons  (2).  But  they  were  very  different  from  tiie 
aristocratic  "  canonesses  "  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  from  those 
who  are  to  be  found  to-day  in  the  Empire  of  Austria.  These 
women  are  not,  properly  speaking,  religious ;  for,  the  abbess 
alone  excepted,  they  are  bound  by  no  vows.  All  necessarily 
being  of  noble,  and  often  of  imperial  blood,  their  retirement  is 
frequently  only  temporary  ;  but  so  long  as  they  remain  in  the 
convent,  they  are  bound  to  the  Divine  Office  and  many  exer- 
cises of  piety,  and  in  the  choir  they  wear  the  robes  of  "  can- 
onesses." In  816  the  Council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  prescribed 
for  them  a  somewhat  severe  rule,  founded  on  the  prescrip- 
tions of  SS.  Cyprian,  Jerome,  and  Athanasius  ;  thus,  it  obliged 
them  to  chastity,  and,  while  it  allowed  them  servants,  it 
compelled  them  to  make  their  own  clothes.  But  m  the  thir- 
teenth century  the  canonesses  ceased  to  observe  these  rules, 

(1)  Thus  the  second  Council  of  Tours,  can.  20,  says:  "  Si  inventus  fuerit  presbyter 
cum  tua  presbytera,  aut  diaconus  cum  diaconissa,  aut  subdiaconus  cum  subdiaconis- 
so."  etc. 

(2)  Socrates  ;  b.  i.,  c.  17. 


CONSECRATED    VIUGINS    AMONG    THE    EARLY   CHRISTIANS.    527 

although  Cardinal  James  ile  Vitriac-o,  writing  ahout  the  year 
12-40,  remarked:  "I  have  observed  that  many  of  these 
women  are  very  earnest  in  their  struggle  toward  perfection  ; 
and  probahlv  they  are  acceptable  to  (xod  precisely  because 
they  have  been  in  the  fire,  and  nevertheless  have  not  been 
burnt "  (1). 

(1)  During  the  course  of  our  disquisitions  we  have  freiiuently  had  occasion  to  refer  to 
the  uiute  l)ut  eloquent  testimony  of  tlie  Roman  Catacombs  in   favor  of  many  points  of 
Catholic  doiriua  and  disi-ii>liiit'  ;  and  here  we  would  observe  that t lie  researches  of  i he  emi- 
nent arclueoloiiist,  the  late  Commendatore  I)e  Rossi,  show  that  the  Catacombs  are  redolent 
of  testimony  coneeruinR  the  consecration  of  virgins  among  the  primitive  Christians.     On 
Feb.  14,  1900.  the  Roman  archieoloRlsts  listened  to  a  discourse  in  which  the  Rev.  William 
Campbell,  formerly  rector  of  the  Scotch  College  in  the  Eternal  City,  recalled  to  mind  many 
of  De  Rossi's  observations  on  this  subject.    Shortly  afterward  the  Dttltintinr  Sun   pub- 
lished a  synopsis  of  this  lecture,  and  we  submit  to  the  reader  a  few  of  its  more  salient 
points.    In  the  Catacomb  of  St.  Priscilla.  on  the  Salarian  Way,  a  pictorial  representation 
in  one  of  the  oldest  chambers  shows  the  reception  of  the  veil.    There  are  three  tlgures  in 
the  group— a  bishop,  a  deacon,  and  the  maiden  who  is  about   to  receive  the  veil.    The 
bishop,  an  aged  man  with  a  white  beard,  is  seated  on  a  chair  or  throne.    With  his  right 
hand  he  points  before  him,  probably  to  the  figure  at  the  other  e.xtremity  of  the  picture, 
which  represents  the  Blessed  Virgin,  seated  on  a  throne,  holding  the  Divine  Infant  in  her 
arms.    The  action  of  the  bishop  has  been  interpreted  as  calling  the  attention  of  ihe  virgin 
about  to  be  professed  and  to  receive  the  veil  to  the  model  she  is  to  aim  at  imitatiug-the 
Virgin  Mother.    The  maiden  stands  at  the  side  of  the  bishop,  holding  the  veil  with  both 
her  hands.    She  is  dressed  in  a  long  yellow  tunic,  with  two  red  bands  falling  from  the 
shoulders  to  the  feet.    Behind  her  stands  the  deacon.    In  the  centre  of  the  piciuie  there  is 
a  large  figure  of  a  vhgin,  with  a  veil  and  long  dark  red  flowing  gown  or  tunic.    The  veil, 
which  is  white,  hangs  down  on  each  side  of  her  head,  and  near  the  ends  it  is  crossed  by 
bars  of  red  <olor  :  it  terminates  in  a  fringe.    The  figure  is  that  known  as  an  Ora)it(,  or 
praying  figure,  and  represents  the  virgin  vowed  to  God,  who  was,  in  all  probability,  bur- 
ied here  and  is  thus  representeii  as  having  passed  into  the  enjoyment  of  heavenly  bliss. 
The  eyes  are  looking  upward,  and  you  may  read  tne  desire  of  the  artist  to  convey  the  idea 
that  this  Orantf  beholds  the  face  of  the  Lord.    This  notion  is  strengthened  by  the  doves 
with  olive  branches  and  the  peacocks— symbols  of  immortality— depicted   in  the  curving 
ceiling  of  the  arcosolium,  where  these  groups  are  painted.    There  are  several  other  frescoes 
indifferent  catacombs  in  which  virgins  are  represented,  such  as  that  in  the  catacomb  of  St. 
Cyriacus,  where  Christ  is  seen  with  five  virgins  on  His  right  haml,  and  five  others  on  His 
left.    Those  on  His  right  hold  up  lighted  torches,  while  thoseon  His  left  bear  e.xtinguished 
torches.    The  picture  is  easily  read  as  a  symbolical  representation  of  the  five  wise  and  the 
five  foolish  virgins— the  former  with  their  lamps  trimmed  and  burning,  the  latter  with  their 
lamps  extinguished  for  want  of  oil.    That  it  has  a  special  reference  to  this  place,  the  cata- 
comb of  St.  Cyriacus.  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  here  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Church  of  St. 
Lawrence,  which  stands  close  to  the  catacomb,  was  in  early  centuries  a  convent  for  nuns. 
When  this  church  was  restored  and  newly  adorned  by  Pope  Pius  IX.  in  l.sfi'2.  many  inscrip- 
tions to  the  memory  of  virgins  were  found.    The  fresco  in  the  catacomb  of  St.  Priscilla, 
representing  the  investiture  of  a  virgin  with  the  veil,  belongs  undoubtedly  to  the  second 
century,  hut  the  interpretation  of  the  subject  of  this  fresco  has  been   questioned,  though 
the  burden  of  evidence  favors  the  original  interpretation.    In  the  latter  half  of  the  fourth 
century,  that  the  lite  of  the  cloister  was  established  and  recognized  is  evident  from  the 
writings  of  St.  Jerome,  especially  from  the  letters  he  wrote  to  those  who  led  such  lives.on 
the  duties  and  observances  of  their  state.    It  has  been   supposed   that  Marcella,  a   noble 
widow  of  Rome,  was  the  first  who  gave  the  example  of  such  a  m(Xle  of  life  in  lh<»  metrop- 
olis of  the  Roman  world.    She  studied  the  discipline  which  the  widows  ami  virgins  placed 
under  the  direction  of  Pachomiiis  practiced  in  the  monasteries  of  the  Tbebiiid  :  "  and  she 
did  not  blush."  says  St.  .lerome.  "  to  adopt  a  rule  of  life  whii'h  she  recognized  as  pleasing  to 
Christ."    The  interpretation,  says  De  Rossi,  which  would  represent  St.  Jerome  as  having 
said  that  Marcella  was  the  first  among  noble  Roman  ladles  lo  give  the  example  of  living 


528  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

as  virgins  or  as  chaste  widows,  is  a  wrong  interpretation.  Well,  indeed,  are  the  nar<\^of 
illustrious  virgins  and  widows  dedicated  to  God  known  and  celebrated  who  flourished  in 
Rome  in  the  very  ages  of  the  persecutions.  What  St.  Jerome  says  is  only  that  Marcella 
first  among  Roman  matrons  undertook  the  monastic  life  in  Rome,  inoponiHim  mnnacho- 
runi;  that  is,  that  mode  of  solitary  and  severe  living  together  with  other  companions  of  the. 
same  intention.  On  the  slabs  found  at  St.  Lawrence's  church,  the  epitaphs  bear  dates  of 
the  years  434,  464,  and  486.  These  are  mucU  later  than  the  dates  of  other  sacred  virgins 
mentioned  in  the  writings  of  the  Fathers,  and  very  much  later  than  the  picture  in  the 
catacomb  of  St.  Priscilla.  In  fact,  more  than  a  century  before  the  last  of  these  dates,  the 
Latin  poet  of  Christian  Rome.  Prudentius,  mentions  the  conventual  house  of  St.  Lawrence. 
He  mentions  in  a  special  manner  a  Vestal  virgin  named  Claudia  who,  having  left  the  wor- 
ship of  Vesta  and  embraced  the  Christian  life,  went  to  St.  Lawrence's- in  every  proba- 
bility a  convent  of  nuns  in  the  vicinity  of  this  church,  the  epitaphs  of  some  of  whom 
were  brought  to  hght  in  18G2.  It  is  in  the  proximate  catacomb— that  of  St.  Cyriacus— that 
the  fresco  representing  the  wise  and  the  foolish  virgins  was  painted,  and  according  to  the 
general  opinion,  over  the  tomb  of  one  of  these  nuns.  Other  incidents  depicted  here  seem 
to  point  to  the  fact  that  the  tomb  was  that  of  a  person  converted  to  the  faith.  The  ques- 
tion has  been  asked,  could  it  have  been  the  tomb  of  the  Vestal  Claudia  who,  as  Prudentius 
tells,  became  a  Christian  nun  ?  In  the  Atrium  of  Vesta— the  courtyard  of  that  pagan 
cloister— there  stands  a  pedestal  bearing  a  most  lauditory  inscription  to  a  high  priestess  of 
Vesta,  to  whom  a  statue  was  erected  on  this  pedestal  by  the  college  of  the  high  priests, 
under  the  vice-presidency  of  Macrinius  Sossinus,  as  a  testimony  to  her  chastity  and  to  her 
profound  knowledge  in  religious  matters.  The  name  of  this  highly  lauded  lady  has  been 
carefully  erased  from  the  pedestal,  no  other  erasure  but  the  name  having  been  made.  On 
the  discovery  of  this  pedestal  in  1883.  the  minds  of  scholars  and  students  went  at  once  back 
to  the  events  of  the  time— for  the  pedestal  is  dated  A.  D.  364— and  considered  what  was 
likely  to  have  happened  in  Rome  at  that  date.  It  is  contemporary,  or  almost  so.  with  the 
words  of  Prudentius  in  his  hymn  to  St.  Laurence—"  Claudia  the  Vestal  virgin  enters 
thy  shrine."  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  virgin  buried  at  St.  Lawrence's,  over  whose 
grave  the  fresco  of  the  wise  and  foolish  virgins  was  painted,  was  Indeed  that  Claudia  who 
had  forsaken  the  cloister  of  Vesta.  It  is  not  improbable  that  it  was  the  name  of  Claudia 
that  was  erased  from  the  laudatory  Inscription  in  the  Atrium  of  Vesta.  However  strange 
these  conjectures  may  seem  at  first  sight,  there  is  probability  in  them  ;  and  thus  if  they  be 
true,  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  women  of  pagan  Rome,  for  such  were  the  Vestals,  became 
one  of  the  noblest  of  the  Christians,  living  out  her  pure  and  holy  life  at  the  shrine  of  the 
martyr  Lawrence,  while  the  priests  of  paganism  decreed  that  her  memory  should  be  con- 
demned to  oblivion  and  her  name  erased  from  their  records  of  honor.  It  would  again  be 
one  of  the  ironies  of  history  to  find  that  the  name  of  the  Vestal  condemned  to  forgetf  ul- 
ness  should  under  newer  and  better  auspices  be  recorded  in  the  writings  of  the  great 
Christian  poet  and  held  in  high  honor  for  centuries  as  that  of  Claudia,  the  converted  Ves- 
tal Virgin. 


Gregorovius,  the  most  pretentious  and  one  of  the  most  deliberately  mendacious  among 
the  exponents  of  so-called  "  German  science  "  in  historical  matters,  audaciously  asserts 
that  before  the  fourth  century  Rome  knew  little  or  nothing  con('erning  any  special  vener- 
ation of  the  Blessed  Virgin  ;  that  said  devotion  began  only  in  432,when  Sixtus  III.  restored 
the  Liberian  Basilica,  dedicating  it  to  the  Viroo  Deipara.  Thus  the  German  "  historian  " 
in  his  Hixtnrij  of  the  Citij  of  Rome  in  the  Middle  Age,  Vol.  i.,  p.  131.  In  an  apposite 
monograph  entitled  Hisforifol  Notes  Concernina  the  Antiquity  of  the  Veneration  of 
the  Virqin  Mam  (Rime,  188T),  the  learned  Jesuit,  Mariano  Armellini,  demonstrates  the 
absurdity  of  the  antipathy  ever  displayed  toward  an  even  ordinary  respect  for  the  Most 
Blessed  among  Women,  on  the  part  of  the  heterodox  North— that  North  "which  once  gave 
to  the  Latin  races  a  lesson  in  regard  to  respect  for  women  "  ;  and  he  shows  how  Gregoro- 
vius. problematically  well  equipped  for  a  study  of  the  Rome  of  the  Ca>sars,  was  absolutely 
ignorant  of  all  that  concerns  Subterranean  Rome,  the  Rome  of  the  Martyrs.  The  monu- 
ments of  the  Catacombs  demonstrate  that  long  before  Pope  Liberius  erected  St.  Mary 
Major's  on  the  Esquiline,  the  disciples  of  the  Apostles,  children  of  those  who  had  known 
and  conversed  with  Our  Lady,  "  bad  depicted  her  dear  features  on  the  sepulchres  of  their 
dead,  thus  proving  that  the  devotion  of  the  nineteenth  century  for  Marj  is  the  same  as  thai 
tpf  theprimitive  Church." 


SOME    SALlliNT    FEATURES    OF   THE    MIDDLE   AGE.  52\j 

CHAPTER  V. 

POME  SALIENT  FEATURES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGE.* 
{Complement  of  C/tap.  1.,  J^ol.  II.) 

.-.  Astrology.  Alchemy,  axd  Sorcery. 

Desire  Nisard,  the  late  veuerable  Dean  of  the  French 
Academy,  ouce  rebuked  a  presumptuous,  self-acclaimed  wise 
man  with  these  words  :  "  It  is  not  your  knowledge,  sir,  but 
your  ignorance  that  we  fear."  The*  Catholic  apologist  for 
the  Ages  of  Faith  indulges  in  the  same  reflection  whenever 
he  is  obliged  to  note  the  arrogant  ignorance  of  some  decrier 
of  a  period  which  the  poor  man  has  not  studied.  We  have 
no  desire  to  ignore  any  of  the  salient  features  of  the  Middle 
Age  ;  although  we  are  ready  to  admit  that  Christendom  was 
then  as  now  composed  of  human  beings,  and  that  then  as 
well  as  now  individual  men  and  general  society  suffered  from 
many  failings.  Among  these  failings — or,  as  the  worshippers 
of  everything  modern  would  term  them,  the  crying  evils — of 
the  most  misunderstood  of  periods,  we  are  sometimes  asked 
to  note  the  existence  of  a  blind  faith  in  astrology,  alchemy, 
and  sorcery.  But  was  such  a  belief  a  creation  of  the  Middle 
Age  ?  He  must  be  indeed  a  tyro  in  historical  study  who  does 
not  know  that  astrology  was  a  legacy  from  paganism  ;  that  it 
originated  among  the  ancient  Chaldeans  ;  that  from  Chaldea 
it  passed  into  Egypt,  thence  into  Greece  ;  and  that  from  the 
decadent  Lower  Empire  the  Arabs  transplanted  it  into 
Spain,  whence  it  was  diffused  througliout  Europe.  Very 
little  patience  in  investigation  is  required  in  order  that  one 
may  learn  that  all  that  was  magi<xd  in  astrology — that  is,  the 
so-called  Judiciary  astrology — was  always  condemned  by  the 
Church.  Even  a  casual  student  of  the  Middle  Age  knows 
that  HoYarrtZ  astrology  was  only  what  we  now  term  astronomy, 
and  that  this  science  was  always  cultivated  pre-eminently  by 
the  mediaeval  ecclesiastics.     Judiciary  astrology,  which  Kep- 

♦  Most  of  the  contents  of  this  dissertation  appeared  in  The  Ave  Maria.    1893  '99 
paKKim. 


530  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

ler  riglitly  styled  a  "  crazy  daugliter  of  a  sane  mother,"  pre- 
tended to  predict  the  future  of  men  and  states  by  means  of 
examination  of  the  stars ;  and  we  read  that  Charlemagne  issued 
many  edicts  against  its  practice,  while  many  Pontiffs  con- 
demned it  in  apposite  Bulls.  And  long  alter  the  Middle 
Age  had  vanished,  judiciary  astrology  continued  to  be  in 
vogue.  To  say  nothing  of  the  then  still  comparatively  crude 
English  and  Germans,  the  more  enlightened  Italians  and 
French  were  not  guiltless  in  this  matter,  even  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  And  even  in  our  own  day,  astrology  is  practised 
to  a  great  extent  among  people  who  are  far  from  media3val 
in  their  tendencies  ;  and  if  it  is  not  more  in  favor  than  it  is, 
especially  among  those  who  are  outside  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  the  reason  is  to  be  found  not  in  any  superiority  of 
intellect,  but  in  a  spirit  of  materialism  which  prevents  so 
many  non-Catholics  from  looking  above  the  roofs  of  their 
houses  for  an  explanation  of  the  things  of  earth. 

The  word  "  alchemy  " — merely  the  Arab  term  for  our 
*'  chemistry  "  {al  chemia) — does  not  occur  in  any  writings  of 
an  earlier  date  than  the  ninth  century  ;  but  the  science  itself 
is  of  ante-mediseval  origin.  We  know  that  the  Greeks  and 
Arabs  derived  it  from  the  Egyptians  ;  and  that  the  latter, 
with  every  apj^earance  of  reason,  assigned  its  beginnings  to 
the  early  generations  of  humanity.  As  an  illustration  of  the 
antiquity  of  alchemical  experiments  and  inventions,  we  may 
adduce  the  fact  that  the  art  of  enamelling,  rediscovered  by 
the  Frenchman,  Bernard  Palissy,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
was  known  not  only  by  the  ancient  Etruscans  whose  pottery 
we  so  admire,  but  also  by  the  Egyptians  of  thirty  centuries 
.ago.  In  the  Khedival  Museum  of  the  Boulak,  in  Cairo, 
ihere  are  specimens  of  oua-chaptis,  in  a  state  of  perfect 
preservation,  taken  from  the  Pharaonic  tombs,  and  evidently 
at  least  three  thousand  years  old.  However,  it  is  not  this 
legitimate  alchemy  or  chemistry  that  the  contemners  of  the 
Middle  Age  indicate,  when  they  ridicule  that  period  as 
addicted  to  charlatanry.  They  point  to  exceptional  abuses, 
or  rather  travesties,  of  the  science  ;  and  they  never  use  the 
term  "  alchemy  "  in  other  than  contemptuous  fashion,  reserv- 
ing the  synonym  "  chemistry  "  for  the  nobler  operations  and 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  531 

investigations  of    the   same    scieuee.     But    is    it    tnie    that 
alchemy,  understood  in  the  ignoble  sense  of  the  term,  flour- 
ished peculiarly  in   the   MidiUe   Age  V     Is  it  not  rather  an 
indisputable  fat-t  that  every  age  has  furnislied  its  charlatans 
and  innumerable  victims,  of  whom  it  could  always  be  said.' 
"  What  fools  these  mortals  be  "  ?     Long  after  the  Middle  Age 
had  disappeared,  even  in  that  Golden  Age  of  the  semi-pagan 
and  semi-Christian  Renaissance,  if  we  take  a  peep  at  Sedan,  we 
shall  see  Henry  I.  de  Bouillon  negotiating  with  an  itinerant 
alchemist  who  has  promised  to  communicate  to  the  needy 
prince  the  "great  secret "  of  the  method  of  manufacturing 
gold.     And  the  man  of  the  world,  the  circumspect  politician, 
having   witnessed    "  with   his  own  eyes,"   as   he    afterward 
assured  his  friends,  the  fact  of  the  transmutation  of  metals, 
gave  to  his  deceiver  what  would  be  a  quarter  of  a  million  of 
our  money,  that  he  might  advance  the  cause  of  science  in 
the  imminent  Congress  of  the  adepts  at  Venice.     During 
this  same  illuminated  period  of  the  Renaissance,  Charles  IX. 
of  France,  intent  on  the  same  method  of  acquiring  wealth, 
was  swindled  by  Jacob  Gautier  to  the  amount  of  twenty 
thousand  louis  d'or.     We  may  note,  however,  that  Pope  Leo 
X.  was  more  prudent  than  either  Bouillon  or  Charles  IX. 
When  Giovanni  Augurello  read  to  His  Holiness  his  poem, 
Chrysopea,    or    "  The    Art   of  Making    Gold,"    the    greedy 
promoter  received  from  the  grand  Maecenas  in  tiara,  not  a 
plethoric   purse,   but  an  empty  one,    which,   observed  Leo, 
would   serve    to    hold   the    fortune    which    would    soon    be^ 
manufactured.     If  we  approach  nearer  to  our  own  days,   we 
behold    the   entire  school  of  Voltaire,  to  a    man,    dupes    of 
charlatans  like  Cagliostro,  the  Count  de  Saint-Germain,  and 
J.  J.  Casanova  (1).     Again,   we   must   not   forget   that   the 
chemical,  or  alchemical  (if  we  must  use  the  term),  investiga- 
tions of  the  Middle  Age  were  the  immediate  causes  of  all  the 
advances  made  by  modern  chemistry-.     In  fact,  the  study  of 
the   occult,   the   prostitution  of  science    in  the   interest   of 
knavery,  occupied  much  less  of  the  attention  of  our  mediaeval 
ancestors    than    is    commonly    supposed.     Speaking  of  the 
aberrations   of   certain   mediaeval  alchemists,  Cantii  says : 

<])  See  our  remarks  on  Cagliostro  In  Vol.  iv.,  p.  -120. 


532  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

"These  vagaries  of  huraau  reasou  were  an  iuheritance  of 
antiquity,  a »c/  tlieij  ceased  (luring  the  most  (jlorion.s  cenfaries  of 
Christianity  (the  early  Middle  Age).  Undoubtedly,  it  is  to 
be  regretted  that  human  intelligence  ever  abandoned  itself 
to  such  a  delirium  ;  but  the  occult  sciences  were  to  have  their 
moment  of  reign  in  the  age  of  imagination,  and  to  impel,  by 
means  of  the  imagination,  the  minds  of  men  to  an  activity  of 
which  reason  alone  was  not  capable.  How  many  vigils  were 
consecrated  to  study  by  those  men  who  thought  that  thereby 
they  would  surely  discover  the  universal  remedy  and  the 
philosopher's  stone  !  It  was  out  of  their  labors  that  chem- 
istry was  born."  It  was  only  after  the  time  of  Eaimondo 
LuUo  that  rascals  turned  alchemy  into  an  instrument  for 
swindling,  and  that  it  was  abandoned  by  men  of  merit. 
From  the  time  of  Lullo  to  that  of  Palissy  it  made  no  prog- 
ress. While  engaged  in  alchemy,  Arnaldo  di  Villanova 
(b.  1238),  the  preceptor  of  Lullo,  discovered  the  sulphuric, 
muriatic,  and  nitric  acids.  He  it  was  who  made  the  first 
attempts  at  the  distillation  which  afterward  produced  alcohol. 
Paracelsus  introduced  antimonial,  saline,  and  ferruginous 
preparations.  Glauber  discovered  the  sulphate  of  soda. 
Basil  Valentino  (or  whatever  Benedictine  monk  wrote  under 
that  name  in  the  fifteenth  century)  gave  to  us  vitriolized  tartar. 
Judiciary  astrology  and  the  abuses  of  alchemy  certainly 
produced  many  baneful  effects  during  the  Middle  Age  ;  but 
they  were  harmless  when  compared  wdtli  the  evils  w^hich 
attended  the  practice  of  sorcery — that  lengthy  hallucination, 
says  Littre,  "  which  afflicted  humanity  during  many  long 
centuries.  The  prodigious  multitude  of  sorcerers  who  were 
victims  of  a  senseless  justice,  show  how  persistently  and 
eflfectively  intellectual  maladies  are  communicated.  The 
executioner  did  not  deter  the  sorcerers  ;  and  they  all  died, 
avowing  their  relations  with  the  demon."  But,  like  the  cor- 
ruptions of  astrology  and  alchemy,  sorcery  was  not  peculiar 
to  the  Middle  Age.  It  existed  among  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
and  even  among  the  Jews  long  before  the  time  of  Moses,  as 
we  learn  from  Deuteronomy ;  and  in  Kings  we  read  how  the 
Pythoness  of  Endor  caused  the  ghost  of  Samuel  to  appear  to 
Saul.     The  works  of  ancient  Greece  are  more  redolent  of  the 


SOME    SALIENT    FEATURES    OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGE.  533 

piiraplieniali.a  of  sorceiT  than  of  the  jj;h)rie.s  of  Helhis  ;  you 
c*au  open  soarcely  oue  of  the  Greek  uanatives,  phiys,  poems, 
or  phih)sophical  treatises,  without  meetiug  diviuatious, 
philtres,  oharius,  iiivocatious  of  the  dead,  luetaiiiorphoses  of 
meu  into  animals,  etc.  Every  student  remembers  the  scene 
described  by  Homer,  where  Tiresias  prepares  the  ditch  filled 
with  blood  for  a  summoning  of  the  shades  ;  and  that  scene 
where  Circe  changes  the  companions  of  Ulysses  into  pigs. 
We  know  that  in  pagan  Rome  sorcery  was  an  acknowledged 
profession  ;  and  in  the  time  of  Tacitus  its  adejits,  under  the 
name  of  "  mathematicians,"  were  addicted  to  abominations 
which  caused  the  great  historian  to  number  them  among  the 
worst  scourges  of  the  empire.  These  were  the  "  mathema- 
ticians "  against  whom  Pope  St.  Gregory  the  Great  so  forcibly 
inveighed,  with  the  result  that  many  Protestant  writers 
exhibit  him  as  An  illustration  of  papal  hostility  to  learning  (1). 
From  Roman  paganism,  by  means  of  Neo-Platonism  (a  pliil- 
osophico-poetical  mixture  of  Indian,  Egyptian,  and  Greek 
doctrines,  which  the  School  of  Alexandria  tried  to  substitute 
for  pure  Christianity)  sorcery  and  other  theosophistic  inven- 
tions found  their  way  into  early  mediaeval  society  ;  but  dur- 
ing the  halcyon  days  of  this  Age  of  Faith — that  is,  from  the 
eighth  to  the  fourteenth  centur}- — the  number  of  adepts  of 
occultism  was  always  incomparably  less  than  that  which 
flourished  during  the  Renaissance.  Nor  could  it  have  hap- 
pened otherwise.  In  pagan  times,  when,  to  use  the  words  of 
Bossuet,  "everything  was  God  excepting  God  Himself," 
association  with  demons,  either  real  or  imaginary,  was  not 
repugnant  to  the  tastes  of  men,  especially  since  it  was 
endowed  with  the  charms  of  terror.  But  the  worship  of  de- 
mons could  not  subsist  in  hearts  which  were  occupied  by  faith 
in  the  one,  all-powerful,  and  loving  God.  In  vain  did  the 
powers  of  darkness  join  the  remnants  of  the  Latin  with  the 
Germanic  superstitions  in  order  to  oppose  a  last  resistance 
to  the  conquests  of  the  God-Man  :  the  mind  of  the  Church, 
like  that  of  her  grandest  poet,  Dante,  assigned  to  the  sorcerer 
the  lowest  place  in  hell.  But  when  the  Renaissance  tried 
to  effect  an  alliance  between  the  ideas  of  paganism  and  those 

(!)  See  our  Vol.  i..  p.  380. 


534  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

of  Cliristianitj,  there  was  a  great  revival  of  the  ancient  ten- 
dency to  superstition  ;  and  then  arrived  the  Golden  Age  of 
sorcery, — a  fact  which  seems  not  to  be  recognized  by  the 
admirers  of  the  Renaissance  and  the  decriers  of  the  Middle 
Age.  And  this  Golden  Age  of  sorcery  reached  its  culmina- 
tion in  the  sixteenth  centuiy,  the  period  of  Protestantism 
and  of  scepticism,  when  the  characteristics  of  the  Middle 
Age  had  become  mere  traditions.  When  writers  on  sorcery 
adduce  instances  of  capital  punishment  for  this  crime,  tliey 
seldom  go  further  back  than  the  sixteenth  century.  They 
do,  indeed,  point  to  the  signal  case  of  Joan  of  Arc  in  the 
fifteenth  century  ;  but  what  modern  historian,  possessed  of 
critical  acumen,  and  not  enrolled  in  the  service  of  the  father 
of  lies,  ventures  to  assert  that  the  English  murderers  of  the 
sweet  Maid  of  Orleans  really  believed  that  she  was  a 
sorceress  ? 

The  many  treatises  encouraging  sorcery  and  demonology 
which  were  published  and  scattered  broadcast  throughout 
Europe,  especially  in  Germany  and  England,  at  the  time 
when  the  so-called  Reformers  were  claiming  that  human 
reason  had  broken  its  fetters,  were  the  cause  of  a  spread  of 
superstition  such  as  the  Middle  Age  never  knew.  Martin 
Luther  and  his  companion  preachers  contributed  their  share 
in  furthering  the  contagion.  If  we  except  Luther  himself, 
Melanchthon,  and  a  few  others  of  the  first  innovators,  who 
had  been  trained  by  that  Church  whose  seamless  garment 
they  were  rending,  the  early  preachers  of  Lutheranism  were 
men  of  no  education ;  and  naturally,  instead  of  combating 
the  belief  and  practice  of  sorcery,  they  helped  to  propagate 
the  evils.  Luther  himself  said  that  he  held  theological  con- 
ferences with  the  devil  (1),  and  that  he  often  saw  the 
KiUkro2:)/t — a  child  born  of  Satanic  parents — sitting  among 
his  own  offspring  ;  and  for  many  years  after  the  heresiarch's 
death,  credulous  visitors  to  his  room  in  Wartburg  were 
shown  the  inkspot  on  the  wall  which  recalled  his  interview 
with  the  prince  of  darkness.     M.  Alfred  Rambaud — a  dis- 

(1)  Worlis  of  Luther,  Vol.  iii.— Claude's  Z)e/en«e  o/  the  Reformation,  pt.  2. -Nicole's 
Legitimate  Prejudices,  ch.  2.— Basnage's  History  of  the  Reformed  Churches ,  Vol.  Hi ^ 
ch.  5.— Bayle's  Dictionary,  Art.  Luthtr. 


SOME   isALIENT  FEATURES    OF  THE   iMlDDLE   AGE.  iiSf, 

tiDguislieil  pixifessor  of  the  Froncli  Institute  of  our  day,  aud 
of  course  a  freethinker, — is  astonished  when  lie  reflects  ou 
the  fact  that,  in  so  many  places  in  the  days  of  the  Refor- 
mation, superstition  should  have  taken  the  place  of  religion  : 
"  It  is  very  strange,  and  very  humiliating  for  human  reason, 
that  when  the  Middle  Age  had  vanished  ;  when  Charron  and 
Montaigne  had  just  written  those  books  so  impregnated  with 
the  spirit  of  scepticism ;  precisely  then,  in  the  full  light  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  persecutions  of  sorcerers  entered  ou 
their  most  violent  phase  "  (1).  One  of  the  most  sincere  writers 
ou  sorcer}',  albeit  probably  the  most  tiresome  and  pedantic, 
was  the  royal  head  of  the  English  Church  Establishment,  that 
"  wisest  fool  in  Europe,"  as  Sully  termed  him,  James  I.  "  It 
is  not  a  ceutury,"  writes  Voltaire,  "  since  King  James  him- 
self, that  great  enemy  of  the  Romau  communion  and  of  the 
Pope,  caused  his  Demonology  to  be  printed.  Master  James, 
as  Henry  IV.  styled  him,  admitted  the  fact  of  enchantments, 
etc. ;  he  granted  the  power  of  the  devil,  and  that  of  the  Pope, 
who,  according  to  him,  has  the  power  of  expelling  Satan 
from  the  bodies  of  the  possessed,  just  as  all  priests  have  it. 
And  even  we — we  unfortunate  Frenchmen,  who  think  to-day 
that  we  have  re-acquired  a  little  common  sense, — even  we 
were  then  immersed  in — oh,  what  a  sewer  of  stupid  barbarism 
it  was !  At  that  time  there  was  not  one  parliament,  not  one 
tribunal,  which  was  not  engaged  in  trying  sorcerers." 

Yes,  M.  Arouet,  it  was  a  shame  for  France  that  her 
parliaments  and  other  courts  of  judicature,  like  the  tribunals 
in  Protestant  lands,  and  notably  like  the  disciples  of  Cotton 
Mather  in  the  English  colonies  of  America,  were  so  foolishly 
cruel  tow^ard  men  and  women  who  may  have  been  guilty  of 
devil-worshiping,  but  who  may  have  been  the  victims  of 
hallucination,  and  may  have  been  more  innocent  than  their 
judges.  But,  Sage  of  Ferney,  you  who  were  so  sympathetic 
toward  the  real  or  alleged  sorcerers  and  witches  who  cursed 
the  Pope,  at  the  very  time  when  you  wrote  of  Pombal's 
burning  of  the  Jesuits   at   Lisbon  (2)    that  "  it   is  a  good 

(1)  History  of  Civilizntum,  Vol.  1..  p.  511.    Paris.  188.5. 

(2)  It  had  been  rumorefl  tn  France  that  PombaJ  had  sent  twenty  Jesuits  to  the  stake ; 
and  It  was  of  this  reported  hecatomb  to  Freemasonry  and  Protestantism  that  Voltaire  said 


530  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

beginning,"  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 
those  cruelties  would  not  have  been  possible  in  the  early 
Middle  Age,  when  the  merciful  spirit  of  the  Church  per- 
meated the  civil  jurisprudence.  You  must  have  known  that 
at  least  in  that  France  which  you  so  persistently  besmirched, 
the  jurisprudence  which  you  rightly  decry  was  a  revival  of 
the  old  Jus  Penale  Bomamim,  which  had  been  replaced  by 
the  Canon  Law  of  the  Church  until  Philip  the  Fair  broke 
with  all  the  traditions  of  the  Middle  Age,  and  put  secular 
tribunals  in  the  place  of  the  "  Courts  of  Christianity  "  which 
had  never  prescribed  the  pain  of  death  for  sorcery. 

Witchcraft  (that  form  of  sorcery  which  is  the  most  familiar 
to  the  American  student  of  history),  was  a  legacy  of  paganism, 
and  was  scarcely  known  until  toward  the  close  of  the  Middle 
Age,  when  the  hitherto  all-pervading  spirit  of  the  Church 
was  beginning  to  lose  its  hold  on  European  institutions. 
The  student  of  the  classics  will  remember  Lamia,  beloved  by 
Jupiter,  and  the  victim  of  Juno's  jealousy  ;  the  murderess  of 
children  and  the  foe  of  imminent  motherhood  (1).  From 
this  idea  of  Lamia  the  pagan  Romans  drew  that  of  beautiful 
but  lubricious  women  whom  the  gods  had  transformed  into 
witches — striges, — and  who  sucked  the  blood  of  infants,  or 
weakened  them  by  feeding  them  from  their  own  breasts. 
Garlic  was  supposed  to  be  a  remedy  for  these  enchant- 
ments (2).  Lucian  and  Apeleius  give  many  notions  concern- 
ing the  witches  of  Thessaly,  and  their  powers  of  transfor- 
mation. The  Jewish  Talmud,  that  strange  mixture  of  tra- 
ditional ancient  wisdom  and  puerile  errors,  speaks  of  a 
certain  Lilith,  who  may  have  been  a  version  of  the  pagan 
Lamia.  This  Lilith,  says  the  Talmud,  was  the  first  wife  of 
Adam,  a  mother  of  demons,  and  most  baneful  to  the  newly- 
born  children  of  men ;  and  in  order  to  obviate  all  danger  to 
the  infant,  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  place  in  the  room  of 

it  would  do  for  a  beginning.  We  can  imagine  the  chagrin  of  the  Sage  when  be  learned 
that  only  one  Jesuit  had  been  burnt— Father  Malagrida.    (See  our  Vol.  iv.,  p.  452.) 

(1)  "  Ntu  ptanscB  Lamice  vtvum  puerum extrahat  a/w."   (Horace,  in  "Ars  Poetica,''^ 
340.) 

(2)  **  PrcBterea  si  forte  premit  strix  atra  putllas, 
Virnsa  immuJgens  excftis  uhera  (ahrts, 
Aliapr(Bcepit  Tilini  sciitentia  r)cr/i." 

— Serenus  Samonicus.  ch.  59. 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  537 

the  mother  a  triaugle  bearing  the  names  of  God,  Eve,  and 
Adam,  togetlier  with  tlie  warning,  "  Awiiy,  O  Lilith  ! "' 
Another  instance  of  the  beUef  in  witchcraft  in  the  early  days 
of  Christianity  is  furnished  by  the  legend  that  when 
Herodias  received  tlie  head  of  the  Baptist,  slie  attempted  to 
kiss  it ;  and  that  the  mouth  of  tlie  victim  opened,  emitting  a 
breath  which  sent  the  murderess  floating  in  the  air,  where 
she  is  still  seen  in  the  quiet  of  night,  waiting  for  opportunity 
to  injure  Christians. 

However,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  Middle  Age  there 
was  but  little  belief  in  witchcraft.  Friar  Bernard  liateguo, 
a  most  zealous  Inquisitor  of  the  sixteenth  centur}-,  whose 
Guide  for  Inqnifiitors  is  praised  by  that  light  of  the  Holy 
Office,  Francis  Pegna,  says  that  there  were  no  witches  in 
Christendom  "  before  the  time  when  the  Decree  of  Gratian 
was  compiled  " — that  is,  about  the  year  1151 ;  and  he  adds 
that  "  the  Sfrigiarum  secta  first  appeared  only  about  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  as  is  evident  from  the  archives 
of  the  Inquisition"  (1).  We  are  justified,  therefore,  in 
believing  that  it  was  only  after  the  crime  of  Anagni  had 
entailed  the  vital  end  of  the  Middle  Age,  that  witchcraft  and 
its  attendant  horrors  became  a  scourge  to  humanity. 

11. — Trades-Uxions. 

Among  the  many  proofs  that  the  lot  of  the  mediaeval 
workingman  was  superior  to  that  of  his  modern  brother, 
not  the  least  convincing  is  found  in  those  trades-unions  of 
the  Middle  Age,  which  formed  an  essential  constituent  of 
not  only  the  social  organism,  but  also  of  the  political  life  of 
that  too  frequently  misunderstood  period.  A  trade-union  an 
institution  of  the  Middle  Age  ?  Is  it  possible  that  in  that 
"dark  period  "  there  existed  associations  for  the  protection 
of  the  laborer?  Such  is  the  fact,  surprising  though  it  may 
be  to  those  who  have  been  led  to  think  that  all  the  social 
good  in  the  world  is  a  thing  of  yesterday.  In  the  History 
of  the   Hermit   AmpeUus    (2),  which   dates    from    the   fifth 

(1)  Guide  for  the  Inquisitors  Into  Heretical  Pcrrersoifxs,  in  Which  Tlicij  Mn]/ 
Find  AU  That  TIioj  A'wd  to  Knoir  fur  the  Exercise  of  Their  Office  ;  by  In-iar 
Bernard  of  Como,  Friar-Preacher  and  lUu.itrioiiK  Tufinisitor.     Milan,  156G. 

(2)  In  the  Golden  Legend  by  Jacobus  de  Vorajrine. 


538  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

century,  we  read  of  tlie  "  consuls  "  or  presidents  of  the  lock- 
smiths. In  many  of  the  Chronicles  of  the  Carlovingiau 
period  we  find  mention  of  the  corporation  of  the  goldsmiths. 
We  discover  that  the  bakers  had  formed  an  association  even 
in  the  time  of  King  Dagobert ;  for  an  ordinance  of  that 
monarch,  dated  in  630,  speaks  of  them  in  their  collective 
capacity.  Several  of  the  Capitulars  of  Charlemagne  pre- 
scribed the  number  of  journeymen  whom  the  bakers' 
association  may  receive,  to  the  end  that  the  trade  may  not 
be  overcrowded.  In  the  days  of  this  first  Holy  Roman 
Emperor  there  were  in  Lombardy  many  collegia  of  artisans, 
probably  relics  of  the  ancient  pagan  Roman  associations, 
or  rather  imitations  of  those  bodies,  transformed  and  sancti- 
fied by  the  Church.  In  many  of  the  Annals  of  Ravenna,  we 
perceive  that  about  the  year  943  there  was  in  that  gem  of 
the  Adriatic  a  collegium  of  fishermen ;  the  same  annals,  at 
the  year  953,  make  mention  of  a  corporation  of  traders  ;  and 
in  1001  they  introduce  us  to  a  president  of  the  batchers. 
In  1061  King  Philip  I.,  of  France,  grants  privileges  to  the 
"  masters "  of  the  tallow-chandlers.  The  records  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  VII.,  atthe  year  1162,  allude  to  time-honored 
customs  of  the  butchers'  union.  In  1182  Philip  Augustus 
confirmed  the  statutes  of  the  butchers,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
furriers  and  the  drapers  (1).  It  is  true  that  in  Germany, 
during  the  early  Middle  Age,  artisans  were  generally  mere 
serfs  ;  but  in  the  tAvelfth  century  even  there  the  laborers  had 
formed  their  eiimungen,  or  unions,  although  the  princes 
placed  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  these  associations,  and 
the  emperors  (notably  Frederick  II.)  decreed  their  abolition. 
In  France,  on  the  contrary,  just  as  in  Italy  and  in  Spain, 
there  was  never  any  antagonism  between  the  trades-unions 
and  the  monarch  ;  and  from  the  time  of  St.  Louis  IX.  to 
the  Revolution,  royal  confirmations  of  the  privileges  of  these 
associations  were  multiplied.  In  1261  St.  Louis  appointed 
Etienne  Boileau,  a  wealthy  bourgeois,  to  the  provostsliip  of 
Paris,  charging  him  with  the  task  of  collating  in  form  all 
the  customs  and  usages  of  each  trade-union  ;  for  as  yet  those 

(1)  Customs  and  Usagcit  of  the  Middle  Age,  and  at  the  Time  of  the  Renaissance  ;  by 
Paul  Lacroix  (Bibliophile  Jacob*.    Vol.  i.,  p.  301.  6th  edit.    Paris,  1878. 


SOME  SALIENT  FEATURES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGE.  539 

•customs,  etc.,  bad  been  merely  traditional.  Boileau  conferred 
with  the  "masters"  of  all  the  associations,  and  the  result 
of  his  labor  was  the  Livre  des  31c(iers,  or  "  Book  of  the 
Trades,"  which  Depping  edited  in  1837 ;  and  which,  as  the 
editor  observed,  "  has  the  advantage  of  being,  in  great  part 
the  unaffected  work  of  the  unions  themselves,  and  not  a 
series  of  regulations  established  and  formulated  by  municipal 
or  judicial  authorit}-."  This  work  of  Boileau  contains  the 
statutes  of  a  hundred  different  organizations  of  artisans  ;  but 
during  the  reigns  of  the  Yalois  and  that  of  Henry  IV.  the 
number  of  trades-unions  in  France  was  increased  to  an  im- 
measurable extent,  there  having  been,  in  the  time  of  the  first 
Bourbon  monarch,  one  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty-one 
in  Paris  alone.  The  fourteenth  century  was  the  golden  age 
for  all  the  trades-unions  in  Europe.  At  that  time  they 
paraded  their  own  armorial  insignia  in  every  religious  or 
other  public  solemnity.  They  enjoyed  the  riglit  of  discuss- 
ing their  own  general  interests  and  of  modifying  their 
statutes.  In  order  to  unite  its  members  more  closely,  each 
trade  inhabited  a  special  quarter  of  a  city,  and  preferably 
one  street,  as  is  shown  to-day  by  the  names  of  innumerable 
streets  in  every  European  city  of  any  antiquity 

The  trades-unions  of  the  early  Middle  Age  exercised  a 
civil  and,  to  some  extent,  a  criminal  jurisdiction  over  their 
respective  members  ;  but  since  they  constantly  tended  to 
extend  the  limits  of  this  jurisdiction,  the  municipalities  and 
sovereigns  finally  restricted  it  to  a  simple  affiiir  of  police,  to 
be  exercised  only  in  matters  concerning  the  business  of  the 
unions.  The  relations  of  a  union  with  its  members  were 
held  by  means  of  officers,  who  were  variously  styled  as 
kings,  masters,  deans,  wardens,  or  syndics.  These  officers 
decided  all  disputes  between  employers  and  employees ; 
and  at  any  moment  a  shop  or  factory  was  liable  to  he 
entered  l\y  one  of  these  representatives  of  the  sovereign 
corporation,  in  order  to  discover  whether  any  infraction  of 
the  rules  was  being  committed.  These  syndics,  etc.,  were 
generally  elected  by  the  members  of  the  unions  ;  in  some 
cases  they  were  appointed  by  the  king  himself  or  the  f^eudal 
lord.      It  is  by  no  means  a  raritv  for  the  reader  to   discover 


540  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

in  mediaeval  annals  instances  of  women  filling  these  positions. 
An  eminent  publicist  of  our  day  lias  well  said  that  the  cor- 
porations (so  were  termed  these  unions)  formed  the  beloved  • 
country  of  the  laborer,  the  artisan,  the  mechanic,  and  the- 
artist  of  the  Middle  Age  (1) ;  and  it  is  certain  that  in  those 
days,  far  from  hating  the  middle  class,  the  workingman 
could  afford  to  regard  the  bourgeois  as  his  equal,  since  no 
member  of  the  bourgeoisie  occupied  so  eminent  a  position 
socially,  or  exercised  so  much  civil  authority,  as  did  the  syn- 
dic of  a  corporation  ;  and  every  workingman  knew  that  the 
syndicship  was  the  reward  of  probity  and  of  skill  in  his. 
trade  (2j. 

The  corporation  of  the  Middle  Age  (let  not  the  word 
alarm  the  reader  who  may  be  suspicious  of  modern  cor- 
porations) was  a  "  moral  personality,"  which  guaranteed  ta 
the  workingman  many  social,  material,  and  moral  advan- 
tages which  are  unknown  to  the  modern  laborer,  whether^ 
as  is  the  rule  in  most  countries,  he  be  in  that  state  of  isola- 
tion to  which  the  individualizing  tendencies  of  the  day 
condemn  him,  or  whether  he  belong  to  that  unsatisfactory 
substitute  for  the  corporation  of  the  Ages  of  Faith,  the 
modern  trade-union.  In  the  Middle  Age  the  workingman 
"  was  a  body  in  the  state  ;  now  he  is  merely  an  individual "  (3). 
The  mediaeval  corporation  protected  each  one  of  its  members  ; 
the  modern  omnipotent  state  confronts  individuals  who  are 
powerless  in  their  vaunted  independence.  In  the  mediaeval 
corporation  the  laborer,  artisan,  or  artist  found  the  means 
to  satisfy  his  most  ordinary  and  pressing  needs — primary, 
and  industrial  instruction  for  his  children,  his  own  support 
when  sick  or  incapacitated  by  age,  and  even  dowries  for  his 
marriageable  daughters.  The  mediaeval  guild  (another 
name  for  this  admirable  institution)  was  surrounded  by  an 
atmosphere  of  religion  the  most  life-giving,  as  it  is  the  most 
encouraging  atmosphere  which  the  workingman  can  breathe. 
Each  guild  was  placed  under  the  patronage  of  some  special 

(1}   Levasseur  ;  History  nf  the  Working  Clnasrn  In  France.    Paris,  1859. 
i2)  FoiTQtTE  ;  Historical  Researches  Concerning  the  Communal  Recolution  in  the 
Middle  Age.     Paris.  1840. 
(3)  RoMAiN  ;  Was  the  Middle  Age  a  Period  of  Darkness  aiul  of  Servitude?    Paris* 

1895. 


SOME   SALIENT  FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  541 

saint ;  the  feast  of  the  patrou  was  the  great  holiday  of  each 
member  aiul  of  his  family  ;  tlie  saint's  portrait  was  tho 
promiueut  feature  of  the  guikVs  banner ;  in  the  church 
dedicated  to  the  saint  (or  in  the  absence  of  such,  before  his 
image)  the  apprentice  assumed  the  obligations  of  his  "  master- 
ship "  ;  in  fine,  in  every  action  of  the  corporation,  as  such, 
every  member  was  made  to  feel  that  the  end  of  labor  should 
not  be  the  mere  accumulation  of  money,  but  rather  the 
sanctification  of  one's  soul. 

In  nearly  all  the  pictures  and  medals  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  illustrating  the 
careers  of  the  medieval  guilds,  which  may  be  seen  to-day  in 
the  Vatican  ?[useum,  the  religious  spirit  of  these  associa- 
tions is  attested  as  having  been  of  their  very  essence  (1). 
Here  we  see  the  workingmen  marching  in  solemn  religious 
procession,  surrounded  by  the  emblems  of  their  corporation, 
bearing  lighted  candles  and  revealing  an  expression  of  de- 
votion which  real  acolytes  do  not  always  present.  There 
we  see  a  guild  kneeling  in  prayer,  probably  in  its  own 
special  church ;  and  the  artist  has  endowed  the  figures  of 
the  suppliants  with  a  spirit  which  leads  us  to  believe  that 
those  laborers,  mechanics,  or  artists  did  conscientious  work. 
Conscientious  ?  Certainly  ;  for  when  the  apprentice  was 
received  as  journeyman,  one  of  the  solemn  promises  which 
he  made  to  God  and  to  his  corporation  was  to  the  effect  that 
he  would  do  "loyal"  (that  is,  sound  and  honest)  work.  It 
was  the  duty  of  the  syndic  to  see  that  this  promise  was  kept, 
and  to  destroy  or  undo  every  piece  of  work  which  would 
bring  discredit  on  the  association.  The  instinctive  and  dis- 
ciplinary "loyalty  "  of  these  mediaeval  workmen  is  evidenced 
in  every  jDroduction  of  their  hands  which  has  come  down  to 
us.  Every  mediaeval  corporation  consisted  of  apprentices 
(for  one,  two,  or  three  years,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
labor  or  art),  of  journeymen,  of  aspirants  to  a  mastership,  and 
of  wardens.  The  modern  trade-union  is  an  association  of  em- 
ployees, the  employer  having  no  other  connection  with  the 
organization  than  that  which  is  entailed  by  his  nearly  con- 
stant antagonism  to  its  measures, — an  antagonism  which  is 

(1)  Many  of  these  represent  itions  are  reproduced  in  the  monumental  work  of  Lacroix. 


o42  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTOBY. 

sometimes  justifiable,  frequently  inexcusable,  and  always 
lamentable.  In  the  medijeval  guild  the  employer  was  a  mem- 
ber, and  he  was  as  subject  to  its  laws  as  was  the  humblest 
apprentice.  The  mediaeval  employer,  just  like  the  newest 
apprentice  in  the  guild,  regarded  as  the  legis  of  his  happi- 
ness, as  the  symbol  of  his  real  glory,  that  silken  banner  on 
which  was  admired,  in  gold  or  in  silver,  the  saw  of  the 
carpenter,  or  the  knife  of  the  shoemaker,  or  the  scissors  of 
the  tailor,  or  the  crown  and  golden  cross  of  the  goldsmith  ; 
and  like  the  apprentice,  the  employer  was  ever  guided  by 
the  motto  of  his  corporation,  which  could  never  lead  him 
astray,  since  the  device  of  ever}-  guild  was  assigned  by  the 
spirit  of  Christ  (1).  In  order  to  become  a  member  of  a 
corporation,  a  person  was  obliged  to  prove  that  he  was  of 
good  reputation,  and  it  was  necessary  that  the  commune  or 
municipality  should  certify  his  moral  character.  The  candi- 
date was  also  obliged  to  show  that  he  was  capable  of 
performing,  or  of  learning  how  to  perform,  the  labors  of  his 
chosen  craft ;  and  when  he  had  passed  the  examination,  he 
was  presented  to  the  mayor  of  the  municipality,  and  then 
led  to  a  banquet  of  initiation,  accompanied  by  two  "  god- 
fathers." When  the  apprentice  had  become  a  journeyman, 
his  great  ambition  was  the  mastership  in  his  trade  or  art, 
and  that  grade  coidd  not  be  attained  until  he  had  produced 
a  "masterpiece  "  which  won  the  approval  of  the  best  judges 
in  the  corporation.  Once  a  master  in  his  trade,  the  work- 
man of  the  Middle  Age  could  travel  in  anv  countrv  of 
Europe,  and  he  would  always  be  sure  to  receive  assistance 
from  his  brethren  of  the  same  trade.  In  those  days,  says 
Levasseur,  the  corporation  was  the  safeguard  and  the  teacher 
of  industry.  "  It  taught  the  people  how  to  govern  them- 
selves. It  did  more  :  it  gave  to  the  artisan  dignity,  a  taste 
for  his  business,  pecuniary  aid,  the  joys  of  fraternity  in 
the  most  extensive  sense  of  the  word.  It  was  the  great 
affair  of  the  working  classes  — the  source  of  their  pleasures, 
and  the  interest  of  their  entire  life."  As  George  Sand 
expressed   tlie   idea,   the    corporation     "  conferred   on   the 

(1)  The  corporations  of  Paris  all  had  for  device:  Viiicit  Concordia   Fratrian—"  The 
concord  of  brothers  conquers." 


SOME  SALIENT  FEATURES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGE.  543 

initiated  a  patent  of  nobility,  of  which  he  was  proud  and 
zealous  even  unto  excess." 

A  very  productive  source  of  revenue,  for  both  the  corpor- 
ation and  the  municipality,  was  formed  by  the  system  of 
fines  for  every  delinquency  on  the  part  of  a  member.  But 
gross  oft'ences  against  the  reputation  of  the  association  in 
matter  of  "  loyalty  "  were  not  condoned  by  a  merely  pecuniary 
sacrifice.  At  as  late  a  date  as  the  fifteenth  century,  we  find 
that  aJuIterafion  of  material,  and  culpable  dejiciincy  of  care 
in  building,  were  punished  by  death,  just  as  other  kinds  of 
robbery  were  then  punished.  The  good  traditions  of  eacli 
trade  or  profession,  as  well  as  the  public  interest,  wer« 
guaranteed  by  the  care  which  was  taken  for  the  morals  of  all 
the  members.  If  any  of  them  associated  with,  labored  with, 
or  took  food  with  an  excommunicated  person,  a  reprimand 
ensued ;  a  repetition  of  the  ofience  entailed  more  severe 
punishment,  perhaps  expulsion  from  the  guild.  Immorality, 
in  the  case  of  a  master,  meant  the  loss  of  his  mastership  ;  in 
the  case  of  an  apprentice,  it  prevented  his  entrance  on  the  ex- 
amination for  advancement.  In  many  corporations  the  most 
trivial  indecent  expression  was  followed  by  a  fine.  Injudi- 
cious rivalry  was  obviated  by  prohibiting  a  new  master  from 
opening  an  establishment  within  a  certain  distance  from  the 
quarters  of  his  old  superior.  Among  the  merchants  and 
traders  there  was  no  "  pulling  in  "  in  those  days ;  the  street 
was  as  free  to  the  wayfarer  as  the  castle  to  the  baron. 

That  in  time  abuses  arose  in  the  mediaeval  corporations 
cannot  be  denied  ;  but  most  of  those  abuses  originated  at 
the  decline  of  the  Middle  Age,  not  in  its  prime.  And  even 
though  those  abuses — natural  concomitants  of  everything 
human — had  been  tenfold  more  numerous  and  more  con- 
demnable  than  they  were,  they  were  more  than  neutralized 
by  the  eloquent  fact  that  the  laborer  and  artisan  were  then 
free  men,  and  that  their  liberty  was  defended  by  municipal 
institutions  and  by  the  confraternities  to  which  these  work- 
ingmen  belonged.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  modern 
workiugman  is  sometimes  reasonably  proud  of  his  individual 
liberty  :  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether  his  condition  be 
not  rather  one  of  individual  abandonment ,  in  the  face  of  that 


544  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

capital  which  has  become,  to  a  very  great  extent,  his  antag- 
onist,— that  capital  which  in  the  Middle  Age  was  his  partner 
in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term.  Indeed,  absolute  social 
equality  is  purel}"  Utopian  ;  but  its  semi-insane  advocates 
ought  to  acclaim  the  corporations  of  the  Middle  Age  as  having 
done  more  than  any  modern  institution  has  effected  in  the  way 
of  harmonizing  the  social  classes.  It  is  of  the  essence  of  fal- 
len human  nature  to  be  subject  to  the  attacks  of  the  passion 
of  envy ;  therefore  there  was,  in  the  Middle  Age,  a  certain 
amount  of  ill-feeling  for  the  rich  and  the  lords  of  feudality, 
on  the  part  of  those  whose  bread  was  gained  by  the  sweat 
of  their  brows.  But  how  trivial  was  that  envy  if  it  be  com- 
pared with  that  hatred  of  "  the  capitalist "  which  is  now  but 
too  rampant  in  the  breasts  of  very  many  workingmen ! 
Speaking  of  France,  where  the  mediaeval  corporations  did  not 
disappear  entirely  until  the  Revolution  of  1789,  the  very 
uuclerical  Proudhon  pronounces  their  abolition  a  "great 
iniquity": — "It  was  the  new  system  of  law,  inaugurated  in 
1789,  which  created  the  entirely  new  distinction  between  the 
middle  class  [la  bourgeoisie]  and  that  of  the  working  people 
[Jes  proUf cares], — a  distinction  which  was  unknown  in  feudal 
times.  Before  '89  the  workingman  lived  in  the  corporation 
and  in  the  mastership,  just  as  a  wife,  a  child,  or  a  servant 
lives  in  the  family.  Then  it  would  have  been  simply  absurd 
to  recognize  one  class  of  employers  and  another  of  employees  ; 
for  then  the  employers  included  the  employed.  But  since 
'89^the  tie  of  the  corporations  having  been  severed  without 
any  equalization  of  wealth  and  condition  between  masters 
and  workingmen,  without  any  provision  for  a  repartition  of 
capital,  and  for  a  new  organization  of  labor  and  of  the  rights 
of  laborers, — a  distinction  has  arisen  between  the  class  of 
capitalists  and  great  proprietors  who  were  the  manipulators 
of  tlie  instruments  of  labor,  and  the  class  of  laborers  who 
were  mere  wage-earners.  The  deep-seated  antagonism 
between  the  two  classes — a  thing  unknown  in  the  Middle 
Age — cannot  be  denied  ;  and  that  lohich  caused  it  ivas  a  great 
iniquity.^' 

This  judgment  of  the  giant  among  the  many  pygmies  of 
modern  Socialism  should  br>  well  considered  by  all  proletarian 


SOME  SALIENT  FEATURES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGE.  545 

sympathizers.  Class  hatred  is  styled  by  M.  Levasnier,  the 
editor  of  the  Piirisiaii  journal  L(i  Corporation,  "  the  barbar- 
ism of  the  civilized  world,  the  dynamite  of  progress  which 
threatens  to  destroy  the  edifice  of  society."  When  the 
Revolution  of  1789  abolished  the  corporations  in  France,  the 
government  realized  that  the  workingmen  would  sufi'er, 
and  it  promised  to  frame  "  a  law  on  associations  which 
would  restore  to  the  laborer  the  guarantees  which  had 
disappeared  with  his  corporative  organization."  But  unto 
this  day  that  law  has  not  been  passed ;  and  there  is  too 
much  truth  in  the  words  of  the  extremely  radical  journal, 
the  Cri  dii  Peuple,  when,  after  declaring  that  in  the  Middle 
Age  the  laborer  was  a  free  man,  it  complains  that  in  our  day 
"  the  condition  of  the  workingman  is  very  similar  to  that  of 
a  serf  who  enjoys  a  relative  liberty,  while  because  of  that 
liberty  his  master  has  no  duties  in  his  regard."  The  trade- 
union  of  the  Middle  Age  was  certainly  a  close  corporation, 
and  probably  its  consequent  condition  of  a  privileged 
monopoly  was  its  chief  defect.  M.  Levasseur  contends  that 
this  monopoly  was  justifiable  at  a  time  when  "  labor  was 
extremely  conscientious,"  the  market  very  difficult,  and 
local  life  very  limited.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  monopolistic 
feature,  the  closeness  of  the  corporation,  might  hr.ve  been 
abolished  without  a  destruction  of  the  union  itself  ;  and 
there  is  no  reason  why  our  day  should  not  see  a  revival  of 
the  mediaeval  institution,  divested  of  its  spirit  of  exclusiveism, 
but  being,  as  of  yore,  a  veritable  representative  of  the  inter- 
ests of  the  workingmen.  In  France  the  enterprises  of  the 
noble  Count  Albert  de  Mun  bid  fair  to  bring  about  some 
such  consummation. 

III. — Business  Features. 

Should  some  enterprising  archaeologist  of  the  twenty-fifth 
century  undertake  to  investigate  the  social  lite  of  the  nine- 
teenth, would  he  derive  any  information  from  a  perusal  of 
one  of  the  ledgers  of  any  of  the  monstrous  "  department- 
stores  "  now  so  common  in  both  Europe  and  America  ? 
Some  of  the  account-books  of  these  establishments  may 
possibly   survive   the   vicissitudes   of  the   next  five  or   six 


546  STUDIES  IN  CHUECH  HISTORY. 

centuries  ;  and  possibly,  though  very  improbably,  the  ink  of 
the  nineteenth  century  may  prove  to  have  been,  in  some 
rare  instances,  nearly  as  durable  as  that  of  the  Middle  Age. 
But  a  twenty-fifth  century  investigator  will  scarcely  find  any 
eloquence  in  the  interminable  columns  of  dry  and  heartless 
figures  which  are  now  more  distressingly  monotonous  to 
many  poor  book-keepers  than  are,  to  any  seamstress,  the 
stitches  produced  to  the  tune  of  the  "  Song  of  the  Shirt." 
Will  any  idea  be  derived  concerning  the  private  lives  of 
those  individuals  whose  shopping  proclivities  are  now  the 
cause  of  the  ledger's  existence?  The  average  merchant  of 
our  day  will  tell  you,  of  course,  that  his  account-book  must 
necessarily  deal  with  nothing  but  dollars  and  cents  ;  that  in 
his  business  minds  and  hearts  have  no  place  ;  and  that  only 
a  madman  would  expect  the  records  of  his  office  to  furnish 
material  for  a  treatise  on  social  or  religious  economy.  Very 
different  from  this  theory  was  that  entertained  by  the 
average  business  man  in  the  Ages  of  Faith.  Then  hardness 
of  heart  did  not  cause  a  mercantile  register  to  present  a 
record  merely  of  monetary  transactions — of  things  which 
are  of  no  use  to  the  philosophy  of  history.  Of  course  in 
mediaeval  days,  as  in  our  own,  the  merchant  noted  accurately 
each  expenditure  and  each  sale  ;  but  then  time  was  found, 
or  made,  for  such  an  explanation  of  each  transaction  as 
renders  it,  when  examined  by  the  modern  investigator,  an 
interesting  and  reliable  source  of  history. 

Under  the  auspices  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Gascony 
there  was  published,  in  1890,  a  ledger  of  a  mercantile 
establishment  which  flourished  in  the  fourteenth  century 
at  Montauban  (1).  The  book  had  been  unearthed  in  the 
archives  of  Montauban  by  M.  Edouard  Forestie  ;  and  when 
read  with  the  aid  of  the  Introduction  furnished  by  its  dis- 
coverer, it  sheds  much  light  upon  the  social  and  economic 
conditions  of  the  Middle  Age.  We  learn  from  this  book 
of  accounts  that  the  Bonis  Brothers  were  general  merchants 
in  Montauban.  They  were  bankers,  both  of  deposit  and  of 
issue  ;  money-lenders  ;  collectors  of  taxes  and  of  ecclesiasti- 

(1)  Ledgers  of  the  Bonis  Brothers,  Merchants  in  Montauban  in  the  Fourteenth 
Century.    Paris,  1890. 


SOME   SALIENT  FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  547 

cal  revenues ;  executors  of  wills ;  dealers  iu  nil  kiuds  of 
drj-goods,  made  clotliiug,  and  shoes  ;  jewellers,  arinorers, 
and  mechanicians  ;  manufacturers  and  loaners  of  all  things 
requisite  for  baptisms,  weddings,  and  funerals ;  manufac- 
turers of  gunpowder  and  of  all  kiuds  of  chemicals  ;  wholesale 
and  retail  apothecaries,  confectioners,  etc.  We  are  told 
that  the  two  members  of  the  firm  lived  in  apartments  over 
the  immense  halls  in  which  the  goods  were  retailed ;  that 
the  younger  brother,  Gerard,  was  married,  and  had  several 
children,  who  were  educated  at  home  by  a  Master  of  Arts ; 
that  during  "  the  year  of  mortality  " — that  is,  1349,  the  year 
of  the  Great  Plague — two  of  these  children  died  ;  and  that 
in  the  following  year,  Pope  Clement  VI.  having  proclaimed 
a  Jubilee,  the  bereaved  parent  journeyed  to  the  Eternal  City, 
that  he  might  obtain,  as  the  book-keeper  piously  notes,  rest 
for  the  departed  and  grace  for  himself.  The  clerk  describes 
carefully  the  itinerary  of  his  master  :  "  He  who  wishes  to 
visit  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  St.  John  of  the  Lateran,  and  the 
other  saints  in  ancient  Eome,  should  proceed  from  here  [Mon- 
tauban]  to  Avignon.  He  will  dine  at  Avignon.  At  night  he 
will  sleep  at  Carpentras.  On  the  next  day  he  will  dine  at 
Sault,  and  then  he  will  sleep  at  Sederon On  the  twenty- 
third  day  he  will  dine  most  joyously  in  ancient  Rome.  Dur- 
ing this  year  1350  our  lord  the  Pope  grants  pardon  from 
guilt  and  punishment  to  all  repentant  persons  who  have  con- 
fessed their  sins.  This  present  Pope  is  a  native  of  Avignon." 
Since  the  clerk  informs  us  how  careful  M.  Gerard  Bonis 
was  in  complying  with  the  conditions  of  the  "  Pardon,"  we 
are  not  surprised  on  hearing  that  in  the  house  of  the  great 
merchants  there  was  a  resident  chaplain,  whose  chief  duty  it 
was  to  offer  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass  for  the  living  and 
dead  of  the  house  of  Bonis. 

One  of  the  striking  features  of  this  mediaeval  ledger  is  its 
presentation  of  evidence  that  the  Bonis  Brothers  never 
charged  interest  to  their  debtors.  It  is  undoubtedly  true 
that  many  merchants  in  the  Middle  Age  were  less  disinter- 
ested ;  but  a  very  small  minority — and  that  minority  com- 
posed almost  entirely  of  Jews — were  guilty  of  what  was 
then  regarded  as  a  nefarious  practice,  since  the  ecclesiastical 


548  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

canons  of  that  period  prohibited  it.  Another  important 
fact  evinced  by  this  book  is  the  not  merely  comfortable  but 
the  luxurious  conditions  enjoyed  by  most  of  the  customers  of 
the  Bonis.  The  list  of  purchases  shows  that  during  the 
fourteenth  century  not  only  were  garments  of  very  fine 
texture  worn  by  the  lower  middle  class  of  the  French,  but 
that  even  the  peasants  were  not  unaffected  by  the  tyranny  of 
fashion.  Much  of  the  time  and  energy  of  the  Bonis  was 
consumed  in  the  manufacture  of  medicines  ;  and  the  ledger 
gives  valuable  information  concerning  the  ingredients  of 
many  of  the  popular  nostrums  of  the  day.  We  learn  that 
in  the  little  city  of  Montauban^then  of  about  ten  thousand 
souls — there  were  eighteen  regular  physicians  ;  in  the  Su- 
burban parish  of  Montricoux  the  pastor  was  the  acting 
iEsculapius  ;  and  in  some  places  one  individual  was  both 
lawyer  and  physician.  One  of  the  curious  items  is  a  charge 
for  a  quantity  of  powder  for  cannon — j^olueras  per  lo  cano — 
entered  against  the  monastery  of  St.-Tlieodard  (1). 

Luxury  at  the  table,  if  we  are  to  credit  the  revelations  of 
the  Bonis  ledger,  which  speaks  of  sales  of  the  finest  condi- 
ments and  confections  to  families  of  the  middle  class,  was 
well  known  to  the  French  of  the  fourteenth  centurj^  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  gastronomic  taste  of  the  English 
and  Germans  of  that  time.  There  is  scarcely  a  spice  or  a 
sweet  known  to  us  that  is  not  charged  to  some  bourgeois  of 
Montauban.  As  to  the  peasants,  their  condition,  as  evinced 
by  this  quaint  but  reliable  authority,  is  very  different  from 
that  described  as  theirs  by  most  modern  historians.  We 
find  many  of  these  presumed  unfortunates  stamping  their 
documents  with  their  own  seals— things  which  are  generally 
supposed  to  be  prerogatives  of  aristocracy  ;  we  learn  that 

(1)  Commenting  on  this  entry,  M.  Forestie  makes  this  interesting  remark  :  "  Hugues  de 
Cardaillac,  lord  of  Bioiile,  nephew  of  the  Bishop  of  Montauban.  was  one  of  the  most 
valiant  knights  in  the  French  army.  Friend  and  comrade  of  Gallols  de  la  Beaume,  grand- 
master of  the  cross-bowmen,  he  had  a  brilliant  share  in  the  campaign  of  Gascony,  ucder 
the  standard  of  Armagnac.  We  find  him  in  1339  making  the  cannons  which  are  to  defend 
Cambrai  against  the  English,  and  it  is  his  squire  who  makes  the  powder.  At  Bioule  we 
see  him  with  twenty-two  hreecli-loadinu  cannons.  It  was  he  who  furnished  the  artillery 
to  the  walls  of  Montauban,  Lauzerte,  and  Cahors  ;  and  thus  we  And  that  there  were  sixty 
cannons  on  the  ramparts  of  four  little  towns  of  Quercy,  just  at  the  time  when  Villani  (and 
after  him  many  modern  writers)  states  that  at  Crecy  three  little  cannona  demoralized  the 
French  chivalry." 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES  OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  549 

their  garments  were  lined  with  fur,  and  that  they  lived  in 
brick  houses  rather  than  in  the  loathsome  huts  in  which  we 
are  accustomed  to  picture  them.  Every  farm  laborer  had 
his  wages  and  other  recompenses  assured  by  written  con- 
tract. As  a  specimen  of  these  contracts,  we  give  the  follow- 
ing :  "  He  is  to  be  in  our  service,  with  his  own  ox  and  one 
belonging  to  us,  from  January  until  the  Feast  of  St.  John 
the  Baptist  (June  24),  to  act  as  ox-driver  and  general  farm- 
servant  ;  and  we  are  to  give  him  a  barrel  of  wheat,  a  barrel  of 
mixed  grain,  and  two  barrels  of  wine."  Many  of  the  laborers 
mentioned  in  this  ledger  had  quite  comfortable  properties. 
Thus  the  swineherd,  Jean  Ohausse-Noire,  owned  a  tine  vine- 
yard. Salona,  an  ox-driver  for  the  Bonis,  owned  two  houses 
in  Montauban  ;  and  his  wealth  must  have  been  considerable, 
since  the  ledger  notes  that  on  the  occasion  of  the  baptism 
of  one  of  his  children  he  bought  two  hundred  and  twenty 
livres'  worth  of  wine  for  the  feast.  Auotlier  peasant,  owner 
of  an  extensive  vineyard,  must  have  dwelt  in  a  fairly  large 
house  ;  for  we  read  that  he  bought  twenty  thousand  bricks 
from  the  Bonis  for  the  facing  of  its  walls.  One  of  the  ser- 
vants of  Gerard  Bonis  was  a  rival  of  that  steward  whom 
Chaucer  represents  as  so  thrifty  that  he  could  lend  to  his 
master  "  out  of  his  owen  gude "  ;  for  we  find  that  this 
domestic  loaned  three  golden  scudi  to  Gerard  during  his 
Roman  pilgrimage.  Those  who  believe  that  the  peasants 
of  the  Middle  Age  were  generally  illiterate,  should  observe 
that  in  the  register  of  the  Bonis  many  of  the  laborers  signed 
receipts  with  their  names  ;  and  the  same  book  tells  us  that 
each  village  of  the  neighborhood  had  a  school,  in  which  the 
parish  priest  was  pedagogue.  Commenting  on  the  discovery 
of  M.  Forestie,  that  sage  and  impartial  critic,  Lecoy  de  la 
Marche,  makes  these  reflections  :  "  The  general  prosperity 
of  which  we  have  seen  the  proof,  and  which  the  people  of 
France  owed  to  the  wise  and  firm  government  of  St.  Louis, 
was  soon  to  disappear  amid  the  incalculable  disasters  of 
the  Hundred  Years'  War  ;  and  the  second  half  of  the  four- 
teenth century  was  not  at  all  like  the  first.  But  the  Hun- 
dred Years'  War  was  the  end  of  tlie  Middle  Age,  the 
tearing  up  of  the  pacific  charter  which    united    the    nations 


550  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

and  constituted  Christian  society.  The  Middle  Age,  prop- 
erly so  called,  was  a  flourishing  period  for  commerce  and 
agriculture,  and  for  both  public  and  private  fortune.  Let 
it  be  loudly  proclaimed  that  down  to  the  end  of  that  period — 
down  to  the  day  when  the  peace  of  Jesus  Christ  ceased  to 
cover  Europe  like  a  protecting  mantle — the  world  knew 
much  more  of  happiness  than  it  has  known  since,  and 
incomparably  more  than  it  will  know  under  the  sway  of 
atheism  and  socialism.  God  treats  faithful  nations  as  he 
treats  faithful  individuals  :  '  All  these  things  sliall  be  added 
unto  you  '  "  (1), 

In  the  National  Archives  of  France  there  is  preserved  a 
register  of  the  accounts  of  the  mines  of  Jacques  Coeur  in  the 
Lyonnais  and  the  Beaujolais,  dated  1455.  This  document, 
given  to  the  light  in  1890  (2),  shows  the  condition  of  the 
miners  at  a  time  when,  according  to  most  modern  publicists, 
there  was  no  ordinary  comfort  for  the  workingman.  Accord- 
ing to  this  register,  the  mines  were  in  the  charge  of  a 
"  governor  "  ;  but  the  decisions  of  that  official  were  subject, 
on  the  appeal  of  the  miners,  to  the  judgment  of  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  king,  who  was  specially  charged  with  the 
preservation  of  their  privileges.  The  rules  of  the  mines 
were  most  stringent  in  regard  to  blasphemy  and  all  matters 
of  immorality.  The  workmen  were  paid,  for  little  more 
than  half  a  year's  labor,  from  two  hundred  to  two  thousand 
francs,  according  to  their  skill  and  consequent  position  ;  and 
when  we  reflect  on  the  cheapness  of  living  at  that  time,  and 
on  the  fact  that  the  miners  were  fed,  clothed,  lodged,  and 
doctored  by  the  establishment,  we  shall  realize  that  they 
must  have  saved  sufficient  to  ensure  for  themselves  a 
comfortable  old  age.  This  conclusion  is  well  founded ;  for 
they  were  never  allowed,  unless  in  cases  of  real  necessit}^ 
to  draw  their  wages  in  advance.  The  food  of  these  work- 
men was  abundant  and  of  the  best  quality — consisting  of 
beef,  mutton,  pork,  fish,  eggs,  bread,  cheese,  spices,  nuts, 
and  all  kinds  of  fruit.     They  had  as  much  white  and  red 

{1 1  Recent  Progress  of  Hmtory.    Paris,  1893. 

(2)  In  the  France  During  the  Hundred  Fea?-,s'  War,  Historical  Episodes  and 
Private  Life  in  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Centuries,  by  Simeon  Luce,  Member  of 
the  Institute.    Paris,  1890. 


SOME   SALIENT  FEATURES   OF   THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  55] 

wine  aa  tliey  desired.  They  slept  in  domitories  near  to  the 
kitchens  of  the  establishments,  so  that  in  cold  weather  the 
immense  sleeping  rooms  might  be  heated  by  hot  air  carried 
by  pipes  from  the  kitchen  fires.  A  modern  miner,  especially 
an  English  one,  would  wonder  at  a  description  of  the  resting- 
place  of  these  laborers.  Each  one  had  his  own  couch  ; 
and  on  it  was  a  mattress,  a  feather-bed,  linen  sheets,  two 
blankets,  a  coverlet,  and  a  pillow  (1).  The  subterranean 
tasks  of  these  mediteval  miners  did  not  last  from  January  1 
to  December  31 :  many  of  them  were  owners  of  farms,  and 
at  sowing  time  and  harvest-tide  they  left  the  bowels  of 
the  earth  to  attend  to  their  crops.  Certainly  the  picture 
conjured  by  these  two  registers  cannot  be  acceptable  to 
those  who  w^ould  fain  believe  that  our  mediaeval  and  Catholic 
ancestors  enjoyed  neither  comfort  nor  common-sense  ;  that 
the  lot  of  the  modern  workingman  is  immeasurably  superior 
to  the  apology  for  an  existence  which  a  Catholic  society  is 
presumed  to  have  decreed  for  the  medieval  laborer.  But  it 
conveys  some  valuable  lessons  for  us  who  live  in  a  time  of 
charlatanical  political  and  social  economy. 

IV. — The  Lot  of  the  Peasant. 

When  Chateaubriand  declared  that  "  the  peasant  serf  of  the 
Middle  Age,  partly  soldier  and  partly  laborer,  was  probably 
less  oppressed,  less  ignorant,  and  less  rude  than  the  free 
peasant "  of  later  days  (2),  the  decriers  of  the  Age  of  Faith 
hailed  the  remark  as  one  of  the  many  proofs  that  in  the- 
author  of  The  Genius  of  Gliristianiiy  historical  acumen 
was  less  evident  than  poetical  imagination.  Nevertheless,  a 
universally  acknowledged  prince  of  historians  in  that  day, 
Augustin  Thierry,  at  a  time  when  his  investigations  had  not 
yet  led  him  from  rationalistic  darkness  to  Catholic  light, 
had  pronounced  the  feudal  system — which  was  said  to  have 

(1)  It  is  a  pity  that  Michelet,  who  thought  that  the  sanitary  features  of  the  toilette  were 
habitually  neglected  by  the  media'val  peoples  (  "  not  a  bath  in  a  thuu.sand  years  "  ).  could 
not  have  read  this  passage  concerning  the  bed  for  each  miner.  But  what  must  have  been 
the  surprise  of  M.  Stupuy,  that  member  of  the  Municipal  Council  of  Paris  who,  just  before 
the  publication  of  this  register,  had  informed  his  colleagues  that  iu  the  public  institutions 
of  the  Middle  Age  the  beneflciaries  were  always  consigned  to  rest  at  the  rate  of  "  eight  to 
ten  in  each  bed." 

(2)  An  Analysis  of  the  FfiKtin u  of  France.  Vol.  iii.,  p.  3,54.     Paris,  IRSS. 


552  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

been  a  source  of  misery  for  the  workers  of  mediaeval 
Europe — "a  uecessarj  revolution,  a  natural  bond  of  defence 
between  the  lords  and  the  peasants, — a  bond  which  originat- 
ed on  the  one  hand  in  the  thing  conferred,  and  on  the  other 
hand  in  recognition  of  the  gift  (donum)  and  in  the  oath  of 
fidelity"  (1).  Undoubtedly  the  media?val  lord  exercised 
many  rights  ;  but  he  had  also  many  duties,  especially  that 
of  protection  to  his  vassals.  Certainly  the  serf,  in  return 
for  the  land  which  he  had  received  from  his  lord,  Avas  obliged 
to  pay  the  "  tithes  "  which  are  so  universally  misunderstood 
by  the  worshippers  of  all  that  is  modern  ;  but  this  burden 
was  far  less  grievous  than  those  which  crush  the  modern 
peasant  and  workingraan,  especially  in  the  Europe  of  our 
day.  It  is  not  improbable  that  a  fairly  accurate  idea  of  the 
feudal  regime  may  be  formed  by  a  contemplation  of  the 
little  Pyrenean  republic  of  Andorra,  a  vassal  of  France,  but 
a  survival  of  the  many  independent  and  happy  republics  of 
the  Middle  Age  (2).  Happy  in  their  vassalage  to  their  lords, 
the  bishop  of  Urgel  and  the  government  of  France,  to  whom 
they  pay  what  is  almost  a  nominal  "  tithe,"  the  Andorrans 
might  appropriate  to  themselves  the  saying  of  Tacitus, "  Fins 
ihi  boni  mores  valent  quam  alibi  bonce  leges.''  Of  course  the 
unique  conditions  of  Andorra  exempt  her  from  the  miseries 
of  a  society  Avhicli  was  too  prone  to  shed  human  blood  in 
intestine  and  foreign  war  ;  but  an  unprejudiced  eye  will 
discern  that  the  little  state  has  much  in  common  with  those 
of  the  Middle  Age.  "  The  erudite,"  remarks  Le  Play,  "  who 
have  investigated  the  condition  of  the  European  peasantry 
of  the  olden  time,  without  being  blinded  by  the  passions  of 
our  day,  have  all  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion.     Faithful 

(1)  Coni^idcratioiis  <>»  the  History  of  France,     raris.  183?. 

(2)  Chiiiiemagne  permitted  the  Andorrans  to  continue  to  govern  themselves  according  to 
their  own  customs,  in  recompense  for  their  aid  in  his  war  against  the  Moors  of  Spain. 
Afterward  Louis  le  Del)onnaire  transferred  part  of  his  rieht  of  suzerainty  over  the  Andor- 
rans to  the  bishop  of  Urgel,  thus  making  that  prelate  a  co-suzerain  with  France,— a  form 
which  still  subists.  As  suzerains  of  Andorra,  the  bis-hnp  of  Urgel  and  the  French  govun- 
ment  appoint  two  vUmierg,  who  conjointly  with  the  syndic  of  the  Valley  of  Andorra  decide 
in  all  important  cases.  Ordinary  matters  are  submitted  to  the  twelve  consuls  whom  the 
people  elect  annually  to  represent  the  six  parishes  of  the  republic  ;  and  these  magistrates 
consult  with  the  consuls  of  the  previous  year.  Eiich  commune  imposes  its  own  taxes, 
every  citizen  paying  according  to  the  revenue  fiom  his  hind  or  flocks.  Primary  instruc- 
tion is  more  extensive  in  Andorra  than  in  the  contiguous  districts  belonging  to  France  and 
Spain. 


SOME    SALIENT    FEATURES    OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGE.  .")03 

pictures  of  the  past  show  us  peasants  judging  in  their  own 
•civil  and  criminal  cases,  paying  very  light  taxes,  and  fixing 
these  in  accordance  with  local  necessities  ;  in  fine,  those 
peasants  yielded  to  an  independent  attraction  toward  their 
lords,  which  could  not  be  excited  by  any  modern  European 
bureaucracy  "  (1).  "  In  those  days."  observes  Duruy,  "  no 
tax  could  be  levied  without  the  consent  of  the  parties  affect- 
ed ;  no  law  was  valid  unless  it  had  been  accepted  by  those 
who  were  to  obey  it ;  no  sentence  was  legitimate  unless  it 
had  been  pronounced  by  the  peers  of  the  accused.  Behold 
the  rights  of  the  feudal  society, — rights  which  the  States- 
General  of  1789  found  under  tlie  ruins  of  absolute  monarchy. 
The  sentiment  of  the  dignity  of  man,  which  despotism  had 
destroyed,  was  rediscovered.  Mediaeval  society,  which  shed 
blood  with  so  deplorable  a  facility,  often  exhibited  a  moral 
elevation  which  can  be  found  in  no  other  age.  The  low 
vices,  the  degradation  of  the  Romans  in  their  decadence, 
were  unknown  in  the  Middle  Age ;  and  that  age  bequeathed 
the  sentiment  of  honor  to  modern  times  "  (2). 

About  forty  years  ago  the  Abbe  Defourny,  cure  of  Beau- 
mont in  Argonue,  France,  while  delving  among  the  musty 
iirchives  of  his  municipality,  brought  to  light  a  document 
which  illustrates  the  relations  which  subsisted  in  the  twelfth 
century  among  the  lords,  citizens,  and  serfs  of  France.  It 
proved  to  be  the  famous  Charier  of  Beaumont,  given  to  his 
people  in  1182  bv  Guillaume  de  Champagne,  cardinal-arch- 
bishop of  Reims  and  lord  of  Beaumont ;  and  since  the  eminent 
author  declares  that  he  simply  ratifies  existing  customs,  we 
may  be  assured  that  his  charter  presents  a  faithful  picture 
■of  at  least  a  large  portion  of  French  society  in  his  day. 
Guizot  termed  this  charter  "  one  of  the  most  liberal  "  of  tlie 
Middle  Age  ;  but  we  know  that  in  every  countr}-  of  Europe 
there  were  then  in  vigor  customs  analogous  to  those  which 
His  Eminence  of  Reims  confirms ;  and  it  is  certain  that  the 
same  charter,  in  all  its  details,  was  promulgated  throughout 
Lorraine  by  Duke  Fery  III.  in  1270  (3).     The  cardinal  shows 

(1>  fiiH-ial  Reform.    Paris.  1880.  (2)  Hustory  of  the  Middle  Afje.    Paris.  187.5- 

(3)  ROMAIN  ;  H'a.s  the  Middle  Age  a  Period  of  Darkness  and  of  Servitude  t   Parts 
1890. 


554  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY, 

that  the  political  power  in  his  jurisdiction  of  Beaumont 
resided  in  himself  as  lord  of  the  fief ;  but  we  find  no  indica- 
tion that  he  ever  exercised  such  power,  except  to  defend  his 
vassals  from  outside  attack  or  to  grant  pardon  when  it  could 
be  granted.  He  does  not  claim  the  right  to  appoint  magis- 
trates or  judges  or  fiscal  agents ;  in  fact,  he  gives  no  sign 
that  he  ever  interfered  in  the  administration  of  justice.  He 
declares  that  he  will  never  revoke  any  of  the  clauses  in  his  char- 
ter ;  and  although  one  of  his  successors  in  the  see  of  Eeims, 
Richard  Pique,  transferred  his  rights  to  King  Charles  V.,  care 
was  taken  that  the  new  suzerain  should  promise  to  "  respect  all 
the  stipulations  of  the  charter  of  Guillaume  de  Champagne  "  ; 
and  the  said  privileges  were  respected  until  the  Revolution 
of  1789.  We  adduce  this  Charter  of  Beamnont  in  order  that 
the  reader  may  determine  whether  the  lot  of  the  mediaeval 
peasant  was,  as  is  so  frequently  asserted,  one  of  unmitigated 
misery  and  despair.  In  the  first  place,  we  observe  that  every 
peasant's  "  hut "  (if  the  reader  prefers  that  term)  was  heated 
without  any  expense  to  himself :  the  communal  forest  fur- 
nished him  all  the  wood  that  he  required  for  comfort  and 
for  cooking.  His  lamp  was  supplied  with  oil  made  from 
the  beech-nuts  which  the  lord  of  the  soil  allowed  him  to 
gather  in  the  manorial  woods,  and  he  could  sell  to  the  deni- 
zens of  the  nearest  city  all  the  superfluous  oil  that  he  could 
manufacture.  The  communal  forest  and  the  woods  of  the 
lord  also  furnished  the  peasant  with  the  timber  which  he 
needed  for  building  purposes  ;  and  from  the  same  sources  he 
obtained  wild  apple  and  pear  trees,  which  by  cultivation 
(since  arboriculture  was  then  an  art  far  better  and  more 
universally  understood  than  it  is  in  these  days)  became  orna- 
ments to  the  peasant's  acres  and  beneficent  purveyors  for  his 
table.  Generous  wine  was  at  the  easy  command  of  this 
needlessly-pitied  man ;  for  all  around  him  grapes  were  com- 
mon property.  And  we  may  note  in  passing  that  his  modern 
successor  would  be  much  more  happy  if  he  used  such  wine 
in  abundance,  instead  of  the  foul  spirits  which  were  unknown 
to  the  average  peasant  of  the  Middle  Age.  Much  has  been 
written  concerning  the  discomforts  of  the  peasant  domiciles 
in  this  olden  time  ;  but  we  note  that  the  Charter  of  Beaumont 


SOME   SALIENT  FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  555 

informs  us  that  each  commune,  at  least  in  that  jurisdiction, 
operated  a  tile-factory  which  furnished  coveriuf^'s  for  every 
peasant's  roof.  This  item  alone  would  justify  the  opinion 
that  the  medieval  "  hut  "  was  more  sanitary  than  at  least 
half  of  its  modern  successors  in  the  most  progressive  coun- 
tries of  the  ivorld.  Did  our  space  permit,  we  could  dilate  on 
this  matter  of  the  domestic  economy  of  the  mediaeval  dwell- 
ers in  the  fields  ;  and  the  result  would  not  flatter  the  intelli- 
gence of  many  "  educators  "  of  our  modern  youth.  We  must 
dismiss  this  feature,  however,  with  one  reflection.  Famine 
was  nearly  an  impossibility  in  mediaeval  Europe.  Eacli 
commune  had  a  common  pasture  ground— ^a  vaine  pdfiire, — 
on  which  any  individual,  domiciled  or  houseless,  comfortably 
situated  or  destitute,  could  find  sustenance  for  one  cow  and  for 
one  goat  or  sheep.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  pauper- 
ism, that  plague  which  modern  society  vainly  endeavors  to  neu- 
tralize through  mercenary  agents,  was  impossible  in  the  rural 
districts  of  that  time.  And  it  would  seem  that  free-trade,  if  not 
as  to  the  word,  certainly  as  to  the  thing,  was  familiar  to  the 
mediieval  peasant ;  for  the  Charter  of  Beaumont  declares  :  "  It 
shall  be  lawful  for  you  to  buy  and  sell  whatever  you  may  de- 
sire, without  paying  us  any  tax  whatsoever."  No  wonder  that 
the  Protestant  De  Tocqueville  was  constrained  to  avow  that 
in  spite  of  the  man}'  advantages  of  modern  civilization,  "  the 
condition  of  the  peasant  was  better  in  the  thirteenth  than  in 
the  eighteenth  century "  (1).  If  the  economists  are  right 
when  they  assert  that  a  density  of  population  is  an  indication 
of  prosperity,  at  least  rural  France  of  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and 
thirteenth  centuries  must  have  l)een  remarkably  happ}- ;  for 
although  the  science  of  statistics  is  of  modern  birth,  such 
investigators  as  Dureau  de  la  Malle  and  Simeon  Luce  have 
furnished  indications  which  seem  to  evince  that  the  rural 
population  of  the  France  of  to-day  is  less  numerous  than 
the  same  population  in  that  early  period. 

But  was  not  serfdom  a  running  sore  among  the  populations 
of  the  Middle  Age  '?  No  ;  a  thousand  times  no  !  Serfdom, 
a  vestige  of  ancient  pagan  slavery,  was  gradually  disappear- 
ing throughout  the  Middle  Age,  being  continually  pressed 

(1)  Tlie  OldReaimr  and  the  Rcvolutioit,  Bt.  ii..  eh.  12.    Paris.  18.56. 


556  STUDIES   IN    CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

by   the   triumphant   advance  of  the   Christian   civilization 
which  the  Catholic  Church  had  created.     "  How  many  per- 
sons," exclaims  Lecoy  de  La  Marche,  "  even  to-day  imagine 
that  the  Middle  Age  was  the  halcyon  time  of  serfdom,  and 
that  the  existence  of  a  caste  of  slaves  was  one  of  the  essential 
foundations   of  its  social   constitution  !     But   the  truth   is 
diametrically  contrary  to  this  assertion.     The  Middle  Age 
waged  incessant  war  against  serfdom  as  a  principle  ;  it  sub- 
stituted for  crying  abuses  alleviations  which  became  more 
and  more  efficacious,  and  finally   it   abolished   the  evil   de 
facto.     When    it   bequeathed   the   rule   of   the   European 
populations  to  the  modern  states,  serfdom  had  long  been  a 
mere  memory  or  a  name.     Already  in  the  thirteenth  century 
it  had  become  rare  ;  in  Normandy  and  in  many  other  parts 
of   France   it    had   disappeared   entirely "  (1).     France    is 
generally  supposed  by  the  poor  dupes  of  certain  English  and 
German  historiasters  to  have  been,  until  the  "  glorious  " 
days  of  1789,  a  veritable  holocaust  to  the  mediaeval  Catholic 
love  of   slavery  ;  and  it  has  suited  the  purpose  of   French 
Voltaireans   and  atheists   to  swell   the  chorus   which  must 
necessarily  try   to   besmirch   the  fame   of   the   Spouse   of 
Christ.     But  it  is  certain  that  in  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century  serfdom  was  legally  abolished   in  France ; 
and  that  before  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — before  the 
dawn  of  the  Renaissance — there  were  no  longer  any  of  those 
who,  despite  the  royal  decrees,  had  persisted  in  regarding 
themselves  as  serfs  (2).     We  hear  certain  readers  demand- 
ing whether  it  can  be  possible  that  any  sane  human  beings 
could  have  insisted  upon  their  right  to  remain  in  serfdom. 
Such  was   the  case   when   Louis  X.    declared   that  "  in  the 
land  of  the  Franks  no  man    should   be  a   serf  "  ;  force   was 
required  ere  thousands  of  the  serfs  could  be  brought  to 
recognize  the  new  order  of  things.     Such  was  the  case  in 
our  day  when  the  Russian  Czar,  Alexander  II.,  incited  by 

(1)  History  of  St.  Louis.    Paris,  1891. 

(2)  The  coryphees  of  tbe  Revolution  and  the  generality  of  the  Masonic  tribe  continually 
laud,  usque  ad  nauseam,  the  decree  of  August  4.  1789,  by  which  the  French  National 
Assembly  pretended  to  abolish  serfdom  in  France.  They  wish  us  to  ignore  the  fact  that 
Louis  XVI.  himself  had  issued  a  similar  degree  in  1778 ;  and  that  even  this  ordfmnance 
affected  only  a  few  light  burdens  which  had  survived  the  march  of  centuries  rather  as 
archaeological  curiosities  than  as  objects  of  serious  attention. 


SOME    SALIENT  FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDIJ:   AOE.  .)OV 

Napoleon  III.,  ein.ancipjited  the  serfs  of  his  empire.  Nor 
was  this  fact  worthy  of  enumeratiou  ainoug  phenomenal 
aberrations  of  human  perversity.  The  serf  was  by  no 
means  a  slave  ;  no  mediaeval  serf  could  have  even  dreamt  of 
being  visited  by  such  horrors  as  were  the  almost  constant 
concomitants  of  American  slavery,  or  by  such  as  were 
solemnly  sanctioned  by  the  pagan  lloman  jurisprudence. 
The  serf,  to  use  the  words  of  Egiuhurd,  the  secretary  of 
Charlemagne,  was  a  vassal  of  an  inferior  degree  ;  and  his 
own  immediate  superior — his  "  lord  " — was  merely  a  vassal 
of  a  higher  degree.  The  serf  had  no  master,  but  a  patron  ; 
he  was  master  of  his  own  person,  but  he  had  certain  obliga- 
tions and  duties  toward  his  lord,  who  recompensed  his 
fidelity  by  efficacious  protection.  The  serf  drew  his  susten- 
ance from  a  piece  of  land,  the  high  domain  of  which  was 
reserved  by  the  lord  to  himself,  but  of  which  the  serf  was  a 
kind  of  half-proprietor.  Of  course  the  serf  was  "  attached  to 
the  glebe  "  ;  and  this  phrase  is  offensive  to  certain  modern 
ears.  But  is  not  the  modern  mechanic  bound  to  the  means 
which  gain  his  livelihood  ?  the  merchant  to  his  business  ? 
The  serf  could  not  abandon  his  glebe  ;  but  neither  could  he 
ruin  himself  by  mortgaging  it.  If  he  fell  ill,  his  lord  took 
care  of  him  ;  if  his  cattle  died,  his  lord  replaced  them  ;  if 
he  or  his  family  were  attacked,  his  lord  defended  him. 
"  While  the  lord  was  owner  of  the  soil,"  says  Guerard,  '•  he 
could  not  dispossess  its  inhabitants.  The  residents  on  his 
territory  had  become,  through  custom,  real  proprietors ; 
whereas  in  olden  days  they  had  been  tenants.  If  the  lord 
wished  to  sell  his  domain,  he  did  so  without  ousting  the 
serfs  :  he  acted  as  a  monarch  acts  when  he  cedes  a  province." 
Does  the  reader  perceive  much  practical  difference,  so  far 
as  this  matter  of  attachment  to  the  glebe  is  concerned,  be- 
tween the  lot  of  the  medieval  serf  and  that  of  the  English 
or  Irish  tenant  who  leases  a  piece  of  ground  for  a  hundred 
years  ?  Such  difference  as  we  perceive  is  in  favor  of  the 
serf,  especially  when  we  note  this  sentiment  uttered  by  the 
Abbe  Defourny  in  his  commentary  on  the  Charter  of  Beau- 
mont:  "  In  the  twelfth  century,  after  the  serf  had  improved 
his  land,  the  lord  gave  to  that  serf  a  right  of  property   in 


5,58  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH   HISTORY. 

that  improved  land,  together  with  full  liberty  to  transmit  it 
to  his  descendants,  without  paj-ment  of  any  right  of  succes- 
sion or  any  other  tax.  Then  the  serf  could  say  to  himself 
while  he  was  improving  his  farm  :  '  This  soil,  watered  with 
my  sweat,  belongs  to  me  and  my  children  ;  at  each  stroke 
of  the  spade  I  take  possession.  The  lord  asks  for  only 
one-seventh  of  the  crop  ;  therefore  my  labor  is  well  reward- 
ed, and  from  generation  to  generation  my  posterity  will 
possess  the  land  which  I  have  fertilized.'  But  the  tenant- 
farmer  of  the  nineteenth  century  must  say  :  '  I  have 
improved  this  land,  but  it  belongs  to  the  landlord.  After 
a  few  years,  when  I  am  old,  when  the  lease  has  expired,  I 
shall  be  ordered  to  move  with  my  children  to  some  other 
farm,  which,  in  its  turn,  after  being  improved  by  me,  will 
still  belong  to  the  landlord.'  " 

Now  a  few  words  in  explanation  of  certain  burdens  suf- 
fered by  the  mediaeval  peasant,  which  at  first  sight  may 
perhaps  appear  to  blur  the  pleasing  picture  which  we  have 
drawn.  In  the  Middle  Age  the  peasant  was  subjected  to 
the  payment  of  tithes,  ecclesiastical  and  temporal ;  to  the 
law  of  pursuit,  to  the  law  of  mainmorte,  and  to  the  right  of 
forismarifagiion.  As  to  the  payment  of  tithes,  we  may 
observe  that  it  was  not  peculiarly  a  mediaeval  institution  : 
it  was  instituted  by  Moses,  and  we  find  it  in  force  among 
the  Christians  of  the  fifth  century  ;  it  exists  to-day  in  Eng- 
land (1).  "We  find  no  records  of  complaints  of  the  excess- 
iveness  of  ecclesiastical  tithes  during  the  Middle  Age ; 
indeed,  such  complaints  would  have  been  absurd,  since, 
although  the  term  "  tithe  "  indicates  a  tenth,  the  tax  was 
seldom  so  large,  and  was  frequently  only  one-twentieth  of 
the  crop.  When  Vauban  submitted  his  work  on  The  Royal 
Tithe  to  Louis  XIV.,  he  urged  the  monarch  to  take  the  ancient 
ecclesiastical  tithe  as  the  model  for  the  tax  which  he  advised 
Louis  to  decree  ;  for,  said  he,  "  the  ecclesiastical  tithe  has 
excited  no  complaints  since  it  was  established,  and  we  have 
never  found  that  it  has  been  the  occasion  of  corrupt  prac- 

(1)  At  present  tithes  in  hind  are  not  collected  in  England  for  the  benefit  of  the  clergy 
of  the  Uoyal  Establishment.  In  1835  it  was  ordered  that  they  should  be  paid  in  money, 
the  value  being  determined  by  the  average  receipts  from  the  crops  during  the  preceding 
seven  years.    They  amount  to  about  forty  millions  of  dollars. 


SOAlE    SALIENT    FEATUKES    OF   THE   MIDDLE    AGE.  550 

tices.  Of  ill!  tiixes,  it  requires  t}»'j  lowest  collectors,  it  entails 
the  smallest  expenses,  and  it  is  t'.e  most  easily  and  gently 
raised."  And  let  us  not  forget  that  the  ecclesiastical  tithe 
was  always  payable  in  I'hid,  or  in  the  products  of  the  soil ; 
so  that  in  times  of  failure  of  crops  the  peasant  paid  nothing. 
On  the  contrary,  the  greater  number  of  secular  taxes,  being 
payable  in  money,  were  often  grievous  burdens  to  the  taxed. 
The  decriers  of  the  mediaeval  tithe  should  study  the  econ- 
omic conditions  of  the  rural  populations  of  France,  as  they 
now  subsist  under  the  Third  Eepublic,  the  foremost  Euro- 
pean representative  of  all  that  is  peculiarly  modern  in  our 
civilization.  On  January  21,  1884,  M.  Pouyer-Quertier 
showed  the  French  Senate  that  agriculture  paid  thirty 
per  cent,  of  its  revenue  in  taxes,  and  industrial  property  paid 
twenty  per  cent. 

We  do  not  hear  much  concerning  the  presumed  burden  of 
the  "  law  of  pursuit,  "  since  it  was  fairly  reasonable,  and 
was  seldom  executed  to  the  letter.  By  virtue  of  this  right, 
the  lord  of  the  soil  could  pursue  and  capture  a  serf  who 
abandoned  his  tenure.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  in 
practice  the  serf  could,  by  means  of  the  payment  of  a  small 
sum,  and  by  the  fulfilment  of  his  other  obligations,  gener- 
ally obtain  the  right  to  reside  where  he  desired.  A  differ- 
ent judgment  must  be  emitted  in  regard  to  the  "  law  of 
mainmorte."  According  to  this  law,  the  serf  could  leave  to 
his  natural  heirs  only  a  small  portion  of  his  movable  prop- 
erty, the  gi'eater  part  accruing  to  his  lord ;  and  against 
this  prohibition  the  Church  continually  thundered.  The 
curious  student  of  the  Middle  Age,  one  who  delights  in 
reading  the  quaint  but  frequently  sublime  sermons  of  that 
time,  knows  how  often  the  preachers  compared  the  nobles 
to  vultures  pouncing  on  a  corpse.  It  was  this  fact,  this 
difference  between  their  spiritual  guides  and  their  temporal 
lords — the  latter  too  often  worthy  precursors  of  our  modern 
liberals, — that  caused  the  peasants  of  the  Age  of  Faith  to 
declare  that  "it  is  well  to  live  iinder  the  crosier."  However, 
this  tremendous  evil,  like  many  other  loudly-published 
abuses  of  the  Middle  Age,  was  frequently  attenuated. 
Lecoy  de  La  Marche  observes  that  it  generally  affected  only 


560  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

the  isolated  serf :  "  If  the  serf  liad  established  a  kind  of 
community  with  his  natural  heirs,  residing  with  them  on  the 
land  which  he  cultivated,  his  goods  passed  to  them.  Very 
often  this  course  was  adopted  in  order  to  overcome  the  legal 
obstacle :  the  community  subsisted  after  his  death,  and 
therefore  naturally  succeeded  to  him.  It  succeeded,  in  the 
same  manner,  to  all  of  its  successively  deceased  members, 
successively  replacing  them.  These  associations  of  farm- 
laborers,  entitled  '  tacit  societies,'  eventually  constituted,  in 
certain  localities,  veritable  little  agricultural  republics." 

The  right  of  forismaritagium  was,  for  a  time,  undoubtedly 
the  most  obnoxious,  as  it  is  still  the  moat  famous,  of  all  the 
burdens  which  the  mediaeval  peasant  was  called  to  bear.  As 
is  partly  indicated  by  the  etymology  of  the  word,  it  was  an 
exemption  from  a  feudal  proscription  which  forbade  the 
marriage  of  a  serf  with  a  woman  of  superior  condition  who 
resided  in  another  lordship  ;  and  the  reason  or  pretext  for 
the  prohibition  had  been  based  on  the  supposition  that  such 
a  union  might  "  diminish  the  fief "  by  depriving  it  of  the 
services  of  persons  who  ought  to  have  been  born  within  its 
limits.  That  this  theory  was  a  relic  of  pagan  slavery  was 
evident ;  and  the  Church,  ever  zealous  for  the  freedom  and 
the  honor  of  Christian  matrimony,  resisted  its  actuation  as  a 
tyranny  which  could  have  no  invalidating  efiect  on  a  Sacra- 
ment pertaining  to  her  sole  custody.  The  nobles  ultimately 
abandoned  their  claim  so  far  as  to  permit  the  undesirable 
unions,  on  condition  that  they  received  from  the  bride- 
grooms a  sum  of  money  (varying  from  three  cents  to  sixty 
cents),  as  an  acknowledgment  of  their  presumed  jurisdiction 
in  the  premises.  Such  was  the  meaning  of  the  forismari- 
tagium at  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century ;  but  very 
frequently  the  fine,  or  tribute,  was  solved  by  the  presentation 
of  a  fancy  cake,  or  even  by  a  gymnastic  exhibition  before 
the  lord  and  his  retainers  (1). 

V. — Hospitals. 

So  vivid  was  the  spirit  of  religion  in  the  Middle  Age,  that 
music,  architecture,  and  all   the   arts    were   brought   into 

(1)  Seethe  Glosmru  of  Ducange,  art.  Forismaritagium. 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES   OF   THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  561 

requisiticm  to  cxierna/e  tliis  noblest  scMitiinont  that  can  fill 
the  heart  of  man  ;  aud  the  choicest  Howers  of  language  were 
culled,  aiid  made  to  join    in   the    general    homage    to    the 
Creator.     Most  of  the  beautiful   expressions    which  so  im- 
press us  in  our  devotional  aud  ascetic   works    were   then 
coined.     Nowhere  more  than  in  the  service  of  charity  were 
the  tender  capabilities  of  language,  the  poetry  of  which  it 
is  capable,  adapted  to  Christian  use.     Thus  when  speaking 
of  those  who  were  in  dire  want,  our  ancestors  in   the   faith 
styled  them  jjaupercs  Host  ri — our  poor;  and  the  establish- 
ments in  which  their  necessities  were  supplied  were  called 
Houses  of  God,  a  term  perpetuated  by  Catholic  France  in 
every  Hotel  Dien.     The  necessitous  were  theirs,  because  these 
were  especially  dear  to  God  ;  they  were  theirs  to  love  and 
succor  ;  and  when  our  ancestors  went  on  errands  of  mercy 
into  the  refuges  of   the   needy,  they   felt   that   only    when 
before  the  Tabernacle  were  they  nearer  to  God.     Animated 
by  such  a  spirit,  it  is  no   wonder  that  scarcely    had   they 
emerged  from  the  Catacombs,  when  the    early  Christians 
fouuded  on  every  side  asylums  destined  to  every  category  of 
misery :  brephotrophia,   gerontocomia,   xenodochia,  ptocheia, 
orphanotrophia, — for  children,  the   aged,  the  stranger,  the 
hungry,  the  orphan.     St.  Jerome  tells  us  that  in  the  time  of 
Fabiola,  one  of  the  founders  of  such  institutions — that  noble 
woman,  whose  fame   Cardinal  Wiseman  has   so  beautifully 
perpetuated, — the  healthy  poor  used  to  envy  the  "  lot  of  the 
sick."     From  the  eighth  century  the  most  famous  hospitals 
were  those  devoted  to  lepers  ;  and  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
says  Matthew  Paris,  these  amounted  to   nineteen  hundred  ; 
but  by  the  fifteenth  this  scourge  had  almost  entirely  j-ielded 
to  Catholic  heroism. 

The  Catholics  of  the  Middle  Age  really  loved  the  poor ; 
for  they  saw  in  them  the  members  of  the  suffering  Jesus 
Christ.  Our  love  is  more  platonic ;  for  too  often  it  has  its 
source  in  a  vague  "  philanthropy  "  rather  than  in  the  ardor 
of  faith.  Hence  it  is  that  we  erect  immense,  grandiose 
establishments,  uniform  monuments  to  the  vanity,  proba- 
bly, of  their  founders,  and  fill  them  with  as  many  sufferers 
as  we  can — the  more,  the  better  for  the  reputation  of  the 


5G2  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

managers,  etc.  But  it  is  certain  that  until  ver j  lately — and 
not  even  now  in  most  cases — the  comfort  of  every  individ- 
ual patient  has  been  less  studied  in  hospitals  of  modern 
foundation  than  have  deceitful  and  unprofitable  appearances. 
Modern  philanthropists,  in  their  zeal  to  claim  for  the  nine- 
teenth century  every  advance  in  the  realms  not  only  of 
science  and  of  physical  comfort  for  the  masses,  but  in  that 
of  consideration  for  the  afflicted,  confidently  point  to  the 
introduction  of  the  pavilion  system  (and  in  how  many  insti- 
tutions has  that  been  adopted  ?) ;  ignoring  the  fact  that  said 
system  was  used  in  the  Middle  Age,  and  on  a  vastly  greater 
scale,  as  well  as  with  more  comforting  adjuncts  than  moderns 
have  yet  attempted.  Where  the  pavilion  system  was  not 
in  use,  something  very  nearly  approaching  it  was  in  vogue. 
The  sick  were  encouraged  in  the  illusion  that  they  were  not 
in  a  public  asylum — an  object  of  horror  to  so  many, — but 
still  at  their  own  hearth-stones.  Each  one  had  a  room  to 
himself,  or  at  least  the  appearance  of  one.  A  judicious 
author — one,  by  the  way,  not  suspected  of  clericalism — 
speaking  of  the  prejudice  of  the  common  people  against  hos- 
pital treatment,  says  (1.)  :  "  In  the  few  hospitals  of  the  Mid- 
dle Age  which  are  still  extant,  we  find  a  spirit  of  charity  well 
understood  and  delicate.  Without  being  richly  ornate,  the 
buildings  present  a  monumental  aspect.  The  sick  have 
air,  space,  and  light.  They  are  separated  one  from  the 
other ;  their  individuality  is  respected  ;  and  certainly  if 
there  is  one  thing  which  is  abominated  by  the  unfortunate 
who  take  refuge  in  these  establishments,  in  spite  of  the  in- 
telligent care  now  accorded  them,  it  is  their  dwelling  to- 
gether in  vast  wards.  . . .  The  separate  system  has  a  great 
advantage  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  and  it  has  emanated 
from  a  noble  sentiment  of  charity  on  the  part  of  the  numer- 
ous founders  of  the  ancient  llaisons-Dieu.'''  One  of  the 
most  interesting  illustrations  of  this  olden  respect  for  the 
individuality  of  the  patient  is  furnished  us  by  M.  Lecoy  de 
La  Marche  in  an  excellent  article  on  this  subject.  It  is  the 
grand  Hospital  of  Tonnerre,  founded  by  a  sister-in-law  of  St. 
Louis  IX.     The  great  hall,  or  ward,  was   divided   by   suffi- 

'D  ViOi.LET  I.E  Due  ;  Dictumarji  of  Architecture,  art.  Hotel  Dieu. 


SOME   SALIENT  FEATURES    OF  THE   MTDDI>E   AOE.  503 

ciently  hicrh  partitions,  and  a  little  above  these  a  gallery  ran 
around  the  (Mitire  enclosure.  Attendants  could  always  ob- 
serve the  inmates  without  disturbing  their  equanimity. 
The  circulation  of  gocxl  air  was  perfect. 

A  verv  interesting  book  was  published  in  1887  by  M.  Leo 
Legrand,  of  the  Fcole  des  Cliarfes  at  Paris,  descriptive  of  the 
hospital  or  asylum  founded  by  St.  Louis,  under  the  name  of 
the  Qui))ze-Vi)i(jf.s— the  "Twenty  Times  Fifteen,"— from  the 
fact  that  it  accommodated  three  hundred  patients  (1).  It  was 
situated  just  outside  of  the  capital,  and  was  destined  for  the 
poor  who  were  blind.  It  is  specially  worthy  of  attention 
as  being  an  example  of  that  system  of  separation — and  even 
of  family  life,  though  in  the  confines  of  a  hospital,— whicji 
we  have  indicated  as  so  advantageous.  No  great,  massive 
structure  frightened  the  visitor  as  he  approached  :  he  saw  a 
collection  of  residences,  apparently  inhabited  by  people  of 
the  middle  class.  Some  of  these  were  occupied  by  a  family, 
others  by  one  individual.  The  blind  formed  a  confrater- 
nity— albeit  not  restricted  to  a  religious  rule, — and  as  an 
independent  body,  they  governed  the  establishment.  Mar- 
riages were  celebrated  in  the  community,  but  never  between 
two  blind  persons  :  one  of  the  spouses  should  be  capable  of 
managing  the  little  household.  Those  who  were  not  blind 
were  relatives  or  friends  of  the  afflicted  ;  they  formed  part  of 
the  society,  and  served  as  a  kind  of  lay-brethren  to  the 
wants  of  the  blind.  Both  parties  wore  a  uniform  of  sub- 
stantial material,  with  a  lily  on  the  left  breast.  Each  house- 
hold did  its  own  cooking,  ate  by  itself,  and  "  the  mother," 
as  the  community  was  called,  supplied  the  food.  All  the 
members  met  at  stated  times  for  pious  exercises.  The 
children  were  apprenticed  to  trades,  or  were  sent  to  school ; 
while  the  blind  themselves  were  generally  taught  music, 
that  being,  in  the  Middle  Age,  a  profession  specially  followed 
by  the  so  afflicted.  The  governing  body  of  this  miniature 
republic  was  a  Chapter,  composed  of  women  as  well  as  men ; 
the  sovereign  being  represented  by  his  grand  almoner  as 
presiding  ofl&eer.     One  must  not  suppose  that  the  Hospital 

(1)  T/ie  Quime-Vingts  From  Ttieir  IToundatwn,  in  the  Collection  of  the  Socletyof  Uliu 
tory  of  Paris,  1887. 


564  STUDIES    IN  CHURCH    HISTORY, 

of  Quinze-  Vingts  was  unique  in  its  care  for  the  blind  :-  from 
the  first  days  of  Christian  freedom,  there  were  similar  insti- 
tutions, although  not  on  the  same  plan,  in  Syria  and  in 
many  parts  of  Europe. 

But  it  was  not  in  well-organized  hospitals  alone  that  the 
poor  of  the  Middle  Age  found  relief  from  their  physical 
woes,  A  multitude  of  local  congregations  were  dedicated  to 
their  consolation  ;  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  and  his  heroic  Sisters 
of  Charity  had  their  forerunners  in  those  Ages  of  Faith. 
There  were  thousands  of  Brothers  and  Sisters  aggregated  to 
the  service  of  the  sick  outside  the  precincts  of  organized 
establishments.  These  did  not  form  a  united  congregation, 
depending  from  one  head  ;  but,  considering  the  circumstances 
of  the  time,  the  general  spirit  of  decentralization  then 
prevalent  in  every  order,  political  and  ecclesiastical,  the 
system  worked  very  well  (1).  Perhaps,  however,  this  sep- 
aratist tendency  was  the  cause  of  the  disappearance  of  these 
"  fraternities  "  in  the  sixteenth  century ;  and  certainly  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul  was  divinely  inspired  when  he  resuscitated 
them,  giving  them  all  the  prestige  and  influence  which  result 
from  unity.  In  the  Middle  Age  these  societies,  just  like  the 
Conferences  of  St.  Vincent  nowadays,  carried  aid  and  con- 
solation into  the  homes  of  the  afflicted  ;  governed,  remarks 
M.  de  La  Marche,  "  by  the  idea  that  the  unfortunate  should 
continue  to  enjoy  the  family  life,  the  associations  of  the 
domestic  hearth."  This  practice  of  extending  domiciliary 
relief  was  common  even  during  the  persecutions  of  the  first 
Christian  centuries  ;  to  do  so  was  one  of  the  chief  duties  of 
the  deacons ;  and  owing  to  this  touching  office  the  members 
of  the  modern  Conferences  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  are  often 


(1)  "When  we  reflect,"  remarks  'M.  de  La  Marche,  "  on  the  extreme  divisions  of  the 
society  of  that  day,  on  the  differences  in  customs  and  language  subsisting  between  the 
different  provinces,  and  on  the  difficulties  of  travelling,  we  may  ask  ourselves  whether 
distinct  organizations— the  separatist  system,  in  fine— was  not  a  hundred  times  preferable 
in  the  circumstances.  Just  in  proportion  as  distances  are  lessened,  as  kingdoms  agglom- 
erate, as  the  larger  countries  absorb  the  smaller,  centralization  becomes  a  political  and 
social  necessity.  But  in  the  olden  time  the  contrary  system  insinuated  itself  [into  national 
and  social  polity],  and  it  worked  as  much  good  then  as  it  would  now  effect  harm.  And 
remember  that  an  identity  of  spirit  and  of  sentiment  united  these  charitable  communities 
in  very  close  bonds  :  all  these  Brothers  and  Sisters  were  equally  animated  by  a  love  for 
suffering  humanity,  and  all  met  in  that  Divine  Heart  where  this  supernatural  love 
originates." 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGB.  'Co 

styled  "  liiv-deacons."  Wheu  the  great  abbeys  came  into 
existence,  each  oue  very  soou  established  au  iutirmary  for  the 
poor  ;  aud  to  these  was  joined  a  subsidiary  service  extended 
by  men  aud  women  living  in  the  world,  who  made  regular 
domiciliary  visits  to  the  sick. 

The  latest  biographer  of  St.  Margaret  of  Cortona  (1)  be- 
lieves that  the  Poverclle,  founded  by  her  in  her  native  city, 
are  the  earliest  examples  of  Sisters  of  Charity  known  in  the 
Middle  Age.      Indisputable  documents  show  that  such  de- 
voted women  were  at  their  beneficent  work  centuries  before 
the  time  of  St.  Margaret ;  nevertheless,  the  Poverelle  were  a 
most  interesting  community.     Led  by  a  spirit  of  penance 
and  reparation  for  a  scandalous  early  life  (2),  Margaret  joined 
the  Third  Order  of  St.  Francis,  placing  before  herself  two 
great  objects — the  maintenance  of  peace  among  the  feudal 
nobles  and  between  the  city  factions,  and  the  alleviation  of 
human  misery.     She  became,  in  fine,  an  angel  of  peace  and 
an  apostle  of  mercy.     She  founded  at  Cortona  a  refuge  for 
pilgrims  and  other  travellers,  and  a  hospital  for  the  sick 
poor.     This  latter  establishment  she  herself  served,  assisted 
by  a  number  of  zealous  women  whom  her  fervor  had  drawn 
around  her.     A  local  Sisterhood  was  soon  formed,  and  the 
people  denominated  it  the  Congregation  of  the  Poverelle, 
or  Little  Poor  Ones.     St.  Margaret  soon  joined  to  these 
Tertiaries   a  number  of  independent  confraternities,   who 
should  spread  the  benefits  of  her  work  among  the  Cortonese 
in   their  own  homes.     This  latter   association  extended   a 
special  care  to  the  bashful  but  really  needy,  of  whom  there 
are  so  many  in  every  large  city.     The  director  was  a  prior 
elected  for  six  months  from  among  the  secular  clergy,  and  he 
was  assisted  by  six  counsellors,  a  treasurer,  a  secretary,  and 
a  standard-bearer.     Besides  its  directly  beneficent  visits  to 
the  poor,  this  forerunner  of  the  Conferences  of  St.  Vincent 
de  Paul  exercised  a  social  and  political  role.     Let  not  any 
hypercritical  worshipper  of  the  State,  like  his  friends  the 
advocates  of  the  "  separation  "  of  the  Church  and  State  in 

(t)  Leopold  de  Chkranck  ;  Life  of  St.  Margaret  <>f  Cortona.    Paris,  IrtST. 
(2)  Tbls  saint,  who  is  well  styled  tbe  Mary  Majrdalen  of  Italy,  had  passed  nine  years  of 
ber  youtb  in  a  sinful  alliance. 


566  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Europe,  affect  to  be  scandalized  at  this  presumedly  clerical 
interference  in  political  matters,  A  momentary  reflection 
on  the  nature  of  this  interference  will  show  that  it  was 
for  the  good  of  society  ;  and  that,  far  from  retarding,  it 
advanced  progress  and  civilization.  When  civil  war  waa 
imminent,  or  when  any  disorder  threatened  the  peace  of  the 
community,  the  gonfaloniere  or  standard-bearer  seized  th? 
banner  of  the  Confraternity,  rushed  to  the  principal  Sqiiare^ 
and,  summoning  his  brethren  around  him,  explained  the 
state  of  affairs,  and  dispatched  them  in  every  dir(;ction  to 
preach  union,  concord,  and  patriotism. 

VI. — The  Lot  of  the  Lepers. 

Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  lazaretti  oi  the  olden 
time ;  but  a  mere  modicum  of  truth  has  been  im];arted  by 
either  the  false  humanitarians,  the  sentimental  romancers,  or 
the  irreligious  historians  who  have  handled  the  theme  with 
the  object  of  decrying  the  Catholic  Church.  "  Michelet  and 
his  school  have  seized  on  the  phantom  of  leprosy,  shaking 
it,  just  as  the  leper  himself  used  to  shake  his  rr^Ule  to  fright- 
en the  passer-by.  According  to  these  writers,  leprosy  was  a 
consequence  of  the  filthiness  of  our  ancestors.  Peojjle 
never  washed  in  the  Middle  Age  ;  therefore  leprosy  was  the 
result  of  a  spontaneous  generation  in  the  du/ng-hill  on  which 
society  was  rotting.  And  since  the  Catliolic  Church  had 
formed  mediaeval  society  to  her  own  ima//G,  she  alone  was 
responsible  for  the  ravages  of  the  terrible  malady.  And  the 
Church  not  only  originated  lepros}^  but  she  persecuted  its 
victims.  She  thrust  the  unfortunates  iiito  loathsome  huts, 
banishing  them  forever  from  humrin  society  ;  she  cruelly 
condemned  them  to  be  devoured  by  the  fire  in  their  frames, 
augmenting  their  physical  sufferiugs  by  the  tortures  of 
perpetual  solitude.  The  theme  has  become  hackneyed  (1);" 
Nor  are  there  wanting  somfe  Catholic  writers  who  have 
assisted  in  propagating  false  notions  as  to  the  lot  of  the 
lepers  in  the  Middle  Age.  Even  the  tender  Xavier  de 
Maistre  forgot,  or  perhaps  was  unaware,  that  the  strict 
isolation  of  the  leprous  was  not  enforced  before  the  dying 

Q)  Lecoy  de  La  Marciie  ;  Lepcr.>  <iiid  Lrpa-H(jusex.    Paris,  1892. 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  'A)" 

agonies  of  the  Middle  Age  had  begun, — in  tli;it  fourteenth 
century  when  men's  hearts  had  connnenced  to  lose  some  of 
the  charity  which  had  characterized  the  Middle  Age  in  its 
Catholic  fulness  ;  and  hence  it  was  that  the  sympathetic  were 
invited  to  pity  the  woes  of  the  Leper  of  Aosta  in  ]iages  where 
patiios  strives  with  exaggeration  for  prominence.  Xavier 
de  Maistre  should  have  known  that  in  the  Middle  Age  the 
lot  of  the  leper  was  diametrically  the  opposite  of  that  which 
he  depicted.  When  treating  of  the  hospitals  of  the  Middle 
Age,  we  showed  that  the  constant  aim  of  our  Catholic  ances- 
tors was  to  furnish  the  sick  with  all  the  benefits  accruing 
from  a  union  of  independence  with  a  community  life ;  and 
this  beneficent  idea  was  actuated  in  the  case  of  the  leprous, 
just  as  with  the  sick  from  other  causes.  No  sooner  had 
Catholic  Europe  realized  the  fell  nature  of  the  evil  which 
the  returning  Crusaders  brought  from  the  ])agan  East,  than 
the  generosity  of  the  faithful  erected  and  endowed  thousands 
of  institutions  for  an  amelioration  of  the  lot  of  the  afflicted. 
If  the  reader  would  like  to  know  the  characteristics  of  these 
lazaretti  (also  styled  maladreries  and  Uproseries),  we  shall 
not  regale  him  with  the  product  of  a  feverish  imagination, 
but  present  to  his  consideration  the  regulations  of  one  of 
these  establishments  which  was  founded  in  the  thirteenth 
century. 

Probably  the  reader  is  familiar  with  at  least  the  names  of 
the  chief  Societies  of  France,  developments  of  that  principle 
of  association  which  our  century  has  borrowed  from  the 
Middle  Age,  and  which  have  merited  so  well  of  the  science 
of  history.  Great  is  the  fame  of  the  Societe  Bibliographique, 
whose  name  indicates  its  programme  very  imperfectly;  of 
the  Societe  de  1'  Ecole  des  Chartes,  which  has  really  founded 
a  school  of  serious  historical  criticism  in  France  ;  and  of  the 
Societe  de  1'  Histoire  de  France,  which  has  proved  worthy  of 
its  founders  (1838) — Guizot,  Thiers,  Pasquier,  Barante,  Count 
Mole,  Champollion-Figeac,  etc.  But  throughout  France 
there  are  many  minor  Societies  working  on  lines  more  or  less 
similar  to  those  occupied  by  these  more  famous  f)rganiza- 
tions  ;  and  every  now  and  then  the  records  of  their  sittings 
show   how   some   indefatigable   member   has   unearthed   a 


568  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

precious  monument  of  the  past,  a  study  of  whicli  sheds  much 
light  upon  some  important  matter  of  history  which  has  hither- 
to been  beclouded  or  travestied.  Among  these  societies' 
the  least  distinguished  is  not  the  Societe  Academique  de 
Saint-Quentin  ;  and  in  1891  one  of  its  impartial  and  disin- 
terested members  drew  forth  from  the  musty  archives  of 
Noyon  a  document  which  demolishes  completely  the  theories 
of  the  school  of  Michelet  regarding  the  lepers  of  the  Middle 
Age.  M.  Abel  Lefranc  read  to  his  fellow-academicians,  and 
illustrated  with  apposite  and  erudite  commentaries,  a  collec- 
tion of  rules  for  the  leper-house  of  Noyon,  which  had  been 
composed  by  Mgr.  Vermond  de  la  Boissiere,  who  occupied 
the  See  of  Noyon  in  1250-1272.  The  reader  shall  judge 
whether  the  generally  accepted  opinion  in  regard  to  the  olden 
leper-houses  is  well  founded, — whether  these  establishments 
were  hideously  loathsome  habitations  ;  whether  the  regula- 
tions governing  their  inmates  were  pitilessly  severe  ;  whether 
no  one  approached  the  abodes  of  misery  without  terror ; 
whether  the  unfortunates  were  really  obliged  to  ring  a  bell, 
or  sound  a  rattle,  as  warning  to  the  wayfarer  to  flee  their 
presence  ;  whether  they  were  strangers  to  even  those  joys 
and  distractions  which  were  permitted  to  the  galley-slaves ; 
whether,  in  fine,  the  lepers  were  truly  "  living-dead,"  pain- 
fully awaiting  a  final  dissolution  which  would  free  them 
from  the  implacable  anathema  which  a  Catholic  society  had 
launched  against  them.  In  the  first  place,  the  code  of  rules 
promulgated  by  the  good  bishop  of  Noyon  proves  that  the 
lepers  in  his  establishment  occupied  a  more  than  tolerable 
position,  since  the  prelate  was  obliged  to  obviate  an  abuse 
of  the  privileges  of  the  lazaretto,  on  the  part  of  healthy  and 
7ell-to-do  persons  who  frequently  wished  to  join  the  com- 
nunity.  We  have  already  had  occasion  to  notice  how,  even 
in  the  fourth  century,  many  of  the  poor  envied  the  compara- 
tively happy  lot  of  the  sick,  the  crippled,  the  blind,  whom 
the  Catholic  asylums  supported  and  protected.  A  similar 
envy  was  often  expressed  in  the  Middle  Age  in  regard  to 
the  lot  of  the  lepers.  So  numerous  and  striking  were  the 
advantages  of  residence  in  the  lazaretto  that  the  managers 
could  not  satisfy  all  who  begged  as  a  favor  to  be  admitted, 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES   OF   THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  ')()0 

even  at  the  risk  of.  coutractiug  the  horrible  disease.  "This 
strange  yearuiug  for  a  life  in  the  leper-house,"  observed  M. 
Lefrauc,  "  is  easily  explained.  We  must  remember  that 
most  of  these  institutions  were  richly  endowed,  having 
extensive  territorial  possessions,  and  therefore  receiving 
revenues  far  more  than  sufficient  for  their  support.  In  those 
days  no  person  made  a  will  without  leaving  large  legacies 
to  charitable  establishments,  and  especially  to  the  leper- 
houses.  In  time  the  property  of  these  abodes  of  misery 
became  enormous.  Then  life  in  them  was  easy,  and  even  lav- 
ishly sustained.  There  was  nothing  onerous  in  the  labors 
which  most  of  the  lepers  performed  :  they  merely  cultivated 
the  lands  near  to  the  asylum,  the  rest  being  leased  to 
farmers.  We  can  easily  perceive  how  many  persons,  in  spite 
of  certain  inconveniences,  sought  to  find  refuge  in  these 
tranquil  homes." 

But,  above  all,  we  must  remember  that  the  spirit  of  the 
Middle  Age  was  pre-eminently  one  of  charity  and  self-sacri- 
fice, actuated  in  the  hope  of  pleasing  God  by  succoring  the 
creatures  for  whom  He  died.  Therefore  many  were  attracted 
to  the  leper-house,  not  merely  in  the  hope  of  finding  tran- 
quillity, but  by  the  more  commendable  intention  of  assuaging 
the  sufierings  of  God's  children.  Damiens  were  common  in 
the  Middle  Age.  He  who  has  read  even  in  a  cursory  manner 
the  lives  of  the  saints  who  lived  in  that  period  of  exuberant 
faith,  knows  that  there  is  no  exaggeration  in  this  assertion. 
Who  were  the  attendants,  the  nurses,  of  the  lepers  ?  Ignor- 
ant and  heartless  mercenaries  of  the  State  ?  Praters  about 
philanthropy — blatant  friends  of  abstract  humanity,  with  no 
real  afiection  for  the  concrete  man  ?  No  !  Such  persons  can- 
not furnish  the  material  out  of  which  the  Church  fashions 
an  Elizabeth  of  Hungary  or  a  John  of  God — saints  whom 
she  has  duplicated  thousands  of  times,  and  will  continue  to 
duplicate  when  the  laicizers  of  her  institutions  of  charity 
shall  have  sunk  into  oblivion,  or  be  remembered  only  to  be 
condemned  by  men  of  common-sense.  The  reader  knows 
that  in  many  monasteries  and  convents  there  are  two  kinds  of 
religious  :  those  of  the  choir  (a  species  of  religious  aristoc- 
racy) and  the  lay-Brothers  or  lay-Sisters.     The  menial  oflBces 


570  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

of  the  establishments — a  means  to  gain  heaven  equal  to  the 

more  intellectual  ofSces  performed  by  the   choir  religious 

are  the  province  of  the  conversi,  or  laj-brethren.     Now,  in 
the  leper-houses,  who  were  the  aristocrats  of  the  institutions, 
and  who  the  servants  ?     The    loathsome   lepers   were  the 
honored  patients  and  masters  ;  the  nurses,  guardians,  and 
servants  of  these  unfortunates  were  healthy,  even  wealthy 
persons,  who  had  given  themselves  to  the  service  of  Christ  in 
the   guise   of   His   afflicted  members.     These  heroic   souls 
formed  a  religious  confraternity,    under   the  immediate  and 
exclusive  authority  of  the  bishop  ;  but  the  immediate  super- 
intendence of  the  community,  lepers  and  all,  was  confided  to 
a  "  master  "  and  to  a  "  council,"  all  elected  by  the  lepers. 
The  sexes  were  separated  ;  the  male  volunteers  attending  to 
the  men,  and  the  female  volunteers   to  the  women.      All 
the   inmates  were  required,  one   year  after  their  entrance, 
whether  lepers  or  nurses,  to  take  simple  vows  of  chastity  and 
obedience ;     the   vow   of  poverty  was    optional.     All    dis- 
pensations from  the  rule,  all  punishments,  were  pronounced 
by  the  "  master."     The  punishments  varied  according  to  the 
gravity  of  the  fault.   "  A  very  flagrant  offence  was  followed  by 
perpetual  exclusion  ;  then  there  were  temporary  banishment, 
a  deprivation  of  some  choice  but  unnecessary  article  of  food, 
a  deprivation  of  wine,  etc.     All  who  were  able,  took  their 
meals  in  the  refectory.     The  inmates  wore  a  uniform  ;  but,  as 
M.  Lefranc  gathered  from  the  Noyon  rule,  "  this  dress  pre- 
sented nothing  of  that  sombre  and  repulsive  aspect  of  which 
we  often  hear."     The  men  wore  a  plain  skirt  and  a  wide- 
sleeved  mantle.     The  mantle  of  a  woman  was  of  lamb's  -wool, 
and  she  wore  a  rather  coquettish  head-dress.     Each  leper 
had  an  excellent  bed  and  plenty  of  clean  linen.     No  leper 
was  allowed  to  enter  the  kitchen  or  the  bakery,  but  all  the 
rest  of  the  establishment  was  open  to  them.     Every  possible 
provision  was  made  for  the  most  minute  and  scrupulous 
cleanliness  of  person,  as  well  as  of  every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  institution.     There  were  numerous  fountains  ;  but,  quite 
properly,  certain  of  these  were  restricted  to  the  use   of  the 
uninfected  inmates — a  necessary    provision.     The    utmost 
care  was  devoted  to  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  lepers. 


SOME    SALIENT    FEATl'llES    OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGE.  571 

They  had  a  beautiful  ohnrch,  ami  a  ehaphaiu  always  at  hauil. 
Games  of  chance  were  prohibited,  but  all  other  means  of 
recreation  were  provided. 

Certainly  this  picture  of  the  leper-house  of  Noyon  is  very 
different  from  that  presented  by  those  who  can  discern  no 
good  in  mediteval  times,  and  whose  denunciation  is  always  in 
strict  pro])ortion  to  their  ignorance  of  eyen  tlia  salient  charac- 
teristics of  those  days.  But  it  may  be  retorted  that  this 
rale  of  Bishop  Vermond  de  la  Boissiere  shows  the  good 
treatment  of  lepers  in  only  one  isolated  instance.  We  are 
fully  justified  in  supposing  that  the  lazaretto  of  Noyon  may 
be  regarded  as  a  specimen  of  all  the  leper-houses  of  the  time  ; 
because,  firstly,  no  medi»yal  documents  can  be  adduced  to 
evince  the  contrary ;  and  secondly,  because  we  know  that 
more  than  a  century  before  the  birth  of  La  Boissiere  there 
were  in  Europe  over  19,000  well-organized  leper-houses, 
most  of  which  were  served  by  the  members  of  the  Order  of 
St.  Lazarus,  which  had  been  instituted  for  that  purpose. 

VII. — A  Typical  Bishop  of  the  M.ddlk  Age. 

When  that  great  Scholastic,  Peter  the  Lombard,  he  who 
was  termed  the  "  Master  of  Sentences,"  went  to  his  heavenly 
reward  in  1160,  the  Chapter  of  Paris  deemed  it  proper  to 
consult  King  Louis  VIL  as  to  their  choice  of  a  new  bishop 
for  the  capital  of  France.  His  Majesty  asked  the  canons 
for  the  names  of  such  clergymen  of  the  diocese  as  seemed 
most  worthy  of  the  mitre.  Only  two  candidates — Master 
Maurice  and  Peter  Le  Mangeur — were  selected  ;  and  when 
the  monarch  asked  for  information  as  to  their  comparative 
merits,  he  was  told  that  Maurice  was  very  zealous  in  leading 
souls  to  heaven,  but  that  Peter  was  better  versed  in  the 
Scriptures.  Then  the  king  pronounced  his  decision  :  "  Let 
Maurice  govern  the  diocese,  and  let  Peter  manage  its  schools." 
And  the  chroniclers  tell  vis  that  "  so  it  was  arranged,  and 
everybody  was  well  pleased."  Thus  the  mitre  was  placed 
on  the  head  of  Maurice  de  Sully,  the  enlightened  prelate  who 
was  to  bequeath  to  Parisian  piety  that  grand  and  perhaps 
imperishable  monument  which  every  French  revolution  has 
respected — the  Cathedral  of  Notre-Dame.     This  bishop  of 


572       _  'TTUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

Paris  was  not,  as  his  name  would  seem  to  indicate,  a  member 
of  a  noble  family  ;  still  less  was  lie  of  the  stock  which  pro- 
duced the  celebrated  minister  of  Henry  IV.  The  family  of. 
Master  Maurice  was  so  lowly  in  social  station  that  the  chron- 
iclers of  the  day  have  not  transmitted  its  name  to  us,  and 
probably  because  they  knew,  nothing  concerning  it.  In  his 
case  the  particle  de  is  not  significant  of  nobility.  His  family 
name  having  been  unknown,  the  distinguished  cleric  came  to 
be  styled  Maurice  de  Sully,  because  he  was  born  in  the 
village  of  Sully,  in  the  department  of  Loiret.  Maurice  had 
left  this  village  in  quest  of  an  education,  and  in  the  guise  of 
a  "  poor  scholar,"  literally  begging  from  door  to  door  for  his 
daily  bread.  It  was  to  no  "  little  red  school-house  "  that 
the  ambitious  lad  had  recourse  for  instruction  ;  but  to  the 
gratuitous  courses  which  were  about  to  give  birth  to  the 
grand  University  of  Paris,  and  which  had  recently  been 
rendered  illustrious  by  the  lectures  of  Peter  the  Lombard, 
William  of  Champeaux,  and  Abelard.  There  was,  of  course, 
in  the  twelfth  century  no  dearth  of  such  establishments  for 
primary  education  as  the  "  little  red  school-house  "  is  some- 
times supposed  to  represent.  As  the  not  too  clerical  J.  J. 
Ampere  avowed  to  the  French  Institute  in  1837,  "  Even  in  the 
days  of  Charlemagne  there  icere probably  moi'e primary  schools 
than  there  are  to-day''  (1). 

In  the  Middle  Age,  observed  Duruy,  a  minister  of  the 
Second  Empire  who  was  not  always  favorable  to  the  rights 
of  parents  in  the  matter  of  education,  "  the  Church,  then  the 
depositary  of  all  knowledge,  distributed  gratuitously  the  bread 
of  the  mind,  just  as  she  gave  to  all  the  bread  of  the  soul. 
Nor  do  I  speak  merely  of  monasteries — institutions  into 
which  the  poorest  man  was  admitted,  and  out  of  which  he 
often  came  a  bishop  or  perhaps  a  Pope,  like  Gregory  VII.  or 
Sixtus  V. ;  I  allude  to  other  schools.  The  decrees  of  the 
Popes  and  of  Councils  attest  the  desire  of  the  clergy  to 
multiply  free  schools  for  the  poor  "  (2).  In  fact,  when  the 
little  Maurice  proposed  to  himself  a  search  for  an  education^ 


(1)  History  of  Literature  under  Charlemagne.    Paris,  1841. 

(2)  "  Report  of  1863  on  the    Freedom  of  Primary   Instructwn:''    By  M.   Victor 
Duruy,  Minister  of  Public  Instruction. 


SOME    SALIENT    FEATURES    OF   THE    MIDDLE    AOE.  573 

lie  saw  no  arduous  task  boft)re  him.  The  uumbor  of  studonts 
then  iu  Paris,  the  majority  of  whom  were  "  poor  schohirs," 
nearly  equalled  that  of  all  the  other  inhabitauts.  In  a  few 
years  Philip  Augustus  was  obliged  to  extend  the  limits  of 
the  citv,  iu  order  to  accommodate  the  votaries  of  science  • 
for  their  number  had  increased  to  20,000 — an  attendance 
of  which  no  modern  University  can  boast,  even  though  the 
populations  of  Christendom  have  multiplied  tenfold  since  the 
twelfth  century.  Therefore  it  was  that  as  Maurice  entered 
the  capital  of  France,  where  the  great  Benedictine  statesman, 
Suger,  was  guiding  the  helm  of  state  with  a  zeal  and  success 
such  as  have  never  been  displayed  by  any  minister  of  modern 
times,  he  had  no  reason  to  complain  that  the  Church  of  his 
day  or  the  Christian  royalty  of  France — the  creation  of  that 
Church — had  become  hostile  or  indifferent  to  popular  educa- 
tion. Maurice  felt  a  justifiable  pride,  pauper  though  he  was, 
when  he  reflected  that  he  was  about  to  become  a  resident  of 
the  great  "  city  of  philosophers,"  as  Paris  was  then  termed, 
just  as  Bologna  was  termed  "  the  city  of  jurists."  His  pride 
assumed  a  holy  tinge  when  he  remembered  that  whatever 
course  of  study  he  should  elect  to  follow.  Holy  Mother  the 
Church  would  regard  him  as  under  her  special  protection, 
and  would  proclaim  through  her  Canons  that,  as  a  student, 
his  person  was  inviolable  (1). 

A  prolific  but  not  always  reliable  chronicler  of  the 
thirteenth  century  asserts  that  when  the  canons  of  the 
Cathedral  Chapter  of  Paris  were  debating  as  to  a  successor 
to  Peter  the  Lombard,  it  occurred  to  them  that  the  election 
might  be  effected  more  easily  if  it"  were  entrusted  to  three 
of  their  number ;  that  the  three  were  delegated  ;  and  that 
one  of  these,  Maurice  de  Sully,  prevailed  on  his  associates 
to  place  the  mitre  of  Paris  on  his  brow.  This  story  is  con- 
tradicted by  the  well-evidenced  humility  of  Master  Maurice, 
by  the  direct  testimony  of  the  contemporary  and  otherwise 
trustworthy  Etienne  de  Bourbon  (2),  and  by  the  incontesta- 
ble fact  that  the  alleged  manner  of  election  was  as  foreign 

(1)  Dd  Boulay  :  HMnry  nf  the  Univcr!<i(y  nf  Paris.  IU.,  93. 

(2)  Lecoy  pe  La  Marciif.  ;  The  Frfiich  PuJpxt  in  the  Middle  Age.    Paris,  1890.— ErH- 
tion  Klieiuic  dc  Bouriion.     Paris,  189L 


574  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

to  the  mind  of  the  Church  of  the  twelfth  century  as  it  is  to 
the  will  of  the  Church  of  our  day.  One  illustration  of  he 
humility  of  Master  Maurice  deserves  mention,  although  the 
reader  may  remember  that  he  has  read  of  similar  incidents 
in  the  lives  of  several  bishops  and  in  the  case  of  at  least  one 
pope.  The  mother  of  the  new  bishop  had  continued,  during 
her  son's  scholastic  and  professorial  career  in  Paris,  to  lead 
the  humble  life  of  a  peasant  widow  of  that  day ;  but  her 
neighbors  deemed  such  retirement  unbefitting  to  the  mother 
of  the  bishop  of  Paris.  Accordingly,  by  their  own  exertions 
and  with  the  aid  of  certain  noble  ladies,  they  procured  for 
her  a  magnificent  outfit,  and  sent  her,  all  bedecked  and 
bedizened,  to  congratulate  her  mitred  Maurice.  But,  says 
the  chronicler,  when  the  poor  woman  entered  the  episcopal 
presence,  she  found,  to  her  dismay,  that  the  son  of  her 
bosom  did  not  recognize  her.  "  My  mother,"  he  exclaimed, 
"  is  an  humble  peasant,  and  she  wears  the  commonest 
clothes  !  "  And  not  until  his  mother  had  retired,  and  had 
donned  the  habiliments  of  her  station,  did  Maurice  de  Sully 
embrace  her  affectionately.  A  similar  episode  is  related  in 
the  various  "Lives"  of  Mgr.  Dupanloup,  the  celebrated 
bishop  of  Orleans.  As  bishop  of  Paris,  Maurice  de  Sully 
held,  of  coiirse,  a  high  rank  among  the  temporal  lords  of  the 
kingdom  ;  but,  like  all  the  French  prelates  of  his  time — 
prelates  whose  appointment  was  not  due  to  the  crown, — he 
remembered  that  he  was,  above  all  else,  a  shepherd  of 
Christ's  flock.  From  the  very  beginning  of  his  episcopal 
career  he  seemed  to  think  that  he  was  living  in  one  of  those 
early  centuries  when  preaching  was  the  chief  duty  of  a 
bishop,  and  his  exclusive  prerogative  (1).    He  realized  how- 

(1)  In  the  early  days  of  Christianity,  who  had  the  right  to  preach?  Origen  (185-253) 
says  that  "  the  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  teach  us,  and  rebuke  our  vices  with  severe 
words."  (Horn,  lin  Ps.  xxxvii.)  This  remark,  however,  must  be  understood  as  applying, 
in  its  absoluteness,  only  to  the  Eastern  ch>irches,  which  all,  from  the  earliest  days,  observed 
discipline  inculcated  in  the  (authentic  or  not)  "Apostolic  Canon,  decreeing  that  any  bishop 
or  prieM  who  neglects  his  clergy  or  people,  and  does  not  teach  them,  is  to  be  deposed." 
(No.  57.)  Eusebius  tells  us  that  Origen  preached  in  Jerusalem  and  In  Csesarea  of  Pales- 
tine, and  Socrates  says  thatpriests  preached  in  Cyprus  and  in  Cappadocia.  Many  of  St.  Chry- 
sostom's  flnesl  homilies  were  delivered  before  his  elevation  to  the  episcopacy.  Certainly 
the  priests  of  Alexandria  were  forbidden  to  preach  in  the  fourth  century  ;  but  this  decree 
was  issued,  as  we  are  told  by  Socrates,  Sozomenes,  and  Nicephorus,  because  of  the  audacity 
of  Arius.    In  the  West,  however,  during  the  flrst  centuries  of  Christianity,  in    most  dio- 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES    OF  THE  MIDDLE   AGE.  i)7i> 

ever,  that  bis  was  an  age  when  it  was  not  sufficient  for 
the  parochial  clergy  to  instruct  their  congregations  by 
means  of  homilies  taken  from  the  ancient  Fathers.  The 
neeel  of  real  preachers  was  great  in  the  twelfth  century  ; 
that  need  had  not  yet  been  supplied  by  the  Orders  which  were 
soon  to  be  founded  by  Saints  Dominic  and  Francis.  Bishop 
Maurice  resolved  to  transform  his  priests,  whenever  possible, 
into  so  many  sacred  orators.  With  this  intention,  he  com- 
posed for  their  use  a  collection  of  plans  for  sermons.  And 
for  the  benefit  of  such  persons  as  believe,  or  feign  to  believe, 
that  in  the  Middle  Age  all  spiritual  works  were  couched  in 
Latin,  we  note  that  these  models  of  discourses  were  written 
in  French,  and — considering  that  the  Age  of  Louis  XIV. 
had  not  yet  arrived — in  very  elegant  French.  The  reader 
of  these  skeleton  sermons  perceives  at  once  that  they  are 
destined  to  become,  after  amplification,  short  but  substantial 
instructions  for  those  who  have  just  attended  at  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  parochial  Mass.  They  are,  in  fact,  excellent 
models  for  those  familiar  but  solid  "  short  sermons  "  which 
the  French  call  prones.     In  them  there  is  no  display  of  zeal 

ceses  priests  were  not  allowed  to  preach,  at  least  in  the  presence  of  the  bishop  ;  and  iu  Africa 
this  rule  was  so  strictly  observed  that  it  was  not  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  bishop  to  relax 
it.  Valerius,  Bishop  of  Bona,  seems  to  have  been  the  first  African  bishop  to  allow  a  priest 
to  preach  before  him,  and  the  privilege  was  granted  to  St.  Augustine.  So  indignant  did 
the  other  African  prelates  show  themselves  because  of  this  action  of  Valerius,  that  St. 
Jerome  was  moved  to  write  :  "  The  custom  of  some  churches  imposing  silence  on  priests 
in  the  presence  of  their  bishop,  is  abominable.  One  would  think  that  the  bishops  are  jeal- 
ous or  that  ihey  cannot  condescend  to  listen."  (Ejjiat.  ad  Nepot.)  In  Gaul  the  discipline 
varied.  Gennadius,  writing  about  the  year  470,  speaks  of  Museus,  a  priest  of  Marseilles,  as 
preaching  in  4»)l  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  in  many  Gallic  dioceses  preaching  was  the  special 
office  of  the  bishops,  until  the  Council  of  Vaison  decreed,  in  .529,  that  every  parish  should 
frequently  enjoy  such  ministration.  In  the  Iberian  Peninsula,  as  late  as  the  year  619.  we 
Bnd  a  Council  of  Seville  establishing  that  no  priest  shall  presume  to  preach  in  the  pres- 
ence of  his  bishop.  However,  we  must  not  suppose  that  in  those  Western  dioceses  where 
preaching  was  reserved  to  the  bishop,  the  laity  heard  the  word  of  God  only  on  the  rare 
occasions  of  an  episcopal  visitation  ;  for  at  nearly  every  meeting  of  the  faithful  the  pastur 
read  a  homily  of  some  Father.  That  deacons  preached,  even  in  the  first  days  of  the 
Church,  is  evident  from  Holy  Writ;  this  office  of  preacher  cau.sed  Philip,  one  of  the  seven 
deacons,  to  be  styled  an  evangelist  (vlc/.<  xxi.)  St-  Ignatius,  who  was  martyred  in  the 
year  107,  praises  the  sermons  of  a  deacon  named  Philo,  and  encourages  the  eloquence  of 
Hero,  a  deacon  of  Antioch.  During  the  fearful  persecutions  of  the  first  three  centuries  of 
our  era.  the  principal  attention  of  the  pagan  tribunals  was"directed  against  the  deacons, 
not  only  because  of  the  Church  treasures  of  which  they  were  the  custodians,  but  on  account 
of  their  preaching  office.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  here  that  in  many  dioceses  of  the 
East  it  Would  have  been  impossible  to  adopt  the  Latin  custom  of  restricting  the  obligation 
of  preacliingto  the  bishop;  for  the  Orientals  had  become  so  fond  of  sermonsthat  frequently 
one  was  followed  by  a  second,  and  then  by  a  third — generally,  however,  delivered  by  differ 
ent  clergvmen.    (Chrysostom  :  Horn. 'X  in   Eijint.  I  ad  Tim.) 


576  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

for  science ;  not  even  any  leaning  toward  those  scholastic 
subtleties  which  are  popularly  supposed  to  have  formed  the 
soul  of  every  mediaeval  intellectual  effort.  Each  sermon  is 
a  simple  explanation  of  the  Gospel  of  the  day,  interspersed 
with  practical  advice  for  the  auditors.  In  the  introduction 
to  his  manual,  the  bishop  insists  on  the  preaching  of  the 
divine  word  in  season  and  out  of  season  ;  and  he  warns  his 
clergy  that  success  will  attend  their  efforts  only  when  solid 
attainments  in  sacred  learning  are  joined  to  their  holiness 
of  life.  He  advises  each  one  to  possess  and  to  study  con- 
tinually the  Sacramentary,  the  Lectionary,  the  Collection  of 
Penitential  Canons,  the  Psalter,  and  the  Calendar  ;  although 
it  is  certain  that  in  those  days,  when  books  were  as  rare  and 
costly  as  they  were  solid,  a  priest's  annual  income  would 
scarcely  have  purchased  any  one  of  the  works  recommended. 
The  zeal  of  Maurice  de  Sully  for  the  sanctification  of  his 
people  led  him  to  request  the  celebrated  Foulques  de  Neuilly, 
the  enthusiastic  but  prudent  preacher  of  the  Second  Crusade, 
to  devote  many  of  his  later  years  to  missions  in  every  part  of 
the  diocese  of  Paris  ;  and  the  chroniclers  of  that  time  grow 
eloquent  when  they  describe  the  consequent  improvement  of 
morals  in  the  French  capital  (1). 

Although  not  the  chief  city  of  France  in  ecclesiastical  digni- 
ty (2),  Paris,  as  capital  of  the  kingdom,  naturally  surrounded 
the  mitre  of  Maurice  de  Sully  with  much  of  its  own  splendor. 
During  eight  centuries  the  piety  of  monarchs  and  nobles  had 
so  added  to  the  estates  possessed  by  the  bishop  of  Paris, 
that  much  of  the  time  of  Maurice  was  devoted  to  the  cares 
of  their  administration.  The  zeal  of  the  prelate  in  this  re- 
gard has  been  well  illustrated  by  instructive  details  in  a  work 
published  in  1890  by  M.  Mortet  in  the  sixteenth  volume  of 

(1)  Otlio  de  S.  Blasio,  a  Benedictine  of  Constance,  tells  us  that,  as  a  consequence  of  the 
preaching  of  Foulques.  many  usurers  and  dishonest  merchants  and  tradesmen  frequently 
threw  themselves  at  his  feet,  avowed  their  guilt,  and  made  restitution  on  the  spot. 
Wherever  he  preached,  abandoned  women  would  rush  toward  the  pulpit,  cut  off  their 
tresses,  and  bewail  their  sins.  Foulques  procured  husbands  for  some  of  these  penitents  ; 
but  so  many  desired  to  lead  penitential  lives  in  cloistered  retirement,  that  he  obtained 
from  the  king,  in  their  favor,  the  foundation  of  the  Cistercian  Abbey  of  St.  Anthony. 

(2)  The  archbishop  of  Lynns  was  primate  of  France  until  the  Revolution  of  1789  erase* 
nearly  every  ancient  landmark  in  the  kingdom.  Although  the  see  of  Paris  was  established 
in  the  third  century  by  St.  Denis  (not  by  the  Areopagite,  as  was  once  believed),  it  did  not 
become  a;a  archbishojiric  until  1C22. 


SOME   SALIENT  FE.VTUUES   OF  THE   MIDDIJ:   AGE.  ")77 

the  Memoirs  </  the  Society  for  the  liistorij  of  Paria.  But  wliy 
such  ;i  stiite  of  afl'airs  ?  Why,  the  liypercriticul  jiiul  tli*^ 
auti-clerical  may  ask,  shoukl  the  Church  countcnancH  a  sys- 
tem w  liicli  cousumed  time  that  ought  to  have  been  giveu  to 
the  service  of  the  altar?  Aud  was  so  much  wealth  a  benefit 
to  the  Church  ?  These  specious  insiuuatious  are  refuted 
when  one  remembers  that  the  funds  of  which  Maurice  was 
trustee  were,  like  those  of  all  the  other  bishops  and  abbots 
of  that  time,  devoted  to  the  erection  and  care  of  churches,  to 
the  modest  support  of  the  parish  clergy,  to  the  relief  of  the 
poor,  to  the  care  of  the  sick,  to  the  education  of  youth  ;  and, 
far  more  frequently  than  our  modern  historians  record,  to 
the  needs  of  the  State,  As  for  the  revenue  which  might  re- 
main after  the  liquidation  of  these  obligations,  a  visit  to  the 
grand  cathedral  of  Notre-Dame  de  Paris  will  convince  the 
reader  that  the  money  was  put  to  good  use  by  Maurice  de 
Sully.  Like  the  author  of  TJie  Imitation  of  Christ,  like  near- 
ly all  the  architects  of  the  cathedrals  of  the  Middle  Age,  the 
original  architect  of  Notre-Dame  de  Paris  hibored  for  the 
glory  of  God,  and  not  for  the  praise  of  men  ;  and  therefore 
he  took  care  that  his  name  should  not  be  transmitted  to 
posterity  (1).  But  no  veil  of  modesty  could  possibly  cover 
the  name  of  the  episcojjal  projector,  to  whose  generosity  the 
grand  monument  owes  its  existence.  The  original  cathedral 
had  seen  six  centuries  of  existence  when,  in  1163,  the  corner- 
stone of  the  new  edifice  was  laid  by  Pope  Alexander  III., 
who  had  sought  refuge  in  France  from  the  persecutions  ot 
the  German  emperor  Barbarossa,  and  his  creature,  tlie  anti- 
pope,  "  Victor  IV."  The  year  1177  witnessed  the  comple- 
tion of  the  choir  of  the  vast  edifice;  in  1182  the  higli  altar 
was  consecrated  by  the  papal  legate  ;  and  in  1196  the  roof 
was  about  to  be  constructed,  when  Maurice  de  Sully  went  to 
his  reward.  The  immediate  successor  of  Maurice  erected 
the  facade  and  the  towers,  and  many  other  bishops  of  Paris 
labored  for  the  non-essential  but  beautiful  features  of  the 
cathedral  ;  still,  the  credit  of  the  principal  part  of  the  work 

(1)  Several  architects  labored  on  Notre-Uame  before,  with  its  wealth  of  ornamentation. 
It  was  completed  ;  and  of  these,  we  only  have  the  name  of  one — Jean  de  Chelles,  who 
co:  structed  the  southern  transept  in  the  thirteenth  century. 


578  STUDIES   IN   CHUECH   HISTORY. 

will  always  be  given  to  the  prelate  who  began  his  ecclesia&= 
tical  career  as  a  "  poor  scholar  "  of  Sully. 

When  St.  Thomas  a  Becket  sought  a  French  refuge  from  - 
the  persecutions  of  Henry  11. —persecutions  at  which,  alas  ! 
some  English  bishops  connived,— Maurice  de  Sully  was  fore- 
most among  the  French  prelates  in  encouraging  King  Louis 
VII.  to  persevere  in  his  truly  royal  refusal  to  banish  his  guest 
from  French  soil.     Just  as  he  had  refused  to  deliver  Pope 
Alexander   III.  into  the  hands  of   his  German  enemy,  so 
Louis  VII.  assured  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  of  a  con- 
tinuance of  his   hospitality.     The   letters  which  were  sent 
to  the  Pontiflf  on  this  occasion,  by  Maurice,  and   by   the 
bishops  of  Sens  and  Nevers,  are  redolent  of  the  sentiments 
which   actuated   their   monarch    when  he   thus   replied  to 
Henry's   demand  to  repel  "  the  late   primate "  :  "  You   are 
king  of  England,  and  I  also  am  a  king ;  but  I  would  not 
depose  the  least  one  of  the  clerics  of  my  kingdom.     The 
defence  of  exiles  from  persecution,  especially  ecclesiastics, 
has  ever   been   one   of  the   glories  of  the  French   crown." 
When   the   light   of   seven  hundred   years  of  history   had 
come   to    his    aid,    Michelet,    who  is    not    regarded    with 
suspicion  by  the  foes  of  Papal  Eome,  found  liimself  con- 
strained to  admit  that  the  interests  of  the  human  race  were 
defended  by  the  holy  Becket ;  but  without  that  light  which 
was  to   be  furnished  by  the  centuries  which  were  yet  to 
come,  Maurice   de  Sully  was  able  to  perceive  the  conse- 
quences of  the  struggle  which  had  been  initiated  by  the 
"  Constitutions  of  Clarendon."     We  have  three  of  the  letters 
which  Maurice  wrote  to  Pope  Alexander  III.,  criticising 
respectfully  but  candidly  the  hesitancy  of  the  Pontiff  in  the 
matter  of  adopting  extreme  measures  against  the  king  of 
England,  and  against  the  episcopal  sycophants  who  were 
ready  to  ruin  the  cause  of  religion  that  they  might  bask  in 
the  smile  of  royalty.     In  the  first  letter  we  read  :  "  Let  the 
bishop   of   London,  and  the  other  enemies  of  the  Church 
whom  Thomas  has  justly  though  tardily  anathematized,  be 
crushed  entirely  by  that  Kock  of  Peter  which  has  so   often 
crushed  men  like  them  (1).     If  this  criminal  audacity  goes 

(1)  For  an  account  of  the  dastardly  conduce  of  these  prelates,  see  our  Vol.  ii.,  p.  293,  et 
seqq. 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGE.  oTO 

unpunished,  we  may  expect  the  speedy  ruiu  of  tlie  Church 
in  Enghiud."  lu  liis  second  letter  Maurice  says :  "  Our 
Most  Christian  King  sliares  the  sufferings  of  the  arclibishop 
of  Canterbury  ;  the  entire  kingdom  pities  him,  and  every- 
one asks  himself  whether  the  Apostolic  See  can  be  deceived 
in  so  evident  a  matter.  What  criminal  will  ever  be  con- 
demned, if  this  king  of  England  is  not  brought  to  account 
for  so  manifest  an  outrage,  for  so  patent  a  contempt  of  the 
Church  ?  How  shall  innocence  henceforth  escape  the  wiles 
of  the  calumniator,  if  you  do  not  come  to  the  aid  of  this 
archbishop  and  of  his  companions  in  exile  ? . . .  It  is  our 
heartfelt  prayer,  and  that  of  the  entire  Church  in  France, 
that  Your  Holiness  now  put  an  end  to  this  great  scandal ; 
that  you  teach  this  king  of  England  to  conduct  himself  in  a 
Christian  manner  ;  and  that  you  exercise  in  its  plenitude 
the  prerogative  of  the  king  of  kings."  Letters  like  these 
of  Maurice  de  Sully  determined  Pope  Alexander  III.  to  send 
a  warning  letter  to  the  royal  criminal,  announcing :  "  We 
have  not  thought  it  proper  to  close  our  eyes  to  your 
obstinacy  any  longer,  nor  shall  we  again  close  the  mouth  of 
the  aforesaid  bishop.  We  now  allow  him  to  do  his  duty 
freely  :  to  punish  you  with  the  weapons  of  ecclesiastical 
severity  for  the  injuries  which  you  have  heaped  on  him  and 
his  diocese"  (1).  The  threatened  excommunication  only 
deferred  the  catastn^plie.  Thomas  ii  Becket  gave  his  life 
for  his  flock  ;  and  it  is  edifying  to  read  that  not  the  least  of 
his  consolations,  during  his  exile  in  the  Land  of  the  Lillies, 
came  from  the  "  poor  scholar  "  of  Sully. 

Tin. — ■'  Legends  "  of  the  Saints. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  Middle  Age,  and  indeed  as 
late  as  the  sixteenth  century,  no  book,  after  the  Bible,  was 
•  so  much  studied  as  the  Golden  Legend,  or  "  Lives  of  the 
Saints,"  by  James  de  Voragine.  In  the  Age  of  Faith  no 
book  could  appeal  so  strongly  to  the  affections,  aspirations, 
and  even  interests  of  men,  as  did  one  which  laid  bare  the 
foundations  of  that  faith  which  was  their  very  life,  and 
another  which  taught  them  how  thousands   of  their  fellows 

fl)  ROOER  OF  IIOTF.DEN  ;  Amials. 


580  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

had  built  upon  those  foundations  the  edifice  of  their  own 
salvation.     The  name  of  James  de  Yoragine  was  a  house- 
hold word  in  Christendom  for  many  centuries  ;  and  neverthe- 
less the  very  name  of  his  family  is  ignored,  for  the  term 
"  De  Voragine "  is  variously   derived   from  the   village   of 
Vorago,  near  Savona  in  Italy,  from  our  author's  reputation 
as  a  devourer   of   literature,    and   from   his   extraordinary 
facility  in  Scriptural  citation,  as  though  he  ever  had  at  hand 
an  inexhaustible  mine   of  apt    quotations.      He  informs  us 
that  he  joined   the  Order  of  Preachers  at  Genoa  in  1244, 
when  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age  (1).      According  to  the 
conscientious  and  critical  work  of  Echard   (2),  he  was  an 
able  theologian,  a  zealous  and  pathetic   orator,  an  accurate 
interpreter  of  Scripture,  and  an  edifying  religious.     It  was 
James  de  Voragine  who,  realizing  that  the  then  fully  devel- 
oped Italian  language  had  finally  supplanted  the  mother  Latin 
in  general  use  among  his  countrymen,  first  translated  the 
entire  Bible  into  the  new  idiom,  half  a  century  before  Dante, 
through  his  immortal  poem,  gave  precision  to  that  idiom  (3). 
Sixtus   of  Siena   (d.  1569),   regarded  as  the  founder  of  the 
historico-critical  method  of  Biblical  study,  greatly  praises 
this  translation  for  exactness— a  fact  worthy  of  note   when 
we  remember  that  the  Dominican  Passavanti,  one  of  the 
best  prose   writers   of   the   fourteenth   century,   found   the 
opposite  fault,  and  worse  ones,  in  every  translation  that  had 
yet  appeared,  whether  Italian,  French,  Provencal,  English, 
German,  or  Hungarian  (4).     Spondanus  says  that  no  author 
was  more  imbued  with  the  principles  of  St.  Augustine,  and 
that  he  had  learned  this  doctor's  works  almost  by  heart  (5). 
In  1267,  although  only  twenty-three  years  of  age,  James  de 
Voragine  was  chosen  provincial  of  his  Order  in  Lombardy, 
a,nd  as  he  filled  this  office  during  twenty  years,  his  brethren 
must  have  been  persuaded  of  his  talents,  piety,  and  wisdom, 

(1)  Genoese  Chronicle,  In  Muratori's  Italian  Writers,  Vol.  ix. 

(2)  Writers  of  the  Order  of  Preachers,  Vol.  i.,  p.  454.    Paris,  1719. 

(3)  "That  Dante  created  the  Italian  language  off-handed  can  be  asserted  only  by  one 
who,  through  convenience  or  ignorance,  repeats  the  sayings  of  others.  To  say  nothing  of 
other  persons,  his  friend  Guido  Cavalcanti  spoke  Italian  like  a  modern.  Danti  directed 
Italian  to  sublime  flights  ;  he  didinot  arrange,  but  determined  It."  Cantu  ;  Universal 
History,  b.  xili.,  ch.  28. 

(4)  Mirror  of  Penance.  (5)  At  year  1292,  No.  8. 


SOME   SALIENT   FEATURES   OF  THE    MIDDLE   AGE.  HSl 

for  we  must  remember  that  the  sons  of  St.  Dominic 
were  still  glowing  with  their  primitive  fervor.  In  1292 
tlie  Cathedral  Chapter  of  Genoa  elected  him  as  their  arch- 
bishop. For  more  than  fifty  years  Genoa  had  suffered 
intensely  from  the  wars  of  the  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines, 
and  one  of  the  prelate's  first  tasks  was  to  put  an  end  to  the 
civil  strife,  and  to  efface  its  cruel  traces  from  his  diocese. 
His  four  immediate  predecessors  had  struggled  in  vain  to 
this  end,  and  Pope  Innocent  IV.  had  personally  endeavored, 
during  a  visit  to  Genoa,  to  restore  tranquillity.  But  nothing 
discouraged  James  de  Voragine,  and  in  1295  success  crowned 
his  efforts  (1).  It  has  been  said  that  our  author  was  a 
Ghibelline,  and  that  on  an  Ash- Wednesday,  when  Pope  Boni- 
face YIII.  perceived  him  kneeling  to  receive  the  ashes,  the 
Pontiff  dashed  a  quantity  into  the  prelate's  eyes,  saying  :  "  Re- 
member, man,  that  thou  art  a  Ghibelline,  and  that  with  thy  fel- 
low-Gliibellines  thou  slialt  return  to  dust !  "  But  there  is  no 
foundation  for  a  story  so  unworthy  of  the  grand  character  of 
Boniface  and  of  that  of  the  archbishop,  though  Sismondi 
adduces  a  passage  of  Stella's  Genoese  Annals,  and  under  the 
presumed  authority  of  a  greater  name,  Muratori,  to  show 
that  Pope  Boniface  committed  the  violence  in  question 
toward  Porchetto  Spinola,  the  Ghibelline  successor  of  De 
Yoragine  (2).  But  Muratori  does  not  sanction  even  this 
latter  tale,  as  Sismondi  would  have  us  believe  that  he  does. 
He  declares  that  "it  smacks  oHhe i&biiloim— ^fahnlam sn2)it.'' 
Touron,  an  excellent  annalist  of  the  Dominican  Order  (3), 
well  describes  the  life  of  De  Voragine  as  devoted  entirely 
to  study  and  religion  ;  but  the  Jansenist  Baillet,  one  of  the 
most  bitter  contemners  of  the  Golden  Legend,  shows  super- 
fluous grief  because  of  a  fancied  beatification  of  the  arch- 
bishop on  the  part  of  the  Genoese  and  the  Dominican 
Order  (4).  "  We  do  not  know,"  replies  Tounm,  "  whether 
the  people  or  the  church  of  Genoa  have  ever  given  the  title 
of  Blessed  to  this  bishop,  but  we  know  that  M.  Baillet 
attributes  to  the  Dominicans  pretensions  wliicli  they  do  not 
entertain." 

(1)  TV.HELLI ;  Sacred  Italii.  Vol.  iv.,  col.  888.    Venire,  1717-22.  (2)  Lor.  cit. 

(3)  HiKtoni  of  the  UluMrinuit  Memhcrxnf  the  Order  i>f  St.  Dominic.    Paris,  1743. 

(4)  Discourse  on  the  Lives  i>f  the  Saitits.  §  33. 


582  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

The  principal  work  of  De  Voragine  is  undoubtedly  that  to 
which  he  gave  the  name  of  "  Legenda  Sanctorum — Stories  of 
the  Saints," but  which  came  to  be  called,  in  time,  the  Legenda- 
Aurea — "  Golden  Legend,"  and  also  Historia  Loiigohardica — 
"  History  of  Lombardy,"  because  it  finished  with  an  abridged 
history  of  that  country.  There  now  exist  more  than  a  hun- 
dred editions  of  the  work,  and  in  every  civilized  language. 
Here  we  must  remark  at  once  that  the  title  of  the  book  is  apt 
to  mislead  a  modern  reader.  When  moderns  use  the  word 
"  Legend,"  it  is  in  the  sense  of  something  uncertain,  perhaps 
fanciful  in  the  main,  and  often  fabulous  ;  but  in  the  days  of 
James  de  Voragine,  the  word  signified  "  something  to  be 
read,"  without  any  implication  of  doubt  as  to  its  foundation 
in  the  world  of  fact.  Therefore  we  must  beware  of  supposing 
that  our  author  presented  his  Lives  as  mere  legends  ;  such 
a  theory  would  be  too  favorable  to  the  school  which,  as 
Catholics,  we  must  combat.  The  entire  work  is  an  explana- 
tion of  the  OJice  as  it  is  recited,  day  by  day,  during  the 
ecclesiastical  year.  Naturally,  therefore,  the  Lives  of  the 
Saints  received  prominent  attention,  for  the  feast  of  some 
canonized  servant  of  God  occurs  every  day.  "The  principal 
object  of  the  author,"  remarks  an  erudite  writer,  "  is  to  teach 
the  faithful  the  meaning  of  every  solemnity  recognized  by 
the  official  calendar  of  the'  Catholic  world.  Since  each 
ceremony  has  its  own  significance,  he  explains  that  meaning 
by  means  of  certain  traditions — sometimes  very  extra- 
ordinary ones,  and  as  in  his  time  it  was  not  so  easy  as  it  is 
to-day  to  lay  one's  hand  on  the  life  of  a  saint  as  the  feast 
comes  around,  James  de  Voragine  conceived  the  idea  of 
gathering  in  one  great  work,  in  a  form  more  diffuse  than  that 
furnished  by  the  Lessons  of  the  Breviary,  all  the  particular 
Lives  of  the  blessed  ones  proposed  by  the  Church  for  the  ven- 
eration and  imitation  of  her  children  "  (1).  He  reproduces, 
as  nearly  as  possible,  the  style  of  every  author  whom  he  cites  ; 
and  the  dialectic  form  of  his  moralizations,  which  so  greatly 
charmed  his  contemporaries,  shows  that  the  people  of  the 
Middle  Age  were  much  better  informed  than  our  age  generally 
supposes. 

(1)  The  Abb^  Rose,  in  the  Revue  de  VAit  Chretien,  1867,  p.  39. 


SOME   SALIENT  FEATURES   OF  THE   MmDLE   AGE.  583 

The  value  of  the  Gohh'))  Legend  was  first  iinpngned  by 
James  Lacopms,  an  unfroekedfriar  who  apostatized  in  1566. 
He  not  only  rejected  all  that  sound  criticism  justly  hlames 
in  the  Legend,  but  denied  the  credibility  of  many  of  its 
histories  which  are  incontestably  true.  However,  having 
returned  to  the  fold  of  the  Church,  he  sealed  his  devotion  to 
the  faith  with  his  blood,  being  martyred  by  the  Calvinists 
at  Gorcum  in  the  Netherlands,  on  July  9tli,  1572,  together 
with  eighteen  other  ecclesiastics,  secular  and  regular  (1). 
At  the  last  moment  of  his  terrible  agonies  he  threw  his 
famous  book,  the  Befutatkm  of  the  Golden  Legend,  into  the 
flames.  Launoy,  the  "  un-uicher  of  the  saints,"  as  his  extrava- 
gant scepticism  in  all  hagiographical  matters  caused  him  to 
l)e  styled  (2),  narrates  that  Despence,  a  celebrated  doctor  of 
Paris  in  the  College  of  Navarre,  fiercely  declaimed,  one  day 
while  preaching  (y.  1543)  against  the  Golden  Legend  as 
being  a  tissue  of  lies  ;  but  the  critic  adds  that  the  doctor 
afterward  publicly  retracted,  on  the  demand  of  the  Faculty 
of  Paris  (3).  This  proves  that  as  yet,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  famous  collection  found  champions  among  the 
learned.  Melchior  Canus,  a  great  light  of  the  Dominican 
Order,  and  one  of  the  first  among  Catholic  theologians,  is 
adduced  by  Elias  Dupin,  a  most  erudite  scholar  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  as  denunciatory  of  the  Legend  (4). 
Dupin  says  that  De  Yoragine  amassed,  "  without  any  critical 
discernment,  a  quantity  of  narratives  mostly  fabulous.  This 
is  the  opinion  of  Melchior  Canus  on  this  writer  : '  The  Legend, 
was  compiled  by  a  man  who  had  an  iron  tongue  and  a  leaden 
heart,  and  whose  judgment  was  neither  correct  nor  prudent ; 
he  give  us  monstrosities  rather  than  miracles.'  But  if  this 
archbishop  is  not  to  be  admired  for  his  writings,  he  is  to  be 
esteemed  for  his  piety.  He  was  very  devout,  and  very 
charitable  to  the  poor,  to  whom  he  gave  nearly  all  his 
revenue."     Now  the  great  Dominican  never  pronounced  this 


(1)  ECHARD  ;  Inc.  at.,  p.  456.— Knnirt/i  Breviartj,  in  Si(p/W.,  July  9. 

(2)  Whenever  the  parish  priest  of  St.  Roch  at  Paris  met  this  hypcnTitic.  he  invariably 
made  an  extraordinary  deferential  salutation,  "for  fear,"  he  would  say,  "lest  some  day 
M.  Launoy  may  roh  me  of  my  dear  St.  Roch." 

(3)  History  of  the  Rin/al  School  of  Navarre  in  Paris,  Vol.  i.,  p.  297. 

(4)  Historv  of  the  Controversies  of  the  Thirteenth  Century.    Paris,  1701. 


oS4:  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

opinion  on  De  Voragine.  The  words  cited  by  Dupin  are 
those  of  Louis  Vives,  a  famous  Spanish  Humanist.  Canus 
does  not  even  mention  the  Legend  or  its  author,  in  his  vigor-, 
ous  onslaught  against  ialse  Lives  of  the  Saints.  The  Jansen- 
ist  Baillet  finds  fault  with  Bollandus  for  trying  to  mollify  the 
extravagantly   strong   censure   of  Vives.     Bollandus  says  : 

"  I  have  always  esteemed  Louis  Vives  most  highly but  I 

wonder  when  so  grave  and  moderate  a  man  styles  so  wise 
and  holy  a  person  one  of  iron  tongue  and  leaden  heart. . . . 
James  de  Voragine,  like  all  his  contemporaries,  did  not 
possess  a  cultivated  style,  but  he  was  learned  and  pious,  and 
was  a  man  of  singular  prudence  and  judgment ;  so  much  so, 
that  he  was  more  capable  than  Vives  or  Erasmus  of  judging 
as  to  the  probability  of  his  narratives "  (1).  Bollandus 
insists  against  Wicellius  (2),  that  James  de  Voragine  con- 
sulted ancient  authorities  of  reliability  :  "  I  cannot  doubt  it ; 
I  even  find  that  the  majority  of  his  narratives  agree  with  the 
original  documents  "  (3). 

Undoubtedly  the  Golden  Legend  has  many  grave  faults. 
In  the  first  place,  grievous  and  even  absurd  errors  are  fre- 
quently committed  in  the  etymological  and  other  derivations 
of  names.  Thus,  for  example,  we  read  that  the  name  of  St. 
Denis,  "Dionysius,"  is  derived  "  from  Diana,  i.  e.,  Venus,  the 
goddess  of  beauty,  and  '  syos,'  i.  e.,  God,  as  though  the  bearer 
were  beautiful  before  God."  Again,  the  compiler  is  too 
prone  to  credit  every  story  of  heavenly  visions,  ecstasies,  dia- 
bolical possessions,  etc.  But  it  is  to  be  noted,  remarks  Fleury, 
that  De  Voragine  never  invented  any  of  the  stories  which  a 
more  advanced  critical  science  has  relegated  to  the  realms  of 
the  fabulous  ;  they,  and  similar  ones,  are  found  in  Vincent  of 
Beauvais  and  other  preceding  writers  ;  our  author  "  merely 
added  some  embellishments,  discourses,  and  probable  cir- 
cumstances, which  he  deemed  an  edification  to  the  reader, 
and  he  did  so  with  good  judgment." 

(1)  The  text  has :  "  Erat  nnn  modn  dnctiis  et  pius,  sed  prudentki  judicioquesingulari, 
ut  quam  prdhabilirt  essent  qiUB  »criberet,  Vive  EraHmoque  melitis  potuerit  judicare." 
Vol.  i..  p.  20. 

(2)  Speakinp  of  that  critic's  History  of  the  Saints.    Metz.  1541. 

(3)  If  the  reader  desires  to  know  how  far  James  de  Voraplne  carried  his  investigations, 
he  may  consult  the  Abbe  Roze.  foe.  cit.,  who  arranged  all  these  authorities  in  chronolopi- 
cal  order. 


THE  CONVEllSION  OF  THE  FRANKS.  58^ 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  CONVERSION  OF  THE  FRANKS.   THE  ALLEGED  CRUELTIES  OF 
CLOVIS  AND  OF  ST.  CLOTILDA.* 

It  has  been  said  that  when  God  erases,  He  is  about  to 
write  again.  lu  the  fifth  century  of  our  era  God  made  use 
of  the  barbarians  to  destroy  the  Roman  Empire  in  tbe  West  ; 
and  on  the  resulting  tabula  rasa  He  traced  the  future  annals 
of  a  new  civilization,  in  which  the  instruments  of  His  justice 
and  of  His  loving  wisdom,  transformed  by  His  Church,  were 
to  play  a  prominent  part.  These  barbarians — these  "  con- 
scripts of  God,"  as  Chateaubriand  happily  styled  them — were 
the  blind  accomplishers  of  an  eternal  design.  The  new  re- 
ligion, recently  issued  from  the  Catacombs,  had  need  of  new 
jjeoples,  and  the  need  was  well  satisfied  ;  for  twenty  years 
after  Odoacer  the  Herulan  had  reduced  the  Eternal  City  and 
had  put  an  end  to  the  AVestern  Empire,  there  occurred  in 
Gaul  an  event  which  initiated  that  marvellous  series  of  events 
which  medijeval  writers  gratefully  described  as  the  Gesta 
Dei  per  Francos — the  wondrous  deeds  which  God  performed 
through  the  arms  of  the  French,  and  which  are  discerned  in 
even  more  modern  times  by  such  historians  as  grasp  the 
truth  that  there  can  be  no  true  philosophy  of  history  for  him 
who  ignores  the  directing  power  of  the  Most  High  in  the  af- 
fairs of  nations.  There  are  two  theories  concerning  the  origin 
of  the  Franks.  One  holds  that  they  were  a  Germanic  people, 
and  that  Tacitus  mentions  them  when  he  speaks  of  the 
Istevoni — a  league  of  the  Cherusci,  Sicambri,  Cauci,  Catti 
and  Brutteri.  According  to  this  idea,  the  Cherusci  became 
weak  after  the  days  of  Arminius,  and  were  for  some  time 
protected  by  the  Catti  ;  then  recovering  some  of  their  olden 
strength,  and  acquiring  a  pre})()nderance  in  the  league,  they 
assumed  the  names  of  Salic  or  River  (Eipfiarii)  Franks,  ac- 
cording as  they  dwelled  near  to  the  Baal  or  to  the  Rhine. 
However,  some  historians  contend  that  the  Franks  were  dis- 

•  Most  of  this  chapter  appeared   as  an  article  in  the  American  CaUinlic  Quarterly 
Reriew,  Vol.  XXI. 


586  STUDIES  m  church  history. 

tinct  from  the  Germans,  and  that  originally  they  inhabited 
what  are  now  Denmark  and  the  duchies  of  Holstein  and 
Lauenburg.  During  the  reign  of  Gallienus,  the  Franks 
crossed  the  Khine  and  advanced  even  into  Spain,  and  at  Tarra- 
gona they  embarked  for  Mauritania  ;  then  loading  themselves 
with  booty,  they  returned  to  their  own  land.  In  the  middle  of 
the  fourth  century  they  became  nominal  subjects  of  Rome,  and 
defended  the  Rhenish  frontier  against  the  other  barbarians. 
Many  poets,  and  some  historians,  speak  of  a  Frankish  king^ 
Pharamond,  whose  reign  they  ascribe  to  the  neighborhood 
of  the  year  A.  D.  420 ;  and  authentic  history  tells  of  King 
Clodion,  under  whom  the  Salic  Franks,  about  the  year  440, 
advanced  to  the  Somme.  Meroveus,  the  founder  of  the  Mero- 
vingian dynasty,  was  one  of  the  victors  at  the  battle  of  Chal- 
ons, in  451.  Childeric,  son  of  Meroveus,  ascended  the 
throne  in  458  ;  but  his  immoralities  disgusted  the  nation,  and 
he  was  forced  to  flee  to  Thuringia,  whereupon  the  Franks 
chose  as  chief,  probably  not  as  king,  the  Roman  Count  of 
Soissons,  general  of  the  Roman  forces  in  that  part  of  Gaul. 
This  nobleman,  Egidius,  was  faithful  to  the  Emperor  Major- 
ian,  and  therefore  hostile  to  Ricimer,  the  Warwick  of  that 
day ;  consequently,  he  found  himself  deposed  in  favor  of 
Gundioc,  king  of  the  Burgundians,  and  he  saw  the  Visigoth, 
Theodoric  II.,  with  the  connivance  of  Ricimer,  occupy  the 
Narbonnaise,  his  line  of  communication  with  Italy.  Then 
Egidius  invited  the  banished  Childeric,  whom  the  Franks 
now  yearned  for,  to  return  to  his  throne.  Childeric  bade 
farewell  to  his  host,  the  Thuringian  monarch,  but  took  with  him 
the  queen,  Basina,  who  had  become  infatuated  with  him. 
Childeric  expelled  from  Gaul  the  Alani,  whom  Theodoric  II. 
had  pushed  as  far  as  the  Loire  ;  and  he  consolidated  his  pow- 
er over  the  Salic  Franks.  He  died  in  481  ;  and  the  Franks 
lifted  on  their  bucklers,  in  token  of  their  submission  to  his 
rule,  the  young  Clodoveus  (Chlodowig  or  Clovis),  the  issue 
of  the  late  king's  adulterous  union  with  Basina. 

At  this  time  five  different  peoples  occupied  Gaul.  In  the 
centre  were  the  Romans ;  but  we  must  remember  that  this 
term  was  then  applied  to  such  of  the  olden  Gauls  as  had  not 
imitated  the  Armoricans  (Bretons)  in  proclaiming  their  in- 


THE   CON  VERSION   OF  THE    FILVNKS.  587 

depeudeuce,  or  had  not  recoguized  the  sway  of  some  barbar- 
iau  mouareh.     Althouji;h  the  AVesterii  Eiii})ire  had  beeu  dead 
for  live  years,  the  liomau  authority  was  still  represented  by 
S>agrius,  a  sou  of  the  famous  Egidius,   who  ruled  over  the 
cities  of  Beauvais,  Soissons,  Amiens,  Troyes,  llheims,  and 
their  dependent  territories.     The  Armoricans   were    in  the 
west,  the  Alemanui  in  the  northeast,  the  Burgundians  in  the 
east,  and  the  Visigoths  in  the  south.     The  Romans,  Gallo- 
Romaus,  and  Armoricans  were  Catholics  ;  the  Burgundians 
and  Visigoths  were  Ariaus  ;  while  the  Franks  and  Alemanui 
were  Pagans.     The  power  exercised  by  Count  Syagrius  was 
regarded  as  the  sole  legitimate  authority  in  Gaul,  having  a 
duration   of   five   centuries   for   its   sanction,    whereas    the 
barbarian  and   Armorican  governments  relied   only  on  the 
sword.     Hence  it  was  understood  that  if  the  Gauls  were  ever 
to  resolve  on  a  conquest  of  their  national  independence,  they 
certainly  would  fight  in    the   name  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Therefore  the  destruction  of  that  remnant  of  Roman  domina- 
tion, to  which  the  Gauls  still  avowed  an  honorable   fidelity, 
would  naturally  be  the  aim  of  any  enterprising  individual 
who  would  essay  the  formation  of  one  state   out  of  all   the 
discordant  elements  which  confronted  his  ambition.     Clovis 
perceived  this  truth,  and  wdien  the  eastern  emperor,  bent  on 
a  restoration  of  the  Western  Empire,  appointed  the  Frankish 
king  general  of  the  Roman  armies  in  Gaul,  the  young  mon- 
arch felt  that  the  time  for  action  had  arrived.     In  virtue  of 
his  new  title,  he  demanded  obedience  from  Syagrius,  and 
when  the  proud  Roman  refused  to  abdicate  his  rank,  5,000 
Franks  advanced  on  Soissons.     The  count  led  his  few    sol- 
diers to  the  open  field  ;  and  having  been  defeated,  he  fled  to 
Toulouse,  the  capital  of  Alaric  11. ,  king  of  the  Visigoths. 
Soissons  opened  its  gates  to  the  conqueror  ;  and  in  less  than 
a  year  lie  was  master  of  all  the  territories  which  the  Romans 
had  possessed  between  the  Loire   and    the    Rhine.     Then, 
fearing  that  Syagrius  would  incite  the  neighboring  princes 
to  combine  against  the  Franks,  Clovis  menaced  Alaric  with 
war  unless  the  Roman  general  were  delivered  to  him.     The 
Visigoth  dared  not  refuse,   and  the  unfortunate  was   put  to 
death.     Clovis  now  sought  for  a  bride,  and  his  choice  of  Clo- 


588  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

tilda,  a  Burgundian  princess  and  a  Catholic,  although  she 
had  been  raised  in  an  Arian  court,  gained  for  him  the  hearts 
of  the  Gallo-Romans.  From  the  day  of  her  marriage  every 
Catholic  eye  in  Gaul  was  turned  toward  Clotilda  as  to  one 
who  was  to  be  the  divine  instrument  for  the  conversion  of  the 
great  Clovis  to  the  true  religion  and  a  humane  policy.  In 
496  the  Alemanni,  burning  to  emulate  the  Franks,  advanced 
as  far  as  Cologne  and  attacked  Sigebert,  king  of  the  Ripuarii ; 
whereupon  Clovis,  being  a  nephew  of  Sigebert,  led  his 
Salic  Franks  to  the  rescue.  The  hostile  forces  met  at  Tol- 
biac  ;  the  Alemanni  were  routed,  and  Clovis  annexed  to  his 
dominions  all  the  Alemannic  conquests  between  the  Mo- 
selle and  the  Rhine,  together  with  a  large  district  on  the 
right  of  the  latter  river.  All  of  these  Frankish  conquests 
now  received  the  name  of  Francia  RJienana — Rhenish  France. 
The  remaining  Alemannic  territories,  Vindelicia  alone  ex- 
cepted, were  accorded  to  a  duke  of  Alemania,  who  swore  to 
be  a  vassal  of  the  Frank  monarch.  Vindelicia  Avas  given  to 
the  Ostrogothic  sovereign,  Theodoric,  who  had  acted  as  a 
mediator  in  effecting  peace.  This  victory  of  Tolbiac  was  the 
occasion  of  the  conversion  of  Clovis.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  action  the  Franks,  greatly  outnumbered,  were  on  the 
point  of  retreating,  when  their  king  thought  of  the  God  of 
Clotilda.  He  vowed  that  if  he  conquered  the  adorers  of 
Odin,  he  would  become  a  Christian ;  and  on  the  ensuing 
Christmas  Day  he  was  baptized  by  St.  Remy  in  that  baptis- 
tery at  Rheims  which  still  remains  as  a  monument  of  one  of 
the  most  important  revolutions  which  the  world  has  seen. 
The  entire  Frankish  nation  soon  followed  their  monarch  into 
the  Fold  of  Christ ;  and  from  that  date  they  became  the  most 
efficient  constituent,  after  the  Catholic  Church,  the  informing 
spirit,  of  the  new  civilization.  Pope  Anastasius  II.  grant- 
ed to  the  Frankish  kings  the  title  of  "  Most  Christian,"  and 
styled  them  the  "  Eldest  Sons  of  the  Church  "  (1) — qualifica- 
tions which  were  historically  correct,  since  at  that  time  the 
eastern  emperor  was  a  Eutychian  heretic,  and  all  the  west- 
ern Christian  princes  of  any  importance    were  Arians  (2). 

(1)  For  fhP  antiquity  of  this  titip.  see  our  Vol.  iii.,  p.  369. 

(2)  About  the  year  377  the  Gcttis  asked  tiie  Emperor  Valens,  an  Arian.  for  permission  tc 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  THE  FRANKS.  S^U 

The  consequences  of  the  conversion  of  Clovis  were  immedi- 
ate and  supremely  iniportaut.  All  the  cities  of  Brittany  sub- 
mitted to  the  Fraukish  sceptre  ;  all  the  Gallo-Komans  re- 
garded Clovis  as  their  liberator  from  the  yoke,  either  act- 
ual or  threatened,  of  the  Arian  Visigoths  and  Burgundians  ;  all 
the  lloman  legions  which  were  still  stationed  between  the 
Seine  and  the  Loire  entered  the  service  of  him  whom  the 
Vicar  of  Christ  had  blessed  ;  and  the  Boman  eagles  and 
Labariiin  shed  some  of  their  ancient  splendor  over  the  war- 
riors of  the  new  Christian  nation.  Gallo-Bomans  and  Franks 
were  soon  amalgamated  by  the  force  of  their  common 
Christianity  ;  the  foundations  of  France  were  laid. 

In  his  last  will  and  testament,  St.  Bemy  thus  speaks  of 
the  family  of  Clovis  :  "  I  raised  it  to  the  supreme  rank  of 
royal  majesty  ;  I  baptized  them  all  in  the  waters  of  salvation  ; 
I  gave  to  them  the  Seven  Gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  I 
consecrated  their  head  as  king  with  the  Holy  Chrism."  But 
on  that  Christmas  Day  of  496  it  was  not  only  the  family  of 
Clovis,  not  only  those  3,000  of  his  warriors  who  were  baptized 
with  him,  whom  Christendom  acclaimed  as  they  issued  from 
the  baptistery  of  Blieims  ;  then  all  France  was  assigned  by 
the  hand  of  God  to  a  pre-eminent  place  in  the  destinies  of 
the  world.  "  Nearly  two  hundred  years  after  Constantine,'* 
says  Lacordaire,  "  there  was,  as  yet,  no  Christian  nation  in 
the  world  (1).  The  empire  was  formed  of  twenty  different 
races,  united  indeed  in  administration,  but   separated   by 

settle  in  RomaD  territory,  and  the  request  was  granted  on  condition  that  thev  embraced 
Arianism.  One  of  their  deputies,  a  bishop  named  Ulphilas— a  man  of  talent,  who  had 
shown  much  orthodox  zeal  at  the  Council  of  Nice — yielded  sufflcieutly  to  the  imperial  wiles 
to  permit  his  nation  to  obey  the  sovereign's  behest,  although  he  himself  continued  to  preach 
the  Catholic  doctrine,  at  least  in  its  substantial  integrity.  Very  soon  the  pest  was  com- 
municated to  all  the  allies  of  the  Goths,  such  as  the  Gepidi,  the  Ostrogoths,  the  Vandals, 
the  Alani,  etc.  Genseric  led  his  Vandals  into  Arianism  in  428.  Gondehald  did  the  same 
for  his  Burgundians  in  480.  The  Anglo-Saxons  in  Britain  werestillidolators.— Tili.kmont, 
i/i'sf.  Ecclr^..  at  y.  377  ;  Ckili.er,  art.  Ulphilas. 

(1)  This  sentence  is  misleading,  if  one  does  not  remember  that  the  illustrious  Dominican 
uses  the  word  "  nation  "  in  its  strict  sense  ;  that  is,  applying  it  only  to  a  politically-organ- 
ized, united,  and  independent  people.  At  the  time  of  the  baptism  of  Clovis,  there  were 
very  many  peoples  in  Western  Europe  who  were  entirely  Catholic  ;  and  in  the  East,  very 
far  from  all  had  succumbed  to  heresy.  In  Europe,  the  Italians  were  not  the  only  ones  who 
reje'ted  Arianism  ;  the  (iaiils  and  the  Britons  (the  latter  then  relegated  to  Cambria)  were 
Catholics.  And  for  half  a  century  the  Scots,  afterward  known  as  the  "  Irish,"  had  bee'' 
Catholics,  and  they  were  then  propagating  the  faith  in  Caledonia.  The  term  "  barbarian ' 
was  then  applied  pre-eminently  to  the  various  hordes  of  Teutonic  origin  ;  and  therefoi 
it  was  said  that  the  Franks  were  the  first  "  barbaric  "  nation  to  receive  the  faith. 


590  STUDIES    TN    CHUECH    HISTORY. 

their  traditious  and  customs  ;  and  a  new  germ  of  division 
had  been  planted  by  Arianism,  a  most  active  and  fruitful 
heresy.  Then  the  empire  was  beset  by  barbarous  popu- 
lations whose  greed  was  ever  increasing,  and  who  were  either 
given  to  idolatry  or  subjugated  by  Arianism.  But  now  be- 
hold the  work  of  God  !  Not  far  from  the  banks  of  the  Rhine, 
a  barbarian  chieftain  was  engaged  in  battle  with  other  bar- 
barians. His  followers  were  giving  way  ;  and  in  his  peril  he 
bethought  him  of  the  God  whom  his  wife  adored,  and  whose 
power  she  had  often  lauded.  He  invokes  that  God  ;  and  vic- 
tory having  declared  for  him,  he  prostrates  himself  at  the 
feet  of  the  God  of  Clotilda.  That  God  was  Christ ;  that  king, 
that  queen,  that  bishop,  that  victory,  were  the  French  na- 
tion ;  and  the  French  nation  was  the  first  Catholic  nation 
which  God  gave  to  His  Church  "  (1).  If  it  had  been  given 
to  St.  Eemy  to  see  through  the  veil  of  the  future,  he  would 
have  known  that  a  national  birth  was  effected  by  the  re- 
generating waters  which  he  poured  on  the  head  of  Clovis. 
"  Forth  from  the  Baptistery  of  Rheims  issued  France  and 
all  her  destinies  ;  the  age  of.  Charlemagne,  the  freedom  of 
the  communes,  the  genius  of  scholasticism,  the  glories  of  the 
Crusades,  the  days  of  St.  Louis,  the  heroism  of  Joan  of  Arc, 
the  valor  of  Henry  IV.,  the  splendor  of  Louis  XIV.,  the 
eloquence  of  Bossuet,  the  great  modern  movement,  and  we 
ourselves.  Yes,  from  that  Baptistery  we  also  came ;  we 
who  are  Catholics,  despite  the  scandals  of  the  Great  Schism, 
despite  the  seductions  of  the  Reformation,  despite  the  dia- 
bolical reign  of  Voltaire,  despite  the  bloody  persecutions  of 
the  Revolution.  Despite  all  these  terrible  trials,  we  are 
Catholics.  Long  and  magnificent  is  that  history  which  has 
been  termed  the  Gesta  Dei 'per  Francos  ;  for  on  its  every  page 
the  grandeurof  God  and  our  national  greatness  stan  d  forth 
in  indissoluble  unity  "  (2). 

Fourteen  centuries  have  passed  since  the  Frankish  king, 
Clovis,  led  the  Burgundian  princess,  Clotilda,  to  the  hy- 
meneal altar,  thus  opening  the  way  to  an  event   which  was 


(1)  THseoume  on  the  Vocation  of  the  French  Nation,  delivered  in  Notre  Dame,  Paris, 
February  U,  1841. 

(2)  Pkrrkyte  ;  Panegyric  on  St.  Clotilda. 


THE    CONVEHSION    OF   THE    FliANKS.  591 

to  be  one  of  the  chief  directive  iigeuts  iu  the  formation  of 
modern  history — the  baptism  of  France.  With  few  strokes 
of  his  pen  Feval  has  described  this  wonderful  conversion  : 
"  A  man  praying  amid  the  ruins  of  the  past,  and  a  seed 
developing  in  the  dense  shade  of  the  oaks — that  was  suf- 
ficient ;  it  was  thus  that  God  made  France."  The  man  pray- 
ing amid  the  ruins  of  Gallo-Roman  splendor  and  power  was 
St.  Eemy,  archbishop  of  Rheims ;  the  seed  developing  its 
great  potentialities  iu  the  silence  of  oppi-ession  was  St.  Clo- 
tilda, a  delicate  flower  which  had  survived  the  storm  that 
had  devastated  everything  around  her,  and  still  retained  its 
native  freshness  and  beaut}'.  We  must  devote  a  few  words 
to  the  career  of  this  princess,  for  too  many  historians  have 
sadly  travestied  it.  Through  her  father,  Clotilda  descend- 
ed from  Gondicarius,  who,  while  defending  his  subjects  from 
the  invading  Huns,  perished  at  the  hands  of  Attila.  The 
Burgundian  dominions  were  then  divided  by  his  sons  :  Gon- 
demar,  Godeghesil,  Gondebald,  and  Chilperic.  The  last- 
named  prince  was  the  father  of  Clotilda.  On  the  death  of 
Godeghesil,  Gondebald  made  war  on  his  two  other  brothers  ; 
Gondemar  fell  amid  the  flames  of  his  last  fortress  ;  while 
Chilperic,  taken  on  the  field  of  battle,  was  conveyed  to  Gen- 
eva, then  the  capital  of  the  Burguudians,  and  massacred,  to- 
gether with  his  wife  and  all  his  children,  excepting  Clotilda 
and  one  sister.  At  this  time  the  Burgundians  were  Christ- 
ians, but  had  succumbed  to  the  Arian  heresy.  Gondebald, 
although  a  fervent  Arian,  allowed  full  liberty  to  his  nieces  to 
practise  the  Catholic  religion,  in  which  they  had  been  trained 
by  their  mother.  Frequently  Clotilda  heard  the  voice  of 
nature  crying  for  vengeance  on  the  murderer  of  her  family  ; 
but  slie  ever  hearkened  to  the  promptings  of  divine  grace  to 
forgive  him.  Before  many  years  the  young  princess  became 
the  idol  of  Geneva,  so  completely  did  she  unite  angelic  beau- 
ty with  the  best  gifts  of  a  large  heart  and  a  grand  soul.  Clo- 
tilda had  not  reached  her  twentieth  year,  when,  in  492,  her 
fame  was  sounded  in  the  ears  of  the  great  Clovis.  He  was 
seized  with  desire  to  make  her  his  queen,  and  accordingly 
negotiated  with  Gondebald  for  her  hand.  The  Burgundian 
sovereign  willingly  assented  ;  but  at  first  the  princess  hesitat- 


592  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

ed.  The  Franks  were  brave  and  glorious  indeed,  and  tbe 
world  already  prognosticated  their  early  arrival  at  the 
height  of  power  ;  but  they  were  still  pagans,  and  Clovis  especi-- 
ally  was  attached  to  the  worship  of  the  false  deities  with  all 
the  ardor  of  an  imj^etuous  and  naturally  religious  heart. 
Clotilda  reflected,  however,  that  Clovis  was  held  in  great 
esteem  by  the  bishops  of  Northern  Gaul,  and  that  the  holy 
Remy,  with  whom  she  regularly  corresponded  on  the  affairs 
of  her  soul,  had  told  her  that  he  cherished  great  hopes  that 
the  brave  Frank  would  yet  become  a  Christian.  What  if  she 
were  to  be  the  instrument  of  Providence  in  effecting  so  wonder- 
ful and  happy  a  transformation  ?  In  fine,  Clotilda  consented 
to  become  Queen  of  the  Franks,  and  in  due  time  set  out  for 
the  court  of  Clovis.  Only  a  few  days  had  been  spent  on  the 
journey  when  an  event  occurred  which  very  nearly  changed 
the  current  of  Clotilda's  career,  and  which  helped  to  give  rise 
to  a  calumny  which  is  gleefully  repeated  by  philosophistic 
historians.  Shortly  after  the  departure  of  the  bridal  cor- 
tege, there  had  returned  to  Geneva,  from  an  embassy  to  Con- 
stantinople, a  virulent  enemy  of  our  princess  ;  and  on  learning 
of  the  matrimonial  treaty  with  Clovis,  he  sought  to  prevent 
its  consummation.  Aridius  was  a  Roman,  and  the  intimate 
confidant  of  Gondebald.  He  had  been  a  Catholic,  but  had 
sacrificed  his  religion  to  political  ambition,  and  had  embraced 
Arianism.  There  was  not  a  more  ardent  sectary  among  the 
Burgundians  than  this  renegade,  and  he  had  often  endeavored 
to  draw  Clotilda  into  apostasy  ;  but  failing,  and  perceiving 
no  favorable  opportunity  of  injuring  her,  he  had  dissembled 
his  rage,  and  bided  his  time.  He  now  tried  to  procure  a 
disavowal  of  the  agreement  with  Clovis,  and  an  order  for  the 
pursuit  and  interception  of  the  princess.  He  represented  to 
Gondebald  that  he  risked  great  danger  by  placing  Clotilda 
in  the  camp  of  the  Franks.  Even  as  a  captive  she  had  been 
formidable  ;  he  had  often  suggested  to  his  lord  the  propriety 
of  ridding  himself  of  the  last  of  the  serpent's  brood.  What 
would  she  not  become,  if  raised  to  the  Frankish  throne  ? 
Even  when  in  the  power  of  Gondebald,  she  had  defied  him 
by  persisting  in  her  Catholicism.  If  now  she  were  support- 
ed by  the  Frankish  army,  what  would  she  not  eff'ect  ?     The 


THE    (^()NVi:itSU/N    OF    THK    FltANKS.  ")<).') 

kinjT  should  renieinber  that  Clotilda  was  of  a  race^tliat  f()r<j;ot 
no  injuries  ;  and  that  she  had  seen  licr  fatlun"  and  hrotlicrH, 
murdered  before  her  eyes,  and  her  mother,  torn  from  her  em- 
braces, thrown  into  a  well  with  a  stone  at  her  neek.  Aridius 
prevailed  ;  an  armed  force  was  immediately  dispatelied  to  .".r- 
rest  the  princess.  But  secretly  as  these  measures  had  been 
taken,  they  came  to  the  knowledge  of  a  Catholic  ofl&cer  who 
was  devoted  to  Clotilda  ;  and  by  means  of  a  shorter  road,  im- 
practicable to  the  heavily  accoutred  troops,  he  managed  to 
warn  her.  The  resolution  of  the  princess  was  soon  taken. 
Leaving  her  litter,  she  was  soon  in  the  saddle  ;  and  surround- 
ed by  a  few  chosen  cavaliers,  she  pushed  ahead  at  full  speed 
for  the  Frankish  frontier,  wdiile  the  main  body  of  her  late 
escort  continued  their  march.  No  sooner  had  their  mis- 
tress disappeared  over  the  horizon,  than  the  Franks,  for  her 
protection  and  their  own,  fired  and  otherwise  devastated  all 
the  villages  and  forests  in  their  rear,  as  they  advanced,  so 
that  the  pursuers  found  their  progress  so  impeded  that  they 
were  unable  to  prevent  the  little  band  and  its  precious  charge 
from  reaching  the  border  in  safety. 

This  ravaging  of  the  Burgundian  territory,  presumably 
by  order  of  Clotilda,  on  the  first  occasion  furnished  her  of 
satisfying  a  natural  desire  for  vengeance,  has  given  to  au- 
thors of  the  freethinkiug  school  a  specious  advantage,  wdieu 
they  adduce  in  favor  of  their  theory  of  our  saint's  vindictive- 
ness  a  passage  of  St.  Gregory  of  Tours  (545-595),  in  which 
the  holy  chronicler,  rightly  styled  the  "  father  of  French  his- 
tory," seems  to  say  that  Clotilda,  in  her  advanced  age  and 
widowhood,  armed  her  sons  against  Burgundy,  in  order  to 
further  slake  her  thirst  for  revenge  for  the  crime  of  Gondebald, 
committed  thirty  or  forty  years  previously.  This  testimony 
of  St.  Gregory,  say  the  philosophistic  historians,  is  rendered 
more  credible  by  the  vengeance  taken  by  the  expectant  bride  ; 
and  then  they  feign  to  show,  from  the  words  of  the  archbishop 
that  her  implacability,  not  military  necessity  and  a  desire  to 
preserve  their  own  lives,  prompted  the  Frankish  devastation. 
And  in  this  vicious  circle  they  pretend  to  find  their  proof 
that  the  Catholic  Church  has  presented  to  the  veneration  of 
her  children  a  virulent  fury,  or  at  liest  a  person  who  (juite 


594  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

readily  succumbed  to  the  ordinary  frailties  of  the  descend- 
ants of  Adam.  Even  Catholic  authors  of  merit  have  accept- 
ed the  story  of  Clotilda's  two  strokes  of  vengeance  as  authen- 
tic and  indubitable,  contenting  themselves  with  a  more  or  less 
successful  minimization  of  the  force  of  the  argument  deduced 
from  the  alleged  facts  by  the  freethinkers.  Thus  Cesare 
Cantii,  as  Catholic  and  truly  philosophical  a  historian  as 
ever  wielded  a  pen,  gives  the  generally  credited  version, 
unaccompanied  by  the  slightest  manifestation  of  doubt  (1). 
Henrion  evinces  the  same  innocence  of  suspicion  concerning 
the  authenticity  of  the  Gregorian  text,  though  he  extenuates 
the  alleged  guilt  of  the  saint  by  the  assertion  of  the  rights 
of  her  sons  over  Burgundy.  Fleury  says  nothing  on  the 
subject ;  but  from  the  fact  that  whenever  he  alludes  to  the 
Franks,  he  constantly  cites  St.  Gregory  as  his  source  of 
information,  we  may  conclude  that  he  places  no  reliance  on 
the  passage  in  question.  We  may  imagine  how  welcome  to 
Henri  Martin,  who  saw  in  St.  Clotilda  a  spirit  of  blind  and 
implacable  vengeance,  was  the  spectacle  of  one  canonized 
saint  incriminating  another.  But  had  this  historical  cham- 
pion of  the  modern  anti-clerical  school  read  the  excellent 
disquisition  of  H.  del'  Epinois  on  the  value  of  the  writings 
of  St.  Gregory  of  Tours  (2),  or  the  still  more  convincing 
work  of  the  Abbe  de  Barral  (3),  he  would  have  felt  less  rea- 
son for  complacency.  The  alleged  inculpating  text  of  St. 
Gregory  of  Tours  runs  as  follows  :  "  Queen  Clotilda,  address- 
ing Clodomir  and  her  other  sons,  said  to  them :  '  Let  me 
never  have  to  regret,  my  dear  sons,  having  raised  you  to 
maturity.  May  my  injuries  excite  your  indignation,  and 
enkindle  an  ardent  zeal  in  your  hearts  to  avenge  the  slaugh- 
ter of  my  father  and  mother.'  Having  heard  these  words, 
they  turned  toward  Burgundy,  and  marched  against  Sigis- 
mund  and  his  brother  Godomar."  Now,  this  delivery  of  her 
native  Burgundy  to  rapine  and  pillage,  this  deluging  of  then 
peaceful  homes  with  blood,  this  loosening  of  a  flood  which 
might  engulf  all  Europe,  is  very  unlike  an  act  of  that  ven- 

(1)  Universal  History,  bk.  viii.,  ch.  9. 

(2)  In  the  Annals  of  Christian  Philosophy  for  February,  1862. 

(3)  Examination  of  the  Celebrated  Text  of  St.  Gregory  of  Tours  on  the  War  Aoainst 
Sigismund.    Ibi,  December,  1862. 


THE  CONVEUSIUN    OF   THE   FRANKS.  oOo 

erable  widow  of  Clovis,  whom  St.   Gregory  describes  else- 
where as  "  passing  her  days  near  the  tomb  of  St.  Martiu   of 
Tours  in  all  hciiujniin  and  chastity."     Of  course,  Henri  Mar- 
tin   accounts    for   this    unchristian    conduct  by  the    purely 
gratuitous  averment  that  among  the  barbarians  Christianity 
existed  only  on  the  surface.     Here  is  another  vicious  circle  : 
to  evince  contested  facts  the  character  of  the  barbarians  is 
adduced,   and  then  this  character  is   painted  by  the  aid  of 
these   same   contested   facts.     But   though   that   barbarian 
blood   boiled  ever  so  fiercely,  age  should  have  somewhat 
cooled  it,  and  about  forty  3'ears  had  elapsed  since  the   mur- 
der of  Clotilda's  relatives.     Again,  the  alleged  passage  of 
St.  Gregory  confronts  us  with  many  absurdities  which  noth- 
ing compels  us  to  admit.      If  it  is  to  be  accepted  in  evidence, 
how  did  Clotilda  succeed  so  well  in  dominating  her  thirst 
for  vengeance  during  the  entire  life  of  the  guilty  Goudebald  ? 
Occasions  for  the  satisfaction  of  her  supposed  lust  for  blood 
had  not  been  wanting  ;  and  nevertheless,  she  had  not  induced 
her  husband  to  gratify  it.     Once,  Avhen  Goudebald  was  shut 
up  in  Avignon  by  the  victorious  Franks,  she  had  but  to  in- 
sinuate the  wish,  and  Clovis  would  not  have  accorded  peace 
to  the  royal  murderer,  but  would  have  exacted  his  wretched 
life.     On  another  occasion  Goudebald  had  violated  his  troth 
to  the  Franks,  and  had  refused  his  tribute  of  vassalage  to 
their  king.     The  queen  certainly  so  far  forgave  as  not  to  in- 
fluence Clovis  toward  severity ;  for  he  overlooked  the  crime 
and   made  a   new  alliance  with  the  culprit  against  Alaric. 
Again,  she  displayed  anything  but  a  vindictive  spirit  in  not 
opposing  the  hearty  welcome  into  the  Frankish  camp  of  that 
Aridius  who  had  very  nearly  prevented  her  marriage,   and 
had  pursued  her  with  Burgundian  troops.     And,  finally,  it 
is  incredible  that  Clotilda  should  have  kept  peace  for  thirty 
or  more  years  with  the  murderer  of  her  family,  only  to  take 
her  revenge  at  last   on  the  innocent  and  holy  Sigismund. 
These  and  other  absurdities   force  us  to  conclude  that  the 
unique  motive  of  the  sons   in  warring  on   Sigismund   was 
their  own  ambition. 

But  how  are  we  to  account  for  the  incriminating  words  of 
St.  Gregory'  of  Tours  ?     We  cannot  charge  the  holy  chron- 


o96  STUDIES    IN    CHUECH    HISTOllY. 

icier  with  deliberate  lying  ;  but  we  must  remember  that  he 
wrote  nearly  a  hundred  years  after  the  marriage  of  St.  Clo- 
tilda. And  as  Henri  Martin,  unconsciously  refuting  his  own- 
theory,  admits  :  "  That  union  and  its  important  consequences 
struck  the  popular  imagination  so  vividly  that  they  became 
the  text  for  romantic  recitals,  which  every  succeeding  gen- 
eration enlarged  and  embellished."  In  this  embellishment, 
then,  and  consequent  alteration  of  the  Gregorian  manuscript, 
and  not  in  the  writings  of  the  saintly  chronicler,  is  to  be 
found  the  source  of  the  charge  that  Clotilda  was  a  vindic- 
tive woman.  These  "  highly  embellished  recitals  "  had  im- 
pressed the  imagination,  perhaps  even  affected  the  critical 
faculties,  of  some  copyist,  monastic  or  secular,  who  was 
occupied  in  a  reproduction  of  the  saintly  author's  chronicle. 
Either  in  good  or  bad  faith,  he  wrote  his  ornamenting  ideas 
on  the  margin  of  his  copy  ;  and  in  time  some  other  copyist, 
perhaps  in  good  faith,  inserted  the  annotations  in  the  text 
as  originally  the  production  of  the  recognized  author  of  the 
work  in  hand  (1).  No  fact  is  more  familiar  to  historical  in- 
vestigators than  such  interpolations  in  olden  manuscripts  ; 
and  to  detect  the  fraud  is  one  of  the  chief  tasks,  as  it  is  the 
most  laborious,  of  the  patient  critic.  In  fine,  we  hold  that 
St.  Greo-ory  of  Tours  was  not  the  author  of  the  passage  which 
incriminates  St.  Clotilda.  No  other  hypothesis  can  account 
for  the  eulogy  which  the  same  historian  pronounces  on  the 
humility  of^iie  queen:  "Queen  Clotilda  so  conducted  her- 
self that  she  was  honored  by  all.  Neither  the  royalty  of 
her  sons,  nor  worldly  ambition,  nor  wealth,  could  entice  her  to 
perdition  ;  but  humility  raised  her  to  grace  "  (2).  That  the 
chronicle  of  St.  Gregory  has  been  grievously  interpolated  in 
many  places,  is  satisfactorily  proved  by  Le  Cointe  (3)  and  by 
Kries  (4).     That  the  passage  in  question  must  be  rejected, 

(])  St.  Gregory  of  Tours  was  well  aware  of  the  danper  of  alteration  which  all  MSS.  un- 
derwent in  his  day,  from  Indiscreet  or  malevolent  interpolation.  At  the  end  of  his  worli 
he  placed  this  warning  :  "  Although  this  volume  is  written  in  uncultivated  style,  1  conjure 
all  the  priests  of  the  Lord  who  hereafter  govern  the  Church  of  Tours,  and  I  do  so  by  the 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  the  judgment-day,  if  they  do  not  wish  to  see  them- 
selves then  covered  with  confusion  and  condemned  with  the  devil,  that  they  never  destroy 
this  book ;  also  that  thev  never,  in  copying  it,  add  any  things  or  omit  others." 

(3)  Loc  cit.  <3*  FA'cUKim^ticnl  Annals  of  the  Franks. 

(A>   JAfe  and  Writinus  of  Uregory  of  Tours.     Breslau,  1839. 


THE    CONVKHSION    OF   THE    I'KAMvS.  597 

has  been  well  demonstrated  by  the  eminent  Italian  histor- 
ian, Carlo  Tro3'a  (1),  and  by  Alphonse  de  Boissieu  {2).     And 
now  a  word  concerning  the  testimony  of  Fredegarius,  whic-h 
is  also  adtluced  by  freethinkers   in  corroboration  of  their 
charge  against  St.  Clotilda.     This  chronicler,  speaking  of 
the  future  queen's  journey  to  the  court  of  Clovis,  says  that 
before  crossing  the  frontier  and  joining  the  king,  who  await- 
ed her  at  Troyes,  the  princess  asked  her  escort  to  pillage 
and  burn  two  leagues  of  the  Burgundiau  territory,  on  both 
sides  of  the  road.     They  obtained  permission  of  Clovis,  and 
the  Franks  set  themselves  to  the  task.     Then  Clotilda  is  said 
to  have  prayed  :  "  Almighty  God,  I  thank  Thee  !     Now  I  see 
the  beginning  of  my  vengeance  against  the  murderers  of  my 
family."     Now,  is  it  probable  that  Clovis,  at  such  a  time,  and 
merely  for  the  satisfaction  of  a  woman's  caprice,  would  have 
thus  created  a  cause  of   war  ?     And  how  did  the  Frankish 
escort  of  Clotilda,  pursued  by  the  Burgundians,  find  leisure 
for  the  message  to  their  sovereign  and  for  the  arrival  of 
the  reply  ?     And  remember  that  the  expectant  bride  was  just 
then  running  great  risk  of  being  captured  and  restored  to  the 
custody  of  her  enemies  ;  for  she  was  guarded,  not  by  a  power- 
ful army,  but  by  a  mere  escort  of  honor.     These  consider- 
ations impel  us  to  pass  the  same  judgment  on  the  testimony 
of  Fredegarius  that  we  have  recorded  concerning  that  of  the 
Turensian  chronicler.     As   to   the  prayer  of   thanksgiving 
which  Clotilda  is  said  to  have  offered  on  the  consummation 
of  her  first  vengeance  for  the  slaughter  of  her  relatives,  we 
need  not  let  it  cause  us  much  surprise.     It  is  not  very  easy 
to  draw  the  line  where  a  just  punishment  of  a  terrible  crime 
ends,  and  the  principle  of  Gospel  forgiveness  begins  to  have 
force ;  especially  in  the  case  where  the  sufferer  is  judge  and 
punisher.     And  Clotilda  was  then  a  girl  of  scarcely  nine- 
teen, Avho  had  been  trained  amid  many  of  the  traditions  of 
barbarism.     Even  when  she  knelt  at  the  altar  of  God,  thank- 
ing Him  for  her  escape,  she  was  breathing  the  atmosphere 
that  surrounded  her.     She  was  a  Christian;  but  her  lately  con- 
verted nation  had  not  yet  forgotten  the  maxim  of  retaliation, 
"  An  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth."     The  law  of  her 

(1)  History  of  Italy,  Vol.  xl.  (2)  Ancient  Inscriptiona  of  Lyons. 


598  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

people  assigned  "  to  the  nearest  relative  of  tlie  victim,  the 
goods,  the  arms,  and  revenge."  Hard  indeed  was  the  task  of 
the  Church  to  extirpate  from  the  customs  and  laws  of  our' 
ancestors  that  barbarity  which,  born  of  egotism,  could  be 
eradicated  only  by  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  cultivated  by 
sympathy  with  the  woes  of  Calvary.  In  fine,  we  may  admit 
that  at  the  time  of  her  union  with  Clovis,  Clotilda  had  not 
yet  arrived  at  that  Christian  perfection  to  which,  under  the 
guidance  of  St.  Kemy,  she  was  destined  to  attain. 

Returning  now  to  the  conversion  of  Clovis,  we  would  re- 
mark that  the  spirit  of  the  world  affects  to  regard  as  insincere 
nearly  every  conversion  to  the  Catholic  faith,  although  it  finds 
no  difiiculty  in  awarding  the  praise  of  sincerity  to  any  per- 
version from  that  faith.  It  is  quite  natural,  therefore,  that 
heterodox  and  rationalistic  historians  should  represent  Clovis 
as  being  influenced  by  ambition  when  he  threw  himself  at  the 
feet  of  St.  Remy  ;  but  one  would  suppose  that  a  writer  of  the 
calibre  of  Augustin  Thierry,  even  though  he  was  not  a 
professing  Christian  when  he  penned  the  observation,  would 
not  have  fallen  into  this  error  (1).  Thierry  wrote  :  "  Among 
the  French  kings  of  the  first  race,  Clovis  was  the  politician. 
With  the  view  of  founding  an  empire,  he  trampled  on  the 
worship  of  the  gods  of  the  North,  and  he  associated  himself 
with  the  orthodox  bishops  for  the  destruction  of  the  two  Arian 
kingdoms.  But  he  was  the  tool,  rather  than  the  director  of 
this  league. . . .  He  continued  to  be  influenced  by  the  customs 
and  ideas  of  his  people. .  . .  The  torch  and  rapine  did  not 
spare  the  churches  when  he  made  his  incursions  toward  the 
Saone  and  to  the  south  of  the  Loire. . . .  The  ceremony  (his 
baptism)  was  performed  at  Rheims,  and  the  most  splendid 
arts  of  the  Romans  were  adopted  with  profusion  to  celebrate 
the  triumph  of  the  bishops  "  (2).     Gorini  well  remarks  that  if 

<])  Gorini,  in  his  admirable  Defense  nf  the  Church  (1853),  took  occasion  to  refute  a  number 
of  Tbierry's  assertions  made  in  theConqio'ff  nf  Enyland  hythe  Normans,  and  in  the  I/Ct- 
tcrs  (in  the  HLitori/nf  France.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  note  that  Thierry  most  hatidsoiiiely  ad- 
mitted the  justice  of  Gorini's  animadversions,  and  in  all  posterior  editions  (while  lie  lived;  the 
criminated  passages  were  either  corrected  or  omitted.  But  the  great  historian  had  then 
become  a  devout  and  uncompromislnt:  Catholic.  M.  Henri  Mai  tin,  the  head  of  the  Druidi- 
cal  school,  imitated  Thierry's  example  to  some  extent.  Guizot  granted  the  accuracy  of 
Gorini's  judgments,  but  he  allowed  the  errors  to  appear  in  his  later  editions. 

(3)  In  later  editions,  also  published  before  his  conversion,  Thierry  modified  the  last  sen- 


THE   CONVERSION   OF  THE   FllANKS.  5D9 

Clovi3  received  baptism  in  order  to  found  au  empire,  it 
was  his  policy  that  triumphed,  and  not  that  of  the  bisii- 
ops  or  their  faith ;  especially  if,  as  Thierry  says,  the  Christ- 
ian Clovis  was  no  more  reverent  toward  the  churches  than  the 
pagan  Olovis  had  been.  But  how  is  it  that  tlie  policy  of  Clovis 
had  never  shown  itself  during  his  fifteen  years  of  reign  on 
both  banks  of  the  Somme  in  the  midst  of  Christian  popula- 
tions ;  during  his  ten  years  of  intimacy  with  St.  Eemy,  and  of 
acquaintance  with  other  clergymen ;  and  duriiig  the  three 
years  of  entreaty  on  the  part  of  Clotilda  that  he  would  aban- 
don paganism '?  It  was  not  until  he  found  that  the  God  of 
the  Christians  had  heard  his  prayer  at  Tolbiac  that  he  aban- 
doned his  false  deities.  And  if  conversion  to  Christianity 
was  to  strengthen  his  power,  is  it  not  strange  that  other  barbar- 
ian princes  of  the  day,  equally  ambitious,  never  made  such  a 
discovery?  But,  Inimanly  speaking,  Clovis  did  not  need  to 
embrace  Christianity  in  order  to  attain  the  objects  of  his  royal 
ambition.  As  a  pagan  he  had  subjugated  Central  Gaul ;  and 
all  the  other  Gallo-Roman  populations,  still  subject  to  other 
barbarians,  were  calling  on  him  to  deliver  them.  And  what 
had  he  to  hope,  if  fortune  abandoned  him,  from  the  power  of 
the  orthodox  clergy?  They  had  been  unable  to  save  the 
orthodox  Syagrius,  put  to  death  by  him  at  Soissons  ;  or  the 
orthodox  Childeric,  murdered  by  the  Burgundian  Gondebald. 
Let  us.  therefore,  say  with  Nicetus,  bishop  of  Treves,  ad- 
dressing Chlodosinda,  a  granddaughter  of  the  Frankish  king  : 
"  Being  a  man  of  extreme  prudence,  Clovis  did  not  embrace 
our  faith  until  he  found  that  it  was  the  true  one  "  (1).  As  for 
the  remark  of  Thierry  that  Clovis  and  his  Franks  retained, 
after  their  conversion,  an  affection  for  their  olden  habits,  it 
is  certain  that  no  people,  newly  converted,  are  at  once  met- 
amorphosed •  Clovis  could  scarcely  become  a  St.  Louis. 
Among  the  heterodox  there  are  some  fortunate  souls  who 
are  able  to  appreciate  to  some  extent  tlie  intervention  of 
God,  the  Creator  and  Sustainer,  in  the  affairs  of  human  life  ; 
but  the  arrogant  Rationalist,  of  the  earth  earthy,  would  fain 

tence  so  as  to  read  :  "  To  oelebrate  the  triumph  of  the  Catholic  faith."  thus  presenting  the 
prp'atfs  in  a  less  ndiniis  frishlon. 
(l)SiRMOND  ;  Ancient  Omncilis  of  Gaul,  Vol.  i.,  p.  3ii4. 


600  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCI    'Jl^TOWY. 

perceive  the  workings  of  priestcra,ft  iu  this  intervention. 
Hence  we  are  told  that  the  marriage  of  Clovis  to  St.  Clotildp. 
was  an  affair  of  episcopal  policy ;  that  the  bishops,  who  arc 
said  to  have  then  he^u  tl'.e  destinies  of  Gaul  in  their  hands, 
projected  this  union  p.a  a  means  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Franks,  to  whom  ikey  intended  to  subject  the  whole  of  Gaul, 
having  realized  that  the  Arian  barbarians  would  be  less  easily 
converted  than  the  idolatrous  ones.  Dut  St.  Gregory  of 
Tours  (b.  539),  the  father  of  French  history,  upon  whom  we 
must  chiefly  rely  for  all  knowledge  concerning  the  Franks  of 
this  period,  assigns  the  charms  and  virtue  of  Clotilda  as  the 
cause  of  the  demand  of  Clovis  for  her  hand  ;  the  historian 
utters  not  one  word  which  v/ould  indicate  that  the  clergy 
had  any  part  in  the  affair.  "  Clovis  often  sent  ambassadors 
to  the  Burgundians  ;  and  these  messengers,  having  seen  the 
young  Clotilda,  were  impressed  by  her  beauty  and  gracious- 
ness.  Having  learned  that  she  was  of  royal  blood,  they  told 
Clovis  about  her.  Ho  immediately  sent  a  special  embassy  to 
demand  her  hand,  and  Gondebald,  not  daring  to  refuse,  de- 
livered the  maiden  to  the  messengers.  When  Clovis  received 
lier,  he  was  so  enraptured  that  he  made  her  his  wife  "  (1). 
As  for  the  assertion  that  the  Gallo-Koman  bishops  had 
devised  the  plan  of  subjecting  all  Gaul  to  the  Franks,  because 
of  the  greater  probability  of  the  future  conversion  of  those 
idolaters,  it  is  certain  that  the  orthodox  clergy  had  no  reason 
to  despair  of  the  conversion  of  the  Arian  Burgundians  and 
Visigoths.  They  had  already  attained  great  success ;  and 
very  little  perspicacity  was  needed  to  foresee  that  soon  their 
apostolic  labors  would  be  fully  rewarded.  In  Burgundy  the 
Catholic  faith  had  been  openly  professed  by  King  Chilperic, 
and  Gondebald  had  proposed  to  profess  it  in  secret.  The 
daughter  and  grandchildren  of  the  latter  prince  abjured  their 
heresy  ;  and  Sigisrauud,  the  king  of  Geneva,  made  St.  Avitus, 
bishop  of  Vienne,  his  intimate  friend  and  adviser.  As  to 
the  Visigoths,  in  the  previous  century,  before  they  had  en- 
tered into  any  relations  with  the  Arians  of  Constantinople, 
they  had  been  Catholics  ;  and  even  in  Gaul  it  is  very  probable 
that  Frederick,  the  brother  of  Theodoric  II.,  was  orthodox, 

(1)  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  Franhs.  bk.  ii.,  ch.  'if^.—Epitomata,  eh.  18. 


THE   CONVEltSION    OF   THE    FUANKS.  (jOl 

for  we  tiuil  liitu  iiit'ormiiij^  Pope  Hiljirius  of  the  iutrusiou  of 
Hermes  at  ^«;ll•l)onIH^  uiul  we  lic.-ir  the  I'ontiif  styling  liiin 
"my  son"  (1).  Certuinly  these  aiul  niauy  similar  facts  must 
have  eucouraged  tlie  (TaUo-Komau  clergy  in  the  belief  that 
the  conversion  of  the  Burgundians  and  the  Visigoths  was 
not  improbable ;  and  in  the  face  of  such  a  belief  they 
would  scarcely  have  devised  the  expedient  of  fettering 
themselves  and  their  entire  nation  under  the  domination  of 
those  idolatrous  Franks  who,  if  we  are  to  credit  Guizot,  were 
"  more  German,  more  barbarous,"  than  the  other  barbarians. 
But,  by  the  way,  were  the  Franks  more  barbarous  than  the 
Burgundians  and  Visigoths  ?  Guizot  says  :  "  There  were  not- 
able differences  between  these  peoples.  The  Franks  were 
more  foreign,  more  German,  more  barbarous  than  the  Bur- 
gundians and  the  Goths.  Before  entering  Gaul,  the  last  had 
long  held  relations  with  the  Romans,  had  lived  in  Italy  and 
in  the  Eastern  Empire,  had  become  familiar  with  Roman 
manners  ;  and  very  nearly  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Bur- 
gundians. And  what  is  more,  these  two  peoples  had  been 
Christians  for  a  long  time,  whereas  the  Franks  came  from 
Germany,  as  yet  pagans  and  enemies  "  (2).  In  the  first  jjlace, 
we  must  observe  that  Clovis  did  not  bring  his  Franks  from 
German}' ;  but  from  Tournai,  in  the  ancient  Roman  province 
of  Belgium.  AVhen  Clovis  became  King  of  the  Franks,  they 
had  resided  on  the  Roman  side  of  the  Rhine  for  more  than 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  having  established  themselves 
there  in  337 ;  and  we  may  well  say  with  Michelet  that  dur- 
ing this  long  residence  in  Celtic  Belgium,  they  must  have 
necessarily  become,  through  intermarriage,  Celtic  to  a  great 
extent  (3).  But  the  relations  between  the  Franks  and  the  Ro- 
mans were  of  a  date  more  ancient  than  that  of  the  Frankish 
occupation  of  Belgium.  From  the  year  288,  when  the  Em- 
peror Maximian  hurled  the  Franks  and  other  Germanic  invad- 
ers across  the  Rhine,  great  numbers  of  the  former  entered  the 
military  service  of  Rome,  and  thus  came  in  contact,  at  least, 
with    Roman  refinement.     St.    Sidonius,  a  contemporary    of 

(1)  Epu-iUes  of  Hilani  h)  Lcmilini',  in  Sirmond.  Vol.  i. 
(2>  Hixti>ry  of  Civilizntinn  in  Fraiire,  Vol.  i.,  lesson  8. 
(3)  History  of  France,  Vol.  1..  p.  195. 


602  STUDIES    IN    CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

Clovis,  gives  pictures  of  luxurioiis  display  on  tLe  part  of 
Frankisli  warriors,  which  are  incompatible  with  utter  bar- 
barism. According  to  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus  the 
Emperor  Constantine  the  Great  considered  the  blood  of  the 
Franks  so  noble  that  he  issued  a  decree  permitting  imper- 
ial princes  to  marry  Frankish  women  (1).  Before  the  time 
of  Clovis,  the  Franks  had  given  to  Rome  nine  commanders-in- 
chief  for  her  armies,  five  tribunes,  a  prefect  of  the  city,  a  prime 
minister  (Arbogastes),  and  an  empress  (Eudoxia).  Am- 
mianus  Marcellinus,  writing  in  370,  tells  us  that  for  a  long 
time  past  young  Franks  had  frequented  the  schools  of  Rome, 
Ravenna,  Milan,  Narbonne  and  Autun  ;  that  so  fine  were  the 
dwellings  and  so  careful  the  cultivation  on  the  right  or  Frank- 
ish side  of  the  Rhine,  that  a  stranger  had  to  inquire  as  to 
which  bank  was  the  Roman  (2).  If  the  reader  now  reflects 
that  the  Visigothic  chief,  Ataulphus,  said  that  the  sole  reason 
why  he  abandoned  his  design  of  founding  a  Gothic  empire 
on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  was,  that  "  long  experience  had 
taught  him  the  absolute  impossibility  of  subjecting  the  un- 
restrained barbarism  of  the  Goths  to  any  kind  of  law  "  (3),  he 
will  not  agree  with  Guizot  in  the  assertion  that  the  Visi- 
goths were  more  cultured  than  the  Franks.  There  is  no  need 
of  dilating  on  the  barbarism  of  the  Burgundians,  since  all 
historians  agree  that  they  were  inferior  to  the  Visigoths  in 
every  respect.  Gorini  assigns  a  very  probable  reason  for 
the  frequently  accepted  notion  that  the  Visigoths  were  more 
cultured  than  the  Franks.  "As  narrator  of  his  life,  the 
Frank  monarch  had  onl}'  St.  Gregory  of  Tours,  the  barbarian 
historian  of  barbarism  ;  whereas,  at  the  court  of  the  Visigoths, 
there  was,  both  as  courtier  and  as  suppliant,  that  personage 
whom  M.  Augustin  Thierry  terms '  the  grandest  poet  of  the 
fifth  century,'  St.  Sidonius  Apollinaris.  This  writer,  a  sensi- 
ble man,  and  one  of  imagination,  addicted  to  a  highly-colored 
style,  was  led  by  many  circumstances  to  describe  the  habits 
of  Theodoric  ;  his  efforts  to  raise  to  the  empire  the  father-in- 
law  of  Sidonius  ;  the  solemn  receptions  of  his  successor. 
Euric ;  the  pleasures  of  his  Gallo-Roman  subjects,  who  iivea 

(1)  CHATEArBRiAND  ;  .4na?ysis  o/ f/ie  History  of  France. 

(3)  Dcc(h,  bk.  XV.  (3)  Orosius  ;  History,  bk.  vti.,  ch.  43. 


THE   CONVERSION   OF   THE   FRANKS.  003 

in  the  retirement  of  their  villas  exchanging  verses  with  each 
other,  or  carelessly  proineuaJing  along  the  banks  of  the  Gar- 
onne, or  preparing  niagniticent  presents  for  their  sovereigns. 
The  brilliant  periods  of  the  poet  form  a  sotting  amid  whicJi 
the  Yisigothic  kings  lose  their  barbarism,  and  such  a  setting 
did  not  fall  to  the  lot  of  Clovis.  But  the  description  of 
the  prayers,  labors,  games,  and  public  audiences  of  Theo- 
doric  are  no  more  interesting  than  would  have  been,  if  execut- 
ed by  an  able  pen,  a  picture  of  Clovis,  surrounded  by  Clotilda, 
the  lords  of  his  court,  and  the  leaders  of  his  army  ;  the  artists 
who  had  been  brought  from  Italy  ;  the  Gallo-llomaus  of  the 
East  and  South  begging  him  to  enroll  them  among  his  sub- 
jects ;  ambassadors  imploring  the  freedom  of  the  prisoners  of 
Tolbiac  ;  other  ambassadors  handing  to  him  the  insignia  of 
the  Consulate  which  they  have  brought  from  Constantinople  ; 
and  St.  Remy  discoursing  on  the  duties  of  a  Christian  ruler  or 
recalling  the  pomp  and  splendor  of  the  baptism  at  Rlieims. 
There  was  no  such  painter  for  Clovis ;  only  St.  Gregory  of 
Tours  was  to  illustrate  his  career.  Would  Theodoric  affect 
our  imagination  more  strongly  than  Clovis,  if  no  one  had 
spoken  of  him  but  Jornandes  or  St.  Isidore  ?  . . .  That  su- 
perior refinement  which  Thierry  discerns  in  the  Visigoths 
must  be  ascribed  less  to  any  merit  of  the  conquerors  than  to 
the  Gallo-Roman  nobles  of  the  court,  and  to  the  descriptions 
of  Sidonius.  As  Thierry  himself  says,  'the  German  ap- 
peared in  the  Visigoths  as  soon  as  they  took  the  field,'  and 
they  took  the  field  very  frequently  "  (1). 

"  Hail !  O  Christ,  who  lovest  the  Franks  !  Preserve  their 
kingdom  ;  enlighten  their  leaders  with  Thy  grace ;  protect 
their  army  ;  strengthen  their  faith !  May  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Sovereign  Master  of  the  masters  of  the  earth,  give  to  the 
Franks  all  the  joys  of  peace !  Hail !  O  Christ,  who  lovest 
the  Franks  !  By  means  of  its  courage  and  its  strength  the 
Frankish  race  threw  ofif  the  heavy  yoke  of  the  Romans  ;  and 
having  received  the  grace  of  ba]:)tism,  covered  with  gold  and 
precious  stones  the  bodies  of  the  holy  martyrs  which  the 
pagans  had  Imrnt  with  fire,  lacerated  with  the  sword,  and 
given  as  prey  to  wild  beasts !  " 

(1)  Uhistipra,  Edit.  1864,  Vol.  i.,  p.  319. 


304  STUDIES     IN    CHURCH    HISTORY, 

These  quaiut  and  sublime  words  form  the  prelude  to  the 
new  Salic  Law,  which  Clovis,  immediately  after  his  baptism, 
assigned  to  his  Franks  as  the  basis  of  their  future  juris- 
prudence. Does  the  reader  discern  in  them  the  spirit  of  a 
murderer — of  a  murderer  of  his  own  kindred  ?  And  3'et  we 
are  told  by  certain  historians  that  Clovis  the  Christian  was 
a  foul  assassin  of  his  own  flesh  and  blood.  In  the  year  1873 
the  educational  superintendents  ("  Conseil  de  I'lnstructiou 
Publique  ")  of  the  Third  French  Republic  authorized  and 
"  crowned  "  a  text-book  on  the  history  of  France,  written  by 
one  Mad.  de  Saint-Ouen,  in  which  we  read  :  "  Clovis  I. 
would  occupy  a  distinguished  place  in  history,  if  he  had  not 
soiled  his  reign  by  his  cruelties  toward  the  chiefs  of  the  var- 
ious Frankish  tribes,  most  of  whom  were  related  to  him. 
Some  of  them  he  caused  to  be  massacred,  others  he  killed 
with  his  own  hand."  Then  the  poor  woman,  undoubtedly 
sincere,  since  she  follows,  at  a  distance,  in  the  footsteps  of 
such  pioneers  as  Guizot  and  Henry  Martin,  devotes  twenty- 
five  modest  pages  to  the  presumedly  easy  task  of  trying 
and  condemning,  for  the  instruction  and  edification  of  French 
youth,  the  entire  series  of  Merovingian  monarchs  :  "  It  is  nec- 
essary to  give  only  a  rapid  glance  at  these  barbarous  times." 
Can  it  be  possible  that  the  charge  of  murder  is  deserved  by 
a  prince  whom  Pope  Anastasius  lauded  as  a  just  man,  and 
as  the  Eldest  Son  of  the  Church  ;  by  a  prince  whose  most 
intimate  counsellor  was  the  grand  St.  Remy  ?  But  what 
evidence  sustains  the  hideous  accusation  ?  Merely  an  al- 
leged passage  of  St.  Gregory  of  Tours,  who  wrote  toward 
the  end  of  the  sixth  century ;  that  is,  nearly  a  century  after 
the  death  of  Clovis.  And  it  is  to  be  noted  that  Si  Gregor}-, 
in  this  short  passage,  if  indeed  he  was  its  author,  used  the 
word  "  fertnr — it  is  said  "  no  less  than  four  times.  Again,  if 
this  passage  is  authentic,  how  are  we  to  account  for  the  fol- 
lowing language  of  the  saint,  uttered  immediately  after  it? 
"  Every  day  God  caused  the  augmentation  of  the  kingdom 
of  Clovis,  because  he  loalhed  before  Him  loith  a  pure  heart, 
and  did  what  was  pleasing  in  His  eyes"  (1).     And  in  the  pro- 

(1)  "  Dnis  anuchni  rcfinuni  riits.  ca  quod  ambuUirct  redo  corde  coram  eo,  et  facerel 
qwr  jiUicita  rrniit  i}i  oculis  fj«s-" 


THE    C'ONVEKSION    OF    I'HE    I'liANKS.  605 

logue  to  his  iiftli  book,  St.  Gregory  ollVrs  the,  exuniple  of 
Clovis  to  the  sovereigns  of  the  sixth  ceutury :  "  Kemember 
the  deeds  of  the  first  author  of  your  victories  ;  of  hira  who 
put  to  death  so  inauy  liostile  kiugs,  who  crushed  so  many 
wicked  peoples,  who  subjugated  those  who  now  are  our 
countrymen  (/vtlrias  genies),  and  who  left  to  you  au  author- 
ity which  is  stainless  and  uncontested."  In  the  Council 
held  at  Orleans  in  511,  immediately  after  the  alleged  crimes 
of  Clovis,  the  synodals  placed  at  the  head  of  their  Ads  a 
letter  to  Clovis  in  which  they  lauded  his  pious  zeal  and  his 
humauitij.  Were  these  bishops  hypocrites?  Finally,  we 
would  draw  attention  to  the  characters  and  deeds  of  the  pet- 
ty princes  who  are  supposed  to  have  been  the  victims  of  the 
rage  and  greed  of  Clovis.  In  the  Life  of  St.  Maximin  (Mes- 
min,  abbot  of  Mici,  near  Orleans),  written  in  the  early  part  of 
the  sixth  century;  in  the  Chronicle,  of  Ainwin,  written  in  the 
tenth  century;  in  the  Chro)ncle  of  Balder ic,  written  in  the 
eleventh  ;  and  above  all,  in  the  Life  of  St.  Beiny  which 
Hincmar  (b.  806)  reproduced  from  abiography  composed  by 
a  contemporary  of  Clovis,  we  find  some  pertinent  particulars 
regarding  these  personages,  all  of  which  indicate  that  the 
Frank  monarch  was  an  inflexible  puuisher  of  revolt  (1),  like 
Dagobert,  if  you  will,  or  Charlemagne,  or  Louis  XL,  or 
Richelieu  ;  but  not  an  assassin.  Much  stress  is  laid  upon  the 
killing  of  Eagnacarius,  a  relative  of  Clovis.  But  Balderic, 
who  tells  us  that  he  drew  his  narrative  from  the  text  of  St. 
Gregory  of  Tours,  plainly  evinces  that  he  did  not  read,  in  his 
copy  of  the  alleged  criminating  History,  the  passages  which 
are  adduced  to  show  the  wickedness  of  Clovis  and  the  culpa- 
ble subservience  of  the  saint  to  royal  power.  Balderic  says : 
"  Clovis  had  assigned  the  custody  of  Cambrai  to  Eagnacar- 
ius, his  cousin  or  nephew.  . .  .  When  the  king  returned,  this 
Eagnacarius,  inflated  by  criminal  pride,  violated  his  pledges, 
and  refused  entrance  into  the  city  to  his  sovereign.  The  in- 
solence and  obscenities  of  Eagnacarius  had  already  procured 
for  him  the  hatred  of  the  Franks,  and  now  they  resolved  to 
bring  about  his  death,  and  they  informed  the  king  of  their 

(1)  And,  nevertheless,  yieldinsj  t(p  th^  intercession  f  f  St.  Eiispiciiis,  lie  pranteJ  full  par- 
don to  ilie  lebelsof  Verdun. 


606  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

intention."  The  rebel  was  delivered  to  his  sovereign,  and 
his  execution  was  an  act  of  justice.  As  to  the  murder  of 
Sigebert  by  his  son  Chloderic,  and  the  killing  of  the  latter  by 
order  of  Clovis,  there  is  nothing  in  the  adduced  passage  of 
St.  Gregory  which  would  indicate  that  the  parricide  was  in- 
stigated by  the  Frank  king,  and  certainly  this  sovereign  was 
justified  in  punishing  so  revolting  a  crime.  Augustin  Thier- 
ry (1),  Ozanam  (2j,  and  Kries  (3)  assign  a  German  legendary 
source  to  the  belief  in  the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  Chris- 
tian Clovis  ;  but  one  of  the  best  of  the  critics  of  our  day,  A. 
Lecoy  de  la  Marclie,  discerns  its  origin  in  the  hatred  which 
the  Gallo-Roman  race  resumed  during  the  reigns  of  the  im- 
mediate successors  of  Clovis  (4).  We  believe  that  the  ad- 
duced testimony  of  St.  Gregory  of  Tours  is  at  least  an  inter- 
polation, and  probably  a  malicious  forgery. 

The  marvellous  action  of  Christianity  in  the  work  of  civil- 
ization has  been  recognized  by  all  conscientious  historians 
and  polemics  ;  not  only  by  those  who  were  guided  by  Cath- 
olic principles,  but  even  by  those  who  were  the  victims  of 
Protestant  prejudice,  or  who  allowed  their  intellects  to  be  ob- 
scured by  the  vagaries  of  rationalism.  The  Protestant  Gui- 
zot  says  :  "  Among  the  causes  of  our  civilization  the  Chris- 
tian Church  presents  itself  to  every  mind.  Society  has 
never  made  such  efforts  to  influence  its  surroundicgs  and  to 
assimilate  to  itself  the  external  world  as  the  Church  put  forth 
between  the  fifth  and  the  tenth  centuries.  The  Church  at- 
tacked barbarism,  as  it  were,  on  every  side,  and,  conquering 
it,  she  civilized  it."  Probably  the  reader  has  noted  the  fre- 
quently passionate  invectives  of  Michelet  agairst  the  Church  ; 
but  the  otherwise  grand  historian  found  liimself  compelled  to 
admit:  "  By  the  side  of  the  civil  order  another  order  is  estab- 
lished, and  it  will  take  up  and  preserve  the  civil  during  the  tem- 
pest of  the  barbarian  invasion.  Everywhere,  alongside  the 
Roman  magistracy  which  is  about  to  be  eclipsed  and  to  leave 
society  in  peril,  religion  has  established  another  magistracy 
which  will  never  prove  deficient.      Imperial  universality  ic, 

(1)  lu  the  Preface  to  his  Merovingian  Times. 

(2)  Tlie  Gerviam,  Vol.  i.,  p.  !:«.  (3)  Loc.  eit. 

(4)  Political  Murders  of  Hoiii-s,  in  the  Berne  des  Quest iont  Historiqnes,  Vol.  i.,  p.  -150. 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  THE  FRANKS.  607 

on  the  verge  of  ruin  ;  but  Catholic  universality  has  appeared, 
and  the  world  will  be  maintained  and  arranged  by  the 
Church."  JBalmes  observes  :  "  Amid  this  social  dissolution, 
this  monstrous  upheaval  of  laws  and  custom.s,  Christianity 
stands  erect  like  a  solitary  column  in  a  ruined  city,  like  a 
glowing  beacon  in  the  midst  of  darkness.  Christianity  is  the 
sole  element  whicli  can  render  life  to  the  germs  of  regenera- 
tion which  are  covered  by  ruins  and  gore."  Laurentie  says  : 
"  When  civil  wars  had  desolated  the  empire,  and  the  prov- 
inces were  at  the  mercy  of  the  barbarians,  only  one  author- 
ity in  Gaul  was  popular,  and  that  authority  took  care  of  the 
nation,  a  prey  to  various  conquerors,  one  after  another.  This 
authority  was  tiiat  of  the  bishops,  who  were  ever  ready  to  throw 
themselves  between  the  combatants."  And  the  eloquent  Mon- 
talembert  remarks:  "With  invincible  perseverance  religion 
performed  the  arduous  work  of  kneading  and  moulding  the 
various  elements  of  those  Teutonic  and  northern  races  which 
had  overrun  Europe,  in  order  to  civilize  and  sanctify  them 
through  the  patient  and  vivifying  action  of  faith.  Even  Littre, 
the  great  materialist  and  philologist,  who  persevered  in  his 
atheism  almost  unto  the  hour  of  his  death,  avowed,  in  the  midst 
of  his  hallucinations,  that  "  in  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
centuries  the  Church  was  the  grand  agent  of  social  salva- 
tion." And  Gibbon  himself  declared  :  "The  bishops  made  the 
kingdom  of  France."  This  admission  received  the  equally 
celebrated  commentary  of  Joseph  de  Maistre  :  "  The  bishops 
made  France,  as  bees  construct  a  hive,"  As  Cantii  well  ob- 
served, it  is  onl}^  by  agriculture  that  men  become  really  fixed 
in  a  country,  "  and  become  attached  to  it  by  sentiments 
which  make  sacred  the  name  of  fatherland,"  and  Guizot  nev- 
er spoke  more  solidly  than  when  he  said  that  the  Benedictines 
were  les  defricJieiirs  of  Europe.  This  influence  of  the  Church 
was  felt  wherever  there  were  barbarians  to  be  tamed  ;  but, 
above  all  others,  and  from  the  very  day  of  their  conversion, 
the  Frank  barliarians  seem  to  have  been  the  most  amenable 
to  the  lessons  of  their  spiritual  mother,  and  to  have  been  the 
most  zealous  and  enthusiastic  in  their  demonstrations  of 
gratitude  to  God  for  their  rescue  from  the  darkness  of  pagan- 
ism.    Probably  much  of  their   amenability  and  much  of  the 


608  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

simplicity  of  their  Catholic  spirit  was  due  to  their  speedy 
amalgamation  with  the  Gallo-Eomans ;  for  centuries  were  to 
elapse  (in  the  case  of  the  Prussians  more  than  seven)  before  all 
the  other  Teutons  abandoned  idolatry.  But  their  own  nature 
also  seems  to  have  been  in  their  favor.  We  can  discern  a 
heart  yearning  to  love  God  and  to  fight  for  His  honor  in  the 
Clovis  who  cries  out  when  he  first  hears  of  the  Passion  of 
Christ :  "  Oh  !  why  was  I  not  there  with  my  Franks  ?  "  From 
the  day  when  Clovis  and  his  three  thousand  companions 
issued  regenerated  from  the  Baptistery  of  Rheims,  giving  an 
example  which  was  to  be  soon  followed  by  their  entire  nation, 
France  seems  to  have  been — if  we  may  reverently  so  express 
our  idea — the  special  pet  of  heaven.  In  its  entirety,  al- 
though not  in  all  its  particulars,  her  history  warrants  the 
supposition,  and  many  a  time  and  oft  her  foes  have  pro- 
claimed the  idea  as  trutli.  Probably  there  never  lived  a  less 
enthusiastic  man  than  that  profound  observer,  the  Austro- 
Spaniard,  Charles  V. ;  but  he  declared,  after  many  years  of  ex- 
perience of  French  propensity  to  recover  from  even  merited 
misfortune  :  "  No  people  ever  did  so  much  to  bring  about 
their  own  ruin  as  the  French  have  done ;  but  they  always 
recover,  for  they  are  specially  protected  by  God." 

Gesia  Dei  jyer  Francos  !  Certainly  the  French  Catholic 
has  reason  for  holy  pride  as  he  peruses  the  annals  of  his 
country,  and  discerns  so  many  instances  of  God's  use  of  the 
arms  of  France  to  effect  His  designs  in  the  world,  especially 
in  the  sole  really  important  matter  of  the  preservation  of 
His  Church.  And  now  that  a  culmination  seems  to  have 
been  nearly  attained  by  the  efforts  of  the  enemies  "  of  all 
that  is  called  God,"  which  have  been  exerted  for  a  full  cen- 
tury and  more  to  effect  the  unchristianization  of  his  country, 
the  French  Catholic  may  well  meditate  upon  these  Gesia 
Dei  ;  for  in  them  he  will  find  a  justification  of  his  confidence 
that  God  has  not  deserted  France,  even  in  the  matter  of  her 
temporal  prosperity.  Of  course,  while  individuals  attain  the 
end  of  their  creation  only  in  the  next  world,  nations  must  ac- 
complish their  end  here  below,  and  therefore  it  may  easily 
be  that  the  end  for  which  God  established  French  nationality 
has  already  been  reached.     It  may  be  that  all  Europe  is  soon 


THE   CONVEllSION    OF   THE    I'ii.VNKS.  (iOU 

to  be  tnaJe  a  tdhala  rasa  by  a  llussiau  or  a  Mongo]ian  in- 
vasion, and  that  once  afi;ain  the  Catholic  Church,  the  sole  sur- 
viving institution  of  what  was  once  the  European  popidiih 
Christiauns,  will  pursue  her  God-given  work  of  taming  and 
converting  a  new  set  of  barbarians,  who  will  be  the  most  prom- 
inent members  of  her  flock  during  a  coming  decade  of  cen- 
turies. But  the  remembrance  of  what  France  has  done,  as 
an  instrument  of  God,  for  Catholicism  and  civilization  will 
endure  in  the  world  when  the  annals  of  man}-  a  now  proud 
nation  shall  have  become  myths  ;  for  that  remembrance  will 
be  guarded  as  a  precious  souvenir  by  that  Church  which 
will  endure  until  the  end  of  time.  Perhaps  it  will  be  chiefly 
by  a  study  of  these  Gesta  Dei  per  Fnnicos — both  the  original 
series,  which  were  so  named  a  thousand  and  more  years  ago, 
and  the  later  ones,  equally  glorious — that  the  student  of  the 
thirtieth  century  cf  the  Christian  era  will  be  able  to  learn 
something  definite  concerning  that  Arianism  which  is  even 
now  almost  a  myth  to  most  people,  although  it  was,  in  its 
day,  more  powerful  than  Protestantism  has  ever  hoped  to  be. 
The  student  will  learn  how  a  mortal  blow  was  given  to 
Arianism  b}-  the  victories  of  Clevis — against  the  Burgundi- 
a,ns  on  the  plains  of  Dijon,  and  against  the  Visigoths  on  the 
plains  of  Vouille.  In  the  thirtieth  century  the  investigator 
will  learn  how,  when  Arianism  was  in  its  death-throes, 
Mohammed  appeared,  and,  as  Lacordaire  observes,  "  re- 
newed the  idea  of  Arius  at  the  point  of  the  scimetar  "  ;  how, 
after  its  subjugation  of  Spain,  Islaraism  tried  to  subject 
France  to  the  laws  of  the  Koran,  and  the  nation  that  was 
baptized  at  Rheims  furnished  Christendom  with  its  cham- 
pion in  the  person  of  Charles  Martel,  whose  victory  at 
Poitiers  hurled  the  Mussulman  hordes  back  into  the  Iberian 
peninsula,  and  deprived  them  of  future  possibility  of  sub- 
jugating the  whole  of  Europe.  Then  our  thirtieth  century 
indagator  into  the  past  will  continue  his  searches  among  the 
Gesta  of  that  wonderful  people  of  whose  glories  the  tradi- 
tions circulating  in  his  day  will  be  so  redolent  ;  and  l)e  will 
read  how  Prankish  monarchs /"c.s7o?t(/  (not  gare^  to  the  head 
nf  God's  Church  that  temporal  sovereignty  which  the  Foun- 
der of  the  Church  had  designed  as  its  guarantee  of  indepen- 


610  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTOEY. 

deuce  amid  the  poor  fluctuations  of  the  politics  of  human 
iutelligeuce.  The  Baronio  of  the  thirtieth  century  will  read 
how,  when  the  Koman  people,  in  754,  had  proclaimed  the 
secular  sovereignty  of  their  Pope-King,  Stephen  II.;  and  the 
Lombard  still  quasi-barbarian  monarclis,  Astolphus  and 
Desiderius,  had  appropriated  much  of  what  was  rightly 
styled  the  Patrimony  of  the  Church  ;  the  French  sovereigns, 
Pepin  and  Charlemagne,  restored,  by  force  of  French  valor, 
the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  declaring  that  they  re- 
served to  themselves  and  their  successors  •'  No  power  within 
the  same  limits,  unless  that  we  may  gain  prayers  for  the  re- 
pose of  our  souls,  and  that  by  you  and  your  people  we  be 
styled  Patricians  of  the  Romans  "  (1).  And  when  the  search- 
er for  historical  truth  shall  have  read  such  annals  of  the 
nineteenth  century  as  may  have  come  down  to  him,  he  will 
wonder  why  so  many  of  the  Italians  of  that  time  were  so 
basely  ungrateful  to  that  pontifical  monarchy  which  France 
had  assured  to  them,  and  which  had  procured  for  them  an 
almost  uninterrupted  primacy  in  letters,  science,  and  art 
during  eleven  centuries.  Pursuing  his  studies,  the  thirtieth 
century  publicist  will  find  in  the  Gesta  how,  in  the  eleventh 
century,  the  great  heart  of  France  recognized  the  voice  of 
God  issuing  from  the  sepulchre  of  the  Saviour,  and  calling 
on  the  children  of  Clovis,  Martel  and  Charlemagne,  to  deliver 
the  Holy  Places  from  infidel  persecution  ;  how  in  that  and 
all  the  following  Crusades  these  descendants  of  heroes,  and 
heroes  themselves,  shed  far  more  of  their  blood  in  the  holy 
cause  than  all  other  peoples  combined,  and  how  French 
monarchs  ever  afterward  regarded  that  blood,  and  the  tears 
and  sympathy  of  those  who  could  not  fight,  as  the  most 
precious  jewels  in  their  diadems.  Then  our  investigator 
will  read  how,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  God  raised  up  that 
sweet  Maid  of  Orleans  who  was  canonized  in  the  beginning 
of  the  twentieth  century  ;  how  her  valor,  her  purity,  and  her 
faith  triumphed  over  the  arrogant  nation  which  was  soon  to 

(1)  In  the  olden  time  the  title  of  "  Roman  Patrician  "  was  given  hv  the  Pope- Kings  to 
very  few,  and  only  for  very  great  services  to  the  Holy  See.  Clovis  nad  received  the  honor, 
and  Pepin  was  anxious  to  bear  a  title  which  then  signifled  "  Defender  of  the  Church,"  and 
would  therefore  Increase  his  consequence  in  the  eyes  of  all  Christian  nations.  He  received 
it  from  Pope  Stephen  on  the  day  thnt  the  Pontiff  crowned  him  as  King  of  the  Franks. 


THE    CONVERSION    OF   THE   FRANKS.  Oil 

become  heretical,  .'iiul  by  that  triumph  preserved  the  Land 
of  the  Lilies  from  the  imminent  pestilence.  Then  the  stu- 
dent will  perceive,  a  little  further  on  in  the  Gesta,  how  gallant- 
ly the  French  prevented  their  own  land  from  succumbing  to 
the  dire  contiagratiou  which  had  seared  the  regions  watered 
by  the  Thames  and  the  Elbe.  "  Luther  came  into  the  world," 
says  Lacordaire,  "  and  at  his  call  Germany  and  England 
separated  themselves  from  the  Church.  Had  France  accept- 
ed their  fearful  invitation,  what  would  have  been  the  result 
for  Christianity  ?  Her  national  enthusiasm  saved  France. 
Confederated  in  a  holy  league.  Frenchmen  placed  their  faith 
above  everything  else — even  above  their  allegiance  to  their 
monarch — and  they  refused  to  recognize  as  legitimate  heir 
to  the  crown  any  prince  who  would  not  swear  fidelity  to  the 
God  of  Clovis,  of  Charlemagne,  and  of  St.  Louis.  For  the 
defence  of  the  Church  we  Frenchmen  have  fought  combats 
of  blood  and  of  mind.  Arianism  crushed,  Islamism  van- 
quished, the  temporal  dominion  of  the  Popes  consolidated, 
Protestantism  repelled, — behold  the  four  crowns  of  France 
which  will  not  fade  for  all  eternity."  These  four  crowns  rep- 
resent, indeed,  the  chief  episodes  among  the  Gesta  Dei  per 
Francos  ;  but  they  are  not  the  sole  instances  of  God's  use  of 
the  arm  of  France  for  the  good  of  His  mystic  spouse,  or  of  His 
loving  protection  of  France.  Much  could  be  said  about  God's 
work  in  saving  France  from  the  philosophists  Sindsa))s-cidottes 
of  the  last  century',  and  much  about  France's  defence  of  the 
Holy  See  almost  to  the  present  day.  Are  there  to  be  any 
more  chronicles  of  Gesta  Dei  jyer  Francos  ?  An  affirmative 
reply  will  be  given  by  those  who  perceive  pre-eminent 
vitality  in  the  Catholicism  of  the  great  majority  of  French- 
men :  by  those  who  contend  that  the  French  Church  of  our 
day  has  an  inestimable  advantage  over  that  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  inasmuch  as  now  the  warfare  between  good  and  evil 
in  France  is  open,  a  contest  between  affirmation  and  nega- 
tion, and  not  a  question  between  religion  and  religiosity — be- 
cause, in  fine,  the  day  of  half-measures  has  passed,  and  now 
a  Frenchman  must  be  either  a  Christian  or  an  atheist.  Such 
students  of  their  epoch  find  that  the  religious  movement  en- 
couraged by  Lacordaire,  Montalembert,  and  Dupanloup,  has 


612  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

been  much  advanced,  of  late,  among  the  enlightened  classes  ; 
and  while  they  are  invincibly  opposed  to  the  sect  which  now 
administers  the  affairs  of  the  Republic,  they  see  no  reason 
why  Catholics,  as  such,  should  regard  the  Republic  itself 
with  suspicion.     "  The  Church  follows  all  the  natural  move- 
ments of  reason  and  of  history,  with  the  intelligent  tender- 
ness of  a  mother  for  her  child ;  she  is  ever  ready  to  satisfy 
the  legitimate  desires  of  her  child.     To  the  man  of  ancient 
times,  crushed  under  the  despotism  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
the  Church  offered  refuge  in  one  of  her  solitudes,  where  he 
could  renounce  the  corrupting  goods  of  earth.     In  the  Middle 
Age,  when  man  had  acknowledged  her  maternal  authority, 
the  Church  showed  him  that  he  could  live  according  to  the 
law  of  God,  even  in  the  world.     At  the  time  of  the  Renais- 
sance, the  Church  associated  herself  with  the  literary  and 
artistic    movement    of   civilization  ;  and    she  furnished  the 
world  with  inspirations  and  subjects  which  helped  to  im- 
mortalize so  many  men  and  works  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
To-day,   democracy,  the  equality  of   all   men  in    civil  and 
social  rights  and  duties,  is  a  general  aspiration  of  civilized 
people  ;  and  it  does  not  entail  upon  the  Church  any  necessity 
of  changing  her  doctrines,  since  she  was  the  first  to  inculcate, 
Tinder  the  superior  law  of  charity — the  love  of  God  and  of 
jQen — the  principle  of  equality  among  men  "  (1).     We  hope, 
therefore,  that  Mgr.  Freppel,  one  of  the  noblest  Frenchmen 
-who  ever  donned  the  mitre,   was  justified  in  pronouncing 
these  encouraging  words  :  "  Lift  up  thy  head,  noble  land ! 
Have  confidence  in  thy  divine  vocation  !     Thou  hast  not  yet 
fulfilled  thy  divine  mission  ;  for  shouldst  thou  disappear, 
thou  wouldst  leave  a  void  which  Divine  Omnipotence  alone 
.could  fill.     If  some  days  of  forgetfulness  have  called  down 
punishment  upon  thee,  many  centuries  of  devotion  to  Christ 
and  His  Church  demand  pardon  for  thee.     Thou  wilt  resume 
thy  glorious  destiny ;  remaining  in  the  world  the  soldier  of 
Providence,  the  armed  apostle  of  faith  and  of  Christian  civili- 
ization.     Just  as  in  the  past,  the  weak  and  the  oppressed  of 
the  universe  will  owe  their  deliverance  to  thy  valor.     Thou 
wilt  repeat  those  grand  days  of  thy  history,  when  all  that 

(1)  Pellissier  ;  Christian  France  in  the  Nineteenth  Cent'uni-    Paris,  1895. 


THE    CONVEltSION    OF  THE    TKANKS. 


613 


was  most  venerable  ou  earth  was  protected  by  the  sword  of 
Clovis,  of  Charlemagne,  of  Godefroy  de  Bouillon,  of  St. 
Louis,  of  Joan  of  Arc  "  (1). 

As  we  write  this  dissertation,  Christian  France  is  celebrat- 
ing the  fourteenth  centennial  of  that  sacred  function  which 
was  performed  by  St.  Remy  in  the  baptistery  of  Rheims  on 
the  Christmas  Day  of  A.  D.  496.  From  all  parts  of  Chris- 
tendom the  great  heart  of  the  real  and  Catholic  France  has 
received  proof  that  its  emotions  are  shared  by  all  the  chil- 
dren of  that  Church  whom  it  has  served  so  well.  The  follow- 
ing ode,  written  by  our  Holy  Father,  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  on  this 
joyful  occasion,  deserves  remembrance  by  future  generations : 

riVAT  CHRISTVS  QUI  DILIGIT  FRANCOS. 


OB  MEMORIAM  AVSPICATISSIMI  EVENTV8  QVTM  FRANCORVM  NATIO 
PiLEEVXTK  CLODOVEO  REQK  SK  CHRISTO  ADDIXIT. 


Gentium  custos  Deus  est.    Repente 
Sternit  Insignes  humilesque  promit : 
Exltus  rerum  tenet  atque  nutu 
Temperat  aequo. 

TeutoDum  pressus  Clodoveus  armis, 
Ut  suos  vldit  trepidos  pericli, 
Fertur  has  voces  iterasse,  ad  astra 
Lamina  tendens : 

Dive,  quem  supplex  mea  saepe  coniux 
Nuncupat  lesum.  mihi  dexter  adsis  : 
SI  juves  proniptus  validusque,  totum 
Me  tibi  dedam. 

IIllco  excussus  pavor  :  acriores 
Excitat  virtus  animos;  resurcrit 
Francus  in  pugnam;  ruit,  etcruentos 
Disliclt  hostes. 

victor  1,  voti  Clodovee  compos. 
Sub  lugo  Christ!  caput  obligatum 
Pone ;  te  Reinis  manet  infulata 
Fronte  saoerdos. 

Ludor  ?  en  signis  positis  ad  aram 
Ipse  rex  sacris  renovatur  undis, 
Et  cohors  omnis  popuUisque  dio 
Tingitur  amne. 

Roma  ter  felix.  caput  o  renatae 
Stirpis  humaniv,  tua  pande  regna  : 
Namque  victrices  tibi  sponte  lauros 
Frascia  defert. 


Te  colet  matrem ;  tua  malor  esse 
Gestiet  natu  :  potiore  vita 
Crescet,  ac  summo  beneflda  Petro 
Clara  feretur. 

Ut  mihi  loDgum  libet  intuerl 
Agmen  heroum  !  Domitor  ferocis 
Fulget  AstolQ,  pius  ille  sacrl 
luris  amator. 

Remque  Romanam  populantis  ultor: 
Bis  per  abruptas  metuendus  Alpes 
Irruit,  summoque  Petro  volentes 
Asserit  urbes. 

Laetus  admiror  Solymis  potitas 
Vindiees  Sancti  Tumuli  phalanges 
Me  PaliBstinis  renovata  campis 
Proelia  tangunt. 

O  novum  robur  Celebris  puellae 
Castra  perrumpens  inimica  !  turpem 
Galilee  cladem  repulit  loanna 
Numine  freta. 

O  quot  illustres  animae  nefanda 
Monstra  Calvini  domuere,  gentem 
Labe  tarn  dira  prohibere  fortes. 
Sceptraque  regni  ! 

Quo  feror  ?  tempu.s  redit  auspicatum 
Prlsca  quo  virtus  animis  calescat. 
Ecce,  Remensis  ciet  atque  adurget 
Cordatriumphus. 


(1)  Discourse  for  the  Benefit  of  Wounded  Soldu-rs.    Feb..  1889. 


614  STUDIES    m   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Gallicae  gentes,  iubaris  vetustl  Saev-la  bis  septiin  ealor  actiiossB 

Ne  quid  obscuret  radios,  eavete ;  Perstitit  viite,  reBien   perire  : 

Neve  suffundat  malesuadus  error  Currite  ad  Veslaaa  :  novus  sestuabit 
Mentibus  umbras.  Pectore  fervor. 

Vos  regat  Christus,  siti  quos  revinxlt:  Dlssitis  floret  magis  usque  terri.s 

Obsequl  sectis  pudeat  probrosis ;  Galllcdm  nomen  :  populi  vel  ipsls 

Occidat  llvor,  sociasque  io  unum  Adslt  eois,  Fideique  sanctae 
Cogite  vires.  Vota  secundet. 

Nil  Fide  Christl  prlus :  hac  adempta 
Nil  diu  felix.    Steiit  unde  priscae 
Summa  laus  genti,  inanet  inde  iugis 
Gloria  Gallos. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  REIGN  AND  CHARACTER  OF   ST.  LOUIS   IX.* 

The  reign  of  the  holy  grandson  of  Philip  Augustus  has 
been  rightly  styled  the  keystone  of  the  arch  of  French  his- 
tory. Certainly  much  had  been  effected  for  the  consolida- 
tion of  the  French  monarchy  when  Philip  Augustus  defeated, 
at  Bouvines  (July  27,  1214),  the  trebly  larger  forces  of  the 
German  Otho  IV.  and  the  English  John  Lackland.  By  that 
victory  the  standard  of  the  Lilies,  which  for  some  years  had 
waved  only  over  the  space  which  is  covered  by  five  of  the. 
modern  departments  of  France  (1),  again  threv/  its  protect- 
ing folds  over  all  the  ancient  provinces  excepting  Aquitaine. , 
But  it  was  in  the  reign  of  St.  Louis  that  the  lineaments  of 
the  later  French  society  were  drawn ;  and  it  was  in  the  per- 
son of  that  everlasting  glory  of  the  French  monarchy  that 
the  world  beheld  an  incarnation  of  all  that  was  most  honora- 
ble, most  redolent  of  justice— in  fine,  most  Christian,  in  the 
royalty  of  the  Middle  Age.  This  reign  demonstrated  that 
the  great  theologians  of  the  Church  had  not  formulated  the 
vagaries  of  a  dream  when  they  conceived  the  idea  of  a  Christ- 
ian royalty  legitimati7.Gd,  not  only  by  sacerdotal  consecra- 
tion, but  by  justice  ir.  its  exercise,  and  by  a  proper  participa- 
tion, on  the  part  of  the  governed,  in  public  affairs.  The  sali- 
ent features  of  the  career  of  St.  Louis,  the  grandest  of  the 
nearly  innumerable  Christian  heroes  of  France,  are  at  the 

*  This  chapter  appeared  as  an  article  in  the  ulrner.  Ca(?i.  Qwa?-?rrf!/  Review.  *ol.  xxii. 
(1)  Seine,  Seine  et  Loire,  Seine  et  Marne,  Oise,  and  Loiret ;  120  by  90  miles  in  extent. 


THE    REIGN    OF    ST.    LOUIS    IX.  615 

command  of  the  student  (1) ;  in  these  few  pages  we  propose 
to  treat  of  some  points  which,  although  essential  to  a  proper 
appreciation  of  the  character  of  the  royal  confessor,  and  to 
even  a  moderate  understanding  of  the  period  in  wliich  he 
lived,  are  ignored  by  the  authors  whose  works  are  consulted 
by  the  a-,  erage  reader.  We  shall  touch  up<m  the  sanctity 
of  Louis  IX.  only  by  implication  ;  for  nothing  in  the  domain 
of  history  is  more  certain  than  the  belief  in  that  sanctity, 
held  by  the  contemporaries  of  the  monarch,  whether  French- 
men or  foreigners,  Christians  or  pagans.  Neither  shall  we 
attempt  to  detail  even  the  principal  events  of  this  charming 
and  edifying  life  ;  but  we  may  be  permitted  to  preface  the 
fulfilment  of  our  main  purpose  by  a  brief  summary  of  the 
results  of  a  policy  which,  although  less  theatrically  impres- 
sive than  that  followed  by  certain  of  the  crowned  disposers 
of  national  destines,  was  probably  unique  in  an  utter  absence 
of  reasons  for  blame.  From  the  very  beginning  of  his  reign, 
Louis  IX.  resolved  to  restrain  the  abusive  domination  of  the 
great  vassals  of  the  crown  ;  but  law  and  justice  formed  the 
invariable  basis  of  his  conduct.  The  same  scrupulousness 
led  him  to  doubt  as  to  the  entire  legitimacy  of  certain  con- 
quests of  some  of  his  predecessors  to  the  detriment  of  the 
kings  of  England,  and  he  resolved  to  yield  something  for  the 
sake  of  peace.  By  the  treaty  of  Abbeville,  in  1259,  he 
voluntarily  ceded  to  Henry  III.  of  England  part  of  the  terri- 
tories wliich  that  monarch  reclaimed  from  the  conquests  of 
Philip  Augustus  ;  but  in  return  he  obtained  the  recognition 
of  Anjou,  Normandy,  Maine,  Touraine,  Berri,  and  Poitou,  as 
inalienable  from  the  French  monarchy.  The  English  sover- 
eign also  engaged  to  do  homage  to  the  king  of  France,  as  to 
his  liege  and  suzerain  lord,  for  all  his  possessions  in  the 
kingdom  of  France.  When  the  dissensions  between  Henry 
m.  and  his  barons  threatened  to  become  interminable,  the 
reputation  of  Louis  for  probity  caused  the  contestants  to 
appeal  to  him  as  arbitrator.     In  1264  botli   parties  argued 

(1)  mcHKLKT,  History  of  Francf,  ch.  8.  Paris,  1830.— Villexf.ute:  Hist<ini  of  St. 
Liiuis.  Paris,  1840.— Mignkt  ;  Fewlnlitu  n"<t  the  InMitutions  of  St.  LmiUt.  Paris.  1850. 
—CANTn  ;  ."^f.  I/<»m>  of  Franrc,  in  the  Collection  of  Biographies  attached  to  that  author's 
Universal  Itistorti.  0th  Turin  edition,  1863.— Lecot  de  La  Marche  ;  Sr  Louix,  Hi> 
Oovcniment,  and  His  Polieu.    Paris.  1891. 


()1G  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTOKY. 

their  claims  before  the  saint  at  Amiens,  submitting  to  his 
judgment,  although  only  for  a  time.  In  his  conduct  toward 
Frederick  II.,  the  most  virulent  of  all  those  German  em- 
perors who  were,  with  few  exceptions,  so  many  running  sores 
in  the  visible  body  of  the  Church,  the  saintly  monarch 
demonstrated  that  if  the  Holy  Roman  Emperors  of  the  Ger- 
man line  had  ignored  the  fact  that  their  sole  reason  for  exist- 
ence was  their  obligation  to  be  Defenders  of  the  Holy  See, 
that  sublime  privilege  had  devolved  on  the  Eldest  Sons  of 
the  Church.  In  his  relations  with  the  Orient,  the  crowned 
hero  showed  himself  a  missionary,  as  well  as  an  armed  de- 
fender of  the  Christian  faith  ;  he  spared  no  exertion,  no  ex- 
pense, in  aiding  the  missions  which  the  sons  of  Sts.  Dom- 
inic and  Francis  had  established  among  the  Photian  and  Nes- 
torian  schismatics,  and  among  the  Saracens  and  Tartars. 
In  the  administration  of  the  internal  affairs  of  his  kingdom, 
St.  Louis  was  an  energetic  and  prudent  reformer ;  there  was 
not,  in  all  France,  a  bailiff,  a  seneschal,  or  a  provost  who 
was  not  made  to  feel  that  his  office  was  a  solemn  charge  for 
the  benefit  of  the  people.  The  reign  of  St.  Louis  was  pre- 
eminently one  of  justice.  The  royal  tribunals  became  sure 
refuges  for  oppressed  innocence  ;  and  the  king  himself  heard 
whatever  case  a  subject  desired  to  be  considered  by  him. 
From  one  end  of  the  kingdom  to  the  other,  the  proudest  lord 
hastened  to  undo  a  wrong,  when  he  heard  the  peasant  mur- 
mur :  "  If  the  king  only  knew  of  that !  "  Students  of  jDublic 
economics  know  that  anything  like  a  well-regulated  sys- 
tem of  governmental  finance  is  of  very  modern  origin  ;  but  St. 
Louis  so  regulated  the  reception  of  revenue,  so  accurately 
verified  all  the  accountings,  that  never,  during  his  reign,  was 
there  ordered  an  extraordinary  tax.  And  let  the  statesmen 
of  our  day  note  that  to  our  times  must  not  be  credited  the  in- 
vention of  that  famous  panacea  :  "  No  taxation  without  rep- 
resentation." In  1256  this  "  cowled  king  "  decreed  in  favor 
of  the  bonnes  vUhs  of  his  dominions  that  no  tax  should  be 
levied  on  them  without  their  consent.  If  the  reader  is  curious 
to  know  how  much  St.  Louis  effected  for  the  amelioration  of 
the  lot  of  the  serfs,  and  how  he  emancipated  those  of  his 
own  royal  domain  ;  if  it  would  interest  the  social  economist 


THE    IIEIGN    OF    ST.    LOUIS    IX.  <)17 

to  iearu  all  that  this  crowned  suiut  of  the  Middle  Ago  effect- 
ed for  the  eucouragemeut  of  art,  for  the  iniproveiueiit  of 
a;jjriculture,  etc.,  we  refer  him  to  the  elotiiieiit  but  judicial 
narrative  of  Lecoy  de  la  Marche.  Wheu  the  beautiful  pict- 
ure has  been  examined,  it  may  occur  to  the  observer  that  it 
is  strange  that  one  is  not  oppressed  by  the  sight  of  some 
<lisagreeable  shadows,  behind  which  some  possible  miseries 
may  lurk.  Nearly  every  other  biography  furnishes  some 
occasion  for  adverse  criticism  of  its  subject ;  but  that  of  St. 
Louis  refuses  to  a  critic  the  exercise  of  his  choicest  prerog- 
ative, and  for  the  simple  reason  that  Louis  IX.  was  more 
than  a  wortln-  husband  and  father,  a  consummate  statesman, 
a  successful  general,  and  an  excellent  sovereign.  He  was 
also  a  saint.  Such  a  phenomenal  combination  has  been 
witnessed  in  only  three  or  four  instances  in  the  history  of  the 
world  ;  for  while  it  is  true  that,  at  least  in  the  Middle  Age, 
there  were  many  royal  saints — considering  the  comparative 
fewness  of  royal  personages,  more  than  from  any  other  con- 
dition of  life — very  seldom  have  other  saintly  royalties  filled 
all  the  positions  which  St.  Louis  occupied  (1). 


It  is  impossible  to  attain  to  a  correct  conception  of  the 
character  and  influence  of  St.  Louis,  or  to  any  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  the  period  in  which  he  lived,  if  one  does  not  appre- 
ciate properly  the  theory  concerning  the  nature  and  origin 
of  the  royal  power  which  was  then  in  vogue.  And  among 
moderns,  especially  among  those  whose  ideas  of  history 
have  been  derived  from  Protestant  and  rationalistic  sources, 
how  many  are  there  who  understand  the  meaning  of  that  ])hrase, 
the  "  divine  right  of  kings,"  which,  with  some  show  of  reason, 
they  regard  as  indicative  of  that  toto  ccvlo  difference  which 

(1)  SpeakiriK  of  the  Venerablt-  Mary  Christina  of  Savoy,  mother  of  King  Francis  II.  of  the 
Two  Sloilies,  a  writer  in  the  Civiltd  Cattolica  (1(<.")9)  says  : '"  In  the  Ages  of  Faith  sanctity 
shone  on  the  thrones  of  kings,  and  In  royal  halls;  and  perhaps  more  than  in  the  homes  of 
the  lowly  and  in  the  cells  of  religious.  Then  Italy,  France,  Spain,  Germany,  England. 
Scotland,  Hungary,  and  Denmark  gave  to  the  Church  so  many  saints  who  were  either 
Itings  or  queens,  or  royal  princes  or  princesses,  that,  considering  the  comparatively  small 
number  of  those  persons  who  occupy  so  elevated  a  position,  it  may  be  seen  that  reigning 
fnniilies  furnished  more  saints  than  were  produced  by  any  other  condition  of  life." 


618  STUDIES  IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

subsists  between  mediaeval  days  and  our  own  ?  Very  few  ;, 
and,  nevertheless,  there  are  some  who  have  read,  to  say 
nothing  about  many  minor  struggles  between  royal  autocracy 
and  the  protectress  of  the  peoples,  much  concerning  that  per- 
ennial and  soul-sickening  struggle  between  the  Papacy  and 
the  Holy  Roman  Emperors  of  the  German  line — a  contest  the 
sole  object  of  which  was,  on  the  part  of  the  Pontiffs,  to  force 
the  emperors  to  avow  that  between  them  and  God  there  was 
a  divinely-appointed  power.  If  these  pages  come  to  the  no- 
tice of  any  persons  who  believe,  with  the  immense  majority 
of  Protestants,  that  the  "  divine  right  of  kings,"  as  they  un- 
derstand the  formula,  was  the  theory  held  by  jurists  in  the 
Middle  Age,  and  then  taught  by  the  Church,  they  must  learn 
that  the  Church  has  never  made  any  definition  concerning 
either  a  mediate  or  an  immediate  communication  of  ruling 
power.  The  Church  has  simply  presented  the  dogma  re- 
vealed in  the  Pauline  declaration  that  all  power  comes  from 
God.  But  the  most  reliable  and  most  authoritative  doctors 
and  theologians  of  the  Church  have  taught  that  power  has  its 
source  in  the  nation  ;  that  power  comes  from  the  nation ;  and 
that  the  nation  gives,  in  some  manner  and  in  unison  with  God> 
that  power  to  princes  or  other  rulers  of  the  peoples.  Hear 
St.  Chrysostom,  as  he  comments  on  the  Pauline  text :  "Is  every 
ruler  established  by  God?  I  do  not  say  that  he  is ;  for  I  am 
not  speaking  of  any  particular  rulers,  but  of  the  thing  in  it- 
self. I  say  that  it  is  an  institution  of  Divine  Wisdom  that 
some  command,  and  others  obey ;  and  thus  human  affairs  do 
not  go  on  in  haphazard  fashion,  the  peoples  being  agitated 
like  the  waves  of  the  sea.  The  Apostle  does  not  say  that 
there  is  no  prince  who  does  not  come  from  God  ;  but  speak- 
ing of  the  thing  itself,  he  says  that  there  is  no  power,  unless 
from  God"  (1).  But  hearken  to  the  Angel  of  the  Schools, 
who,  to  put  the  matter  very  mildly,  is  the  best  accredited  of 
all  the  Catholic  theologians,  and  upon  whose  judgments  all 
other  theologians  rely,  when  they  approach  this  matter  ex 
professo.  St.  Thomas,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  St.  Louis, 
tells  us  that  the  legislative  power  resides  in  the  nation,  in 
the  people,  or  in  him  who  has   received  it  from   the  peo- 

"D  Homily  XXIII.  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 


THE   REIGN   OF   SI     ^^OUIS    IX.  619 

pie  <^1).  He  says  the  same  iu  regapl  to  the  coercive  pow- 
er (2).  He  insists  that  iu  certain  conditions  of  society,  the 
ruler  has  power  to  make  laws,  only  bec;-ase  he  represents 
the  nation — in  qminturn  gerit  j^ersonam  mwtitudinis  (3).  A 
little  further  on  he  says  that  in  a  well-ordered  btate  the  gov- 
erning power  belongs  to  all — principafns  ad  o/nues  pertinei, 
inasmuch  as  all  can  vote  and  be  elected  (-4).  After  St.  Thomas 
of  Aquino,  probably  Suarez  would  dispute  with  Bellarmine 
the  honor  of  leading  the  schools.  The  opinion  of  Sua'^ez  con- 
cerning the  divine  right  of  kings  can  be  gathered  from  his 
"  Treatise  on  Laws,"  and  from  an  apposite  work  writtep  in 
reply  to  King  James  I.  of  England,  who,  an  earnest  champion 
of  that  doctrine  which  is  falsely  supposed  to  be  Catholic 
teaching,  had  taken  up  the  pen  in  an  attempted  refutation  of 
Bellarmine's  defense  of  the  really  Catholic  position.  Listen 
to  Suarez  :  "It  must  be  admitted  that  the  power  to  rule  is 
not  given  by  nature  to  any  one  person  iu  particular ;  being,  ratli^ 
er,  resident  in  the  community.  This  is  the  common  opinion, 
and  it  is  certain.  It  is  the  teaching  of  St.  Thomas  "  (5).  And 
nan  anything  be  clearer  than  the  following?  "  Whenever  the 
civil  power  resides  in  any  man,  in  any  prince,  it  has  emanat- 
ed, by  legitimate  and  ordinary  right,  from  the  people  and 
the  community,  either  immediately  or  mediately  ;  and  in  no 
other  way  can  it  be  legitimate  "  (6).  Again  :  "  When  the 
civil  power  is  found  in  this  man,  it  is  the  result  of  a  gift  of 
the  nation,  as  I  have  proved ;  and  in  that  respect,  the  power 
is  of  human  right.  And  if  the  government  of  this  or  that 
nation  or  province  is  monarchical,  it  is  such  because  of  hu- 
man institution,  and  therefore  the  power  also  is  of  human  ori- 
gin. And  what  proves  the  matter  more  strongly,  the  power  of 
the  ruler  is  more  or  less  great,  according  to  the  agreement 
between  him  and  the  nation  "  (7).  Now  listen  to  the  reply 
of  Suarez  to  His  Protestant  Majesty  :  "  Here  the  most  serene 
king  not  only  upholds  a  neiu  and  singular  opinion  (that  of 
the  immediate  and  direct  divine  right  of  kings),  but  he  violeut- 
Iv  attacks  Cardinal  Bellarmine  because  His  Eminence  affirmed 


(1)  Summa  Theol,  1  a.,  2  ae.,  q.  90.  a.  3.  (2)   IhuL.  q.  90,  a.  3,  ad  2  um. 

(3)    Ibid.,  q.  97,  ad  3.  ad  3  uin.  (4)  Ibid.,  q.  lOo,  a.  1. 

(5)  Laws,  lib.  lii..  cap.  2.  (6)  Ibid.,  lib.  lii.,  cap.  3.  (7)  Ibid.,  cap.  4. 


620  STUDIES    IN    CHURCK    rilSTORY. 

that  monarchs,  unlike  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs,  do  not  receive 
their  authority  immediately  from  God.  His  Majesty  holds 
that  a  prince  does  not  receive  his  power  from  the  people* 
but  immediately  from  God  ;  and  he  tries  to  support  his  as- 
sertion with  arguments  and  facts  which  I  shall  examine  in 
the  following  chapter.  Now,  although  this  controversy  does 
not  turn  directly  on  matters  of  faith,  since  neither  Scripture 
nor  patristic  tradition  determines  anything  concerning  the 
subject,  nevertheless  the  matter  ought  to  be  treated  care- 
fully, firstly,  because  it  may  furnish  an  occasion  of  error  in 
others  ;  secondly,  because  the  king's  opinion,  such  as  he  es- 
tablishes it,  and  because  of  its  object,  is  new  and  singular, 
and  seems  to  have  been  expressly  invented  in  order  to  en- 
hance the  temporal,  and  to  diminish  the  spiritual  power  ;  and, 
thirdly,  because  we  contend  that  the  opinion  of  the  illustri- 
ous cardinal  is  ancient,  received,  true,  and  necessarily  to  he 
admitted "  (1).  When  such  was  the  opinion  of  theolo- 
gians like  the  Angelic  Doctor,  Bellarmine,  and  Suarez,  weare 
not  surprised  on  hearing  Beaumanoir,  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, and  Marsilio  of  Padua,  in  the  early  fourteenth,  assert- 
ing that  the  people  were  the  first  sovereign,  and  that  from 
the  people  the  king  derived  his  right  to  make  laws. 

Nevertheless,  the  sovereigns  of  the  Middle  Age,  especially 
in  France,  were  popularly  regarded  as,  in  some  sort,  images  of 
the  Deity ;  in  those  days  men  respected  authority.  In 
France,  the  holy  unction  which  the  monarch  received  at 
Rheims  gave  to  him,  in  the  popular  imagination,  an  almost 
sacerdotal  character  ;  hence  in  the  Chanson  de  Roland  we  see 
Charlemagne  giving  a  solemn  blessing  to  his  army.  It  is 
very  probable,  remarks  a  judicious  critic  of  our  day  (2),  that 
this  idea  of  the  quasi-divinity  of  royalty  came  from  the  prin- 
ciple of  Aristotle — a  philosopher  then  almost  worshipped  in 
the  schools — that  the  monarchical  form  of  government  is  the 
most  comformable  to  the  order  of  nature,  since  all  nature  is 
ruled  by  one  God.     So  thought  Gerson,  repeating  the  words 

of  Homer,    "Ou^  ayadw  T:(>Xux.in[)fvAa    el^  -/difia'M)^  I<7tu> — It  is  not 

good  to  have  many  leaders  ;  let  us  have  but  one."     As  to 

(1)  Defense  of  the  Faith  Aoain.<t  the  Errors  of  the  AnoHcan  Sect. 

(2)  JOURDAIN  ;  The  French  RotjaUy  and  Popular  Riaht. 


THE    REIGN    OF   fcT.    LOUIS    IX.  621 

hereditary  mouarchy,  the  principle  was  by  no  means  absolute 
in  medianal  France.  Louis  YIII.  was  the  first  monarch 
whose  father  liad  not  procured  his  coronation  during  his  own 
life  ;  all  the  Capetians,  down  to  l*hilip  Auj^ustus,  liad  found 
it  necessary  to  take  this  measure  in  order  to  secure  the  suc- 
cession t(^  their  eldest  sons.  At  that  time,  not  only  in  France, 
but  also  in  Italy,  Hungary,  and  Germany,  there  was  always 
a  menace  in  the  ears  of  a  reigning  prince  ;  he  knew  that  mis- 
conduct or  tyranny  might  cause  the  royal  dignity  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  some  other  family.  However,  with  the  advent  of 
St.  Louis,  the  hereditary  principle  was  definitely  accepted  by 
the  French ;  the  Christian  prestige  of  this  prince  was  so 
communicated  to  his  race  that  to  be  the  heir  of  St.  Louis 
was  equivalent  to  being  the  future  wearer  of  his  crown.  And 
now  a  word  as  to  the  measure  of  the  royal  authority  during 
the  Middle  Age.  Elinand,  a  Cistercian  monk  of  the  diocese 
of  Beauvais,  in  the  time  of  St.  Louis,  whose  knowledge  and 
prudence  is  lauded  by  all  his  literary  contemporaries,  and 
whose  political  ideas  are  regarded  as  having  helped  to  form 
the  policy  of  the  holy  monarch,  thus  speaks  of  the  power  of 
a  Christian  sovereign  in  his  day  :  "  The  ancient  code  (the 
pagan  Roman)  utters  a  tremendpus  lie,  when  it  pronounces 
that  the  mere  will  of  the  prince  has  the  force  of  law.  ...  It  is 
not  at  all  strange  that,  among  us,  the  king  is  not  allowed  to 
have  a  private  treasury  ;  for  the  king  does  not  belong  to  him- 
self, but  to  his  subjects "  (Ij.  And  lest  the  reader  may 
think  that  this  theory  of  Elinand  is  a  mere  isolated  opinion, 
we  subjoin  a  remark  of  the  most  celebrated  puljlicist  of  that 
day.  Cardinal  James  de  Vitry,  bishop  of  Tusculum  and  dean 
of  the  Sacred  College  :  "  There  is  no  security  for  a  monarch, 
from  the  very  moment  when  men  find  that  they  are  not  secure 
from  him  "  (2).  Then  we  hear  St.  Thomas  proclaiming  that 
the  good  of  the  community  is  the  sole  end  of  a  government ; 
that  a  monarch  is  not  enthroned  for  his  own  satisfaction,  but 
for  the  public  weal ;  that  a  king  must  be  the  good  shepherd 
of  his  people  ;  that,  in  fine,  no  law  should  be  considered  as 

(1)  In  a  sermon  by  Elinand,  recorded  in  the  edition  of  the  works  of  Vincent  of  Beauvais, 
published  by  the  Dominicans  of  Douai,  in  1624. 

(2>  Latin  MS.  No.  17,509.  folio  103,  in  the  National  Library  of  France,  citeil  by  Lecoy  de 
la  Marche.  loc.  cit. 


622  STUDIES  m  church  history. 

such,  unless  it  be  "  a  reasonable  regulation,  promulgated  by 
him  who  has  the  care  of  the  community,  and  directed  to  the 
public  good — qacedam  rationis  ordinatio  ad  ho)mm  commune; 
ah  eo  qui  caraiii  communitatis  liabet promidgata  "  (1).  One  of 
the  most  ardent  partisans  of  hereditary  monarchy  was  the 
great  Gerson  ;  but  he  wrote  :  "  He  errs  who  thinks  that  a  king 
can  use  the  persons  and  goods  of  his  subjects  as  his  pleasure 
dictates  ;  or  that  he  can  load  his  people  with  taxes,  when  the 
public  weal  does  not  call  for  such  burdens.  Such  conduct 
is  that  of  a  tyrant,  not  that  of  a  king  "  (2).  It  is  true  that  in 
the  time  of  Philip  the  Fair,  the  hero  of  the  sad  and  disgrace- 
ful episode  of  Anagni,  certain  jurists  tried  to  flatter  their 
royal  master  with  the  notion  that  his  authority  was  unbound- 
ed ;  that  it  was  even  independent  of  the  tiara  (3).  But  we 
must  remember  that  between  the  reigns  of  St.  Louis  and 
Philip  the  Fair  there  had  intervened  the  reign  of  Philip  III. 
(the  Rash) ;  that  then  had  really  begun  the  end  of  the  Middle 
Age,  and  the  disintegration  of  its  vital  and  most  character- 
istic elements.  During  the  reign  of  St.  Louis,  and  during 
many  previous  centuries,  no  Christian  publicist  would  have 
dared  to  utter  such  sentiments  as  began  to  be  current  when 
the  pojjidiis  Christianiis  was  giving  place  to  the  divided 
Christian  peoples,  and  when  other  elements  than  the  Christian 
faith  began  to  sway  the  nations.  In  the  palmy  days  of  the 
Middle  Age  the  governmental  ideal  was  an  absence  of  both 
despotism  and  demagogy. 

St.  Louis  was  not  twelve  years  of  age  when,  by  the  pre- 
mature death  of  his  father,  Louis  VIII.,  he  was  called  to  the 
throne  of  France  in  1226.  The  political  condition  of  France 
was  very  different  from  that  which  the  kingdom  had  present- 
ed in  the  time  of  Charlemagne.  That  king  of  the  Franks, 
placed  by  Pope  St.  Leo  III.  at  the  head  of  a  new  empire 
which  had  nothing  but  the  name  in  common  with  that  of 
pagan  Rome,  had  fulfilled  his  mission  by  combining  the 
heterogeneous  elements  entrusted  to  his  care,  so  that  he 
left  behind  him  neither  Romans  nor  Franks,  neither  Gauls 
nor  barbarians  ;  but  &  jwj^nlus  Chrisiianus,  in  a  unity  which 

(1)  JouRDAiN  :  Philnnophii  nf  St.  ThomaK,  i.,  407.  (2)  Joitrdain  ;  Ibid. 

'3)  Goldast;  Monarchii  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  li.,  96. 


THE    KEIGN    OF    ST.    LOUIS    IX.  623 

required  for  its  maintenance  merely  the  moral  leadership  of 
the  Roman  Pontiff,  and  in  that  unity  the  political  and  social 
i)r<2;aniziition  of  the  Middle  Age  was  established  (1).  In  the 
year  962  Pope  John  XII.  transferred  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
from  the  French  to  the  Germans  ;  but  thereafter  the  emper- 
ors were  merely  kings  of  tlie  Germans  and  of  whatever  other 
peoj)les  happened  to  be  subject  to  the  titular  of  the  nonce, 
he  enjoying  over  other  sovereigns  only  the  primacy  of  dig- 
nity. When  the  crown  of  France  passed  from  the  Carolin- 
gians  to  the  Capetians,  a  radical  change  had  been  effected 
in  the  royal  condition.  Under  both  the  Merovingians  and 
the  early  Carolingians,  the  dukes  and  counts,  in  various 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  had  been  merely  administrators  for 
the  king  ;  but  toward  the  end  of  the  ninth  century  they 
bought  up  or  appropriated  the  proprietorship  of  their  terri- 
tories. Thus  arose  feudalism  in  France,  the  new  proprie- 
tors soon  confounding,  in  good  or  in  bad  faith,  the  right  of 
the  land-owner  with  that  of  sovereignty.  In  this  new  state 
of  affairs,  in  which  the  sovereignty  was  attached  to  the  land 
instead  of  to  the  individual,  the  king  was  a  person  of  small 
consideration  ;  for  even  his  residence,  the  He  de  France,  be- 
longed to  the  Count  of  Paris.  Even  when  the  will  of  the 
nation  raised  Hugh  Capet,  Count  of  Paris  and  Duke  of 
France,  to  the  royal  throne  in  986,  his  own  services  and  those 
of  his  father,  Hugh  the  Great,  could  not  obtain  for  him  bet- 
ter conditions  than  that  he  should  be  full  sovereign  in  his  own 
county  of  Paris,  and  have  the  commandment  of  all  forces 
in  war.  Of  course  all  the  other  princes  swore  homage  to  the 
new  king  as  their  "  suzerain."  From  the  date  of  Hugh  Cap- 
et's accession  down  to  the  time  of  Louis  XL,  the  main  object 
of  every  king  was  to  enlarge  his  own  peculiar  domain  by 
purchase  or  alliance,  and  to  augment  the  attributes  of  his 
suzerainty.  The  first  successors  of  Hugh  Capet,  namely, 
Robert,  Henry  I.,  and  Philip  I.,  effected  much  in  this  really 
praiseworthy  struggle  ;  that  great  minister,  the  Benedictine 
abbot  Suger,  did  still  more  in  favor  of  Louis  VI.  and  Louis 
VII. ;  but  Philip  Augustus  struck  two  mortal  blows  against 
feudalism.     The  first  was  when  he  caused  the  king  of  Eng- 

(1)  Lecoy  de  i.a  Marche;  Inc.  cit..  p.  ~T 


(i24  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

land,  liis  most  redoubtable  vassal,  to  answer,  before  the 
peers  of  France,  for  the  crime  of  murdering  his  own  nephew  ; 
confiscating  thereafter  to  the  benefit  of  the  French  crown,  • 
nearly  all  the  fiefs  which  the  English  monarch  had  held  in 
France,  namely,  Normandy,  Maine,  Anjou,  Touraine,  and 
Poitou.  The  second  blow  was  when,  by  the  victory  of  Bou- 
vines,  he  destroyed  forever  the  arrogant  pretensions  of  the 
German  emperors  in  regard  to  France.  It  is  true  that  Philip 
Augustus  feared  for  the  permanency  of  his  work  ;  but  God 
had  decreed  that  his  daughter-in-law,  the  saintly  Blanche  of 
Castile,  should  carry  it  on  during  her  regency,  and  should  so 
train  her  son,  St.  Louis,  that  he  would  perfect  it  by  the  ex- 
ercise of  an  ability  and  an  honesty  which  exceeded  those  of 
his  grandfather.  In  the  fulfilment  of  his  task,  St.  Louis  re- 
lied little  on  the  lasting  efiects  of  conquest ;  nay,  he  was  so 
unworldly  that  he  would  not  regard  as  legitimate  any  gain 
accruing  to  his  kingdom,  which  had  not  been  sealed  by  a 
perfect  concord  between  the  parties  concerned.  The  work 
of  consolidating  the  Capetian  monarchy  on  the  ruins  of 
feudalism  was  indeed  consummated  only  by  Louis  XL,  the 
very  antipode  of  St.  Louis  ;  but  the  latter  monarch  had  con- 
tributed more  to  that  end  than  all  of  his  predecessors  united. 
And  how  different  was  the  policy  of  St.  Louis  from  that  of 
his  foxy  successor  !  Certainly  Louis  XL  was  not  the  charac- 
ter which  most  modern  historians  describe  for  the  worship- 
pers of  the  nineteenth  century  ;  nor  was  he  at  all  the  incarna- 
tion of  royal  cruelty  and  deceit  whom  modern  play-goers 
know  so  well.  But  where  Louis  XI.  was  astute,  St. 
Louis  was  frank  ;  where  Louis  XL  was  unjust,  St.  Louis  ob- 
served an  equity  which  would  have  excited  the  derisive 
laughter  of  a  Cavour  or  a  Palmerston,  if  the  Middle  Age 
could  have  tolerated  those  who  are  grandmasters  of  "  di- 
plomacy "  in  our  day.  Finally,  the  policy  of  St.  Louis  was 
less  expensive  than  that  of  Louis  XL  ;  and  since  it  was  in- 
comparably less  expensive  than  the  policies  now  in  vogue, 
our  utilitarians  should  accord  to  it  their  heartfelt  admiration 

II. 

In  the  palmy  days  of  Gallicanism,  and  of  its  sister-school, 


THE    UEUiN    0¥   ST.    LOUIS    IX.  ()2o 

Oermau  courtier-tlieologisiu,  one  often  heard  the  name  of 
St.  Louis  cited  as  that  of  an  opponent  of  the  "  encroach- 
ments of  Rome."  Even  in  our  own  time,  when  both  t)f 
these  schools  were  dead,  and  waiting  for  the  Vatican  Coun- 
cil to  bury  them,  theists  of  celebrity  ef  id  oimie  ijenns  were 
wont  to  utter  the  same  absurdity  with  complacent  solemnity. 
Poor  Renan  said:  "Tlie  Church  had  commanded  kings  to 
obey ;  Philip  Augustus  ojui  St.  Louis  protested,  and  Philip 
the  Fair  dared  to  resist "  (1).  That  Philip  Augustus  pro- 
tested against  the  order,  issued  by  Pope  Innocent  III.,  to 
put  away  his  concubine,  and  to  restore  Queen  Ingelburga  to 
her  rights,  is  true  ;  but  he  repented  in  time,  and  obeyed. 
That  Philip  the  Fair  resisted  the  just  demands  of  Pope 
Boniface  VIII.  is  also  true  ;  but  he  was  obliged  to  acquiesce 
in  the  vindication  of  that  Pontiff's  conduct  by  the  Fifteenth 
General  Council.  That  St.  Louis  protested,  in  the  sense  in 
which  Renan,  Michelet,  etc.,  use  the  term,  is  false.  The 
principal,  if  not  the  sole,  reason  for  supposing  that  St.  Louis 
would  have  been  a  Galilean,  if  there  had  been  such  a  thing 
in  his  day,  is  founded  on  an  unauthentic  document — that 
celebrated  forgery  which  bears  the  pseudo-title  of  "  Prag- 
matic Sanction "  (2).  Elsewhere  we  have  done  justice  to 
this  pretended  edict  of  St.  Louis  (3),  and  here  we  need  only 
say  that  no  true  erudite  of  our  day  defends  its  authenticity. 
But  there  are  some,  for  instance,  Viollet  and  Wallon,  who 
insist  that  even  though  St.  Louis  did  not  issue  the  supposed 
Sanction,  he  migJd  have  done  so  in  all  consistency;  for, 
they  contend,  his  principles  were  those  defended  in  it.  This 
curious  theory  was  that  of  Bossuet,  who  did  not  fully  credit 
the  document.  The  great  bishop  of  Meaux  exclaimed  to 
those  who,  even  among  his  partisans,  decried  the  authenticity 
of  the  Sanction  :  "  Even  though  this  Pragmatic  were  apoc- 
ryphal, its  doctrine  ought  not  to  be  rejected  "  (4).  Let  us 
see,  therefore,  what  was  the  attitude  of  the  grandest  Chris- 
tian of  the  thirteenth  century  toward  the  Holy  See.     This 

(1)  hitrraru  Ilistnru  of  France,  xxlv.,  140. 

(2)  The  title  is  absurd  in  the  premises.  The  word  "Pragmatic"  is  derived  from  the 
Greek  -pdynti  and  the  Latin  sanrio;  and  it  would  be  appropriate  if  the  edict  sanctioned 
some  previous  ordinance.     But  this  document  sanctions  nothing. 

(3)  See  Vol.  iii.,  ch.  9.  (4)  Dcfcme  of  the  Declaration,  pt.  ii.,  bk.  2,  ch.  9. 


626  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

attitude  will  appear  without  distortion  if  we  consult,  not  the 
prejudices  of  Henri  Martin,  Beugnot,  Faure,  or  the  rank 
and  file  of  English  authors,  but  those  original  sources,  the 
neglect  of  which  constitutes  the  capital  sin  of  a  historian. 
In  this  matter  those  sources  are  the  official  documents  pre- 
served in  the  Tresor  des  Chartes  (1),  and  cited  by  Lecoy  de 
la  Marche  ;  the  pontifical  letters  collected  by  Binaldi ;  many 
documents  published  by  the  Bollaudists  ;  and  last,  but  by 
no  means  least,  the  Registers  of  Pojye  Imwcent  IV.,  com- 
prising many  hitherto  unknown  illustrations  of  tlie  reign  of 
that  Pontiff,  especially  in  tlie  matter  of  his  relations  with 
St.  Louis,  which  M.  Elie  Berger  recently  unearthed  from 
the  archives  of  the  Vatican  and  of  the  National  Library  of 
France  (2).  In  the  year  1235  St.  Louis  attained  his  major- 
ity, and  from  that  time  he  governed  his  kingdom  by  his  own 
sole  authority,  although  he  took  frequent  counsel  from  his 
wise  and  holy  mother  until  the  end  of  her  life,  in  1252.  One 
of  the  first  communications  held  with  him  by  the  then  reign- 
ing Pontiff,  Gregory  IX.,  was  of  a  nature  to  indicate  that 
His  Majesty  of  France  was  a  personage  not  merely  ordinarily 
grata  to  the  Holy  See ;  we  find  the  Pontiff  conceding  the 
extraordinary  privilege  of  exemption  from  any  possible 
interdict  to  the  private  chapels  of  the  royal  family,  and 
what  was  still  more  wonderful  in  that  age,  the  king  and  his 
family  were  allowed  to  communicate  with  the  excommunicat- 
ed without  consequence  of  censure  (3).  At  the  renewal  of 
jlie  struggle  between  the  Holy  See  and  Frederick  II.,  that 
German  emperor  who  proclaimed  that  "  the  world  had  suf- 
fered from  three  impostors,  Moses,  Christ,  and  Mahomet,"  we 
hear  Pope  Gregory  IX.  asking  for  aid  and  counsel  from  His 
Most  Christian  Majesty,  invoking  the  ancient  friendship 
between  the  tiara  and  the  lilies,  and  concluding :  "  Just  as 
the  tribe  of  Juda  was  called  to  a  special  blessing  from  among 

(1)  In  the  National  Archives  of  France. 

(2)  RegUteisof  Innocent.  IV.,  Paris,  1884-188T.  This  monumental  work  merited  the 
''  prix  Gobert,"  from  the  Acadt^mie  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles  Lettres.  M.  Berger's  two 
introductions,  one  historical  and  the  other  diploraatlcal,  form  a  mine  for  the  polemic 
whose  duties  bring  him  to  a  study  of  this  important  period  of  European  history  ;  and  the 
entire  work  is  another  proof  of  the  sagacity  which  dictated  the  establishment  of  the  Ecole 
Francaise  in  Rome. 

(3)  'xresor  des  Chartes,  Nat.  Archives  of  France,  J.  684,  686, 


THE   REIGN   OF   ST.    LOUIS   IX.  627 

(he  other  tribes,  so  the  kingdom  of  France  is  illustrious 
above  all  others  throup;h  a  divine  prerogative  of  honor  and 
grace.  Just  as  the  tribo  of  Juda,  a  figure  of  France,  defeated 
and  subjugated  all  its  enemies,  so  the  kingdom  of  France, 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  Lord,  and  combating  for  the  liberty 
of  the  Cliurch  in  both  the  East  and  the  West,  delivered  the 
Holy  Land  from  the  pagans  under  the  leadership  of  your 
predecessors,  reduced  the  empire  of  Constantinople  to  the 
Roman  obedience,  saved  Rome  herself  from  a  multitude  of 
perils,  and  conquered  the  pest  of  Albigensian  heresy.  Just 
as  the  tribe  of  Juda  never  abandoned  the  worship  of  the 
true  God,  so  in  the  kingdom  of  France  the  Christian  faith 
has  never  vacillated,  devotion  to  the  Church  has  never  weak- 
ened, ecclesiastical  liberty  has  never  been  imperilled  "  (1). 
Certainly  the  recipient  of  this  praise  had  not  yet  shown  any 
tendency  to  interfere  with  the  prerogatives  of  the  Holy  See. 
And  in  the  subsequent  years  his  conduct  during  the  struggle 
between  the  Church  and  the  Empire  proved  his  intense 
devotion  to  the  Papacy.  Undoubtedl}^  he  tried  to  mediate 
between  the  contending  parties,  for  a  love  of  peace  was  the 
dominant  feature  of  his  character ;  but  his  active  sympathies 
were  with  the  Supreme  Pontiff  of  Christendom.  Immedi- 
ately on  the  arrival  of  the  special  legate  of  Pope  Gregory  IX. 
in  France,  the  holy  monarch  ordered  the  publication  of  the 
anathema  against  Frederick  which  the  prelate  had  brought ; 
and  he  facilitated  the  levy  of  the  tax  on  ecclesiastical  benefices 
which  was  to  furnish  the  means  of  combating  the  imperial 
enemy  of  the  Church.  The  English  chronicler,  Matthew 
Paris  (sometimes  styled  Matthew  of  Paris),  tells  us  that  the 
Pope  wished  St.  Louis  to  do  more  ;  that  he  desired  France  to 
declare  war  against  Frederick  ;  and  that  when  St.  Louis  re- 
fused, he  annulled  the  election  of  one  of  the  king's  uncles, 
Pierre  Chariot,  to  the  bishopric  of  Noyon.  But  the  truth  is, 
as  we  gather  from  Baronio,  that  the  Pontiff  did  not  desire 
immediate  war  on  the  emperor,  for  he  was  about  to  try  the 
effect  of  a  council  on  the  recalcitrant.  As  to  the  affair  of 
Chariot,  the  election  to  the  See  of  Noyon  was  annulled  for 
reasons  unconnected  with  the  matter  of  Frederick  II.     This 

(l:  fbi,  J.  352;  7)iue/i(..  Nuin  2,835. 


G28  STUDIES   IN    CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

JHharlot  was  a  bastard  sou  of  Philip  Augustus,  and  the  Holy 
See  had  dispensed  with  the  impediment  puhllciE  honestatis, 
m  order  that  the  royal  wish  for  his  admittance  to  the  priest; 
hood  might  be  gratified ;  but  it  was  not  the  intention  of  the 
Pontiff  that  the  higher  dignities  of  the  Church  should  be 
open  to  one  who  was  tainted  by  infamous  origin.     When  the 
Thirteenth  General  Council  (First  of  Lyons)  was  convoked, 
and  Frederick  opposed  its  meeting  by  every  means  in  his 
power,  St.  Louis  adopted  every  means  to  further  it.     In  the 
height  of  his  insanity,  the  German  seized  the  Papal  legate 
and  some  French  bishops  who  were  accompanying  him  to 
Italy,  maltreated  them,   and  imprisoned  them.     Immediate 
preparations  for  war,  however,  on  the  part  of  France,  induced 
him   to  give   full  satisfaction  for  the  insult.     Before   the 
Council  of  Lyons  could  meet.  Pope  Gregory  IX.  died ;  and 
when  his  successor,  Celestine  IV.,  also  died,  after  a  reign  of 
a  few  days,  the  intrigues  of  Frederick,  more  than  probable 
infidel  though  he  was,  to  raise  himself  to  the  Chair  of  Peter, 
led  to  an  "  inteiyontificium  "  of  nearly  two  years.     Then  St 
Louis  voiced  the  sentiments  of  Christendom,  when  he  wrote 
to  the  Sacred  College  this  very  un-Gallican  message  :  "  Since 
there  is  a  question  of  defending  the  independence  of  the 
Church,  you  can  rely  on  the  aid  of  France.     Be  firm  ;  throw 
off  the  yoke  which  has  pressed   your  necks  so  long !"(!). 
And  here  we  would  take  advantage  of  an  opportunity  to  show 
the  utter  unreliability  of  Matthew  Paris,  whenever  that  ultra 
Eno-lish  chronicler   undertakes  to   write  of  French  affairs. 
He  asserts  that  St.  Louis  threatened,  in  his  letter  to  the 
cardinals,  to  choose  a  Pope  by  his  own  authority,  bij  virtue 
of  cz  privilege  to  that  effect  conferred  on  St.  Denis  by  Pope  St. 
Clement.     A  Pontiff  was  soon  chosen  in  the  person  of  Inno- 
cent IV.,  and  one   of  his  first  acts  was  to  assure  the  king  of 
France  of  his  affectionate  respect :  "  God  has  already  made 
your  name  great  among  the  greatest."     Tlie  Pope  also  be- 
sought the  aid  of  his  Eldest  Son  against  the  perjured  em- 
peror, who  was  then  conspiring  against  the  personal  freedom 
of  the  head  of  the  Church. 

(1)  HuLLiARD-BREHOLLKS ;  Diplomatic  Hfefor y  of  Frederick  II.,  in  introduction,  page 
CCciii.    Paris,  1860. 


THE   REIGN   OF   ST.    LOUIS   IX.  (529 

The  Thirteenth  General  Council  met  at  Lyons  in  1245,  and 
()y  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  synodals  the  Emperor  Frederick 
II.  was  deposed.  But  one  resource  was  open  to  the  discon- 
certcnl  prince;  he  might  induce  the  temporal  rulers  of  Christen- 
doui  to  unite  against  the  "  usurpations  "  of  the  arrogant  church- 
man wlio  presumed  to  dictate  to  the  salt  of  the  earth.  To 
gain  th3  king  of  France  to  his  views  would  be  equivalent 
to  a  conquest  of  all  the  other  sovereigns  of  Europe  ;  therefore, 
besides  the  circular  which  he  sent  to  every  monarch,  he  sent 
to  St.  Louis  his  chancellor,  who  was  empowered  to  make  the 
most  brilliant  promises.  Frederick  knew  well  the  spirit 
wiiich  actuated  many  of  the  vassals  of  the  French  crown ; 
therefore  he  cunningly  suggested  that  Louis  should  arbitrate 
in  his  cause,  "  together  with  his  peers  and  barons,  as  became 
so  grand  a  monarch  and  so  powerful  a  state."  He  promised 
to  give  to  tlie  Church  whatever  satisfaction  this  tribunal 
should  deem  proper  ;  he  would  accompany  the  French  king  in 
his  projected  Crusade,  and  he  would  not  lay  down  his  arms 
until  the  entire  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  was  conquered.  In 
return,  besides  the  revocation  of  his  deposition,  he  would  ask 
for  only  one  little  concession  ;  he  was  to  be  allowed  to  glut  his 
imperial  vengeance  on  the  Lombards  (1).  Naturally  such 
terms  were  unacceptable  to  both  Innocent  IV.  and  St.  Louis. 
The  latter  could  not  sit  as  an  equal  with  those  vassals  whose 
pretensions  he  was  combating ;  but  for  the  love  of  peace,  and 
in  the  interest  of  the  Crusade,  he  consented  to  intercede  with 
the  Pontiff.  Innocent  granted  the  requested  interview  ;  and 
in  November,  1245,  the  Most  Christian  King  prostrated 
himself  before  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  in  the  cloisters  of  tlie 
abbey  of  Cluny.  The  conferences  lasted  for  fifteen  days, 
Queen  Blanche  alone  assisting.  The  Pontiff  finally  an- 
nounced that  he  could  not  accept  the  conditions  formulated  by 
the  culprit ;  but  in  order  to  show  that  he  was  not  averse  to  an 
ultimate  reconciliation,  he  agreed  to  allow  Frederick  to  wait 
upon  him  at  Lyons,  there  to  try  to  clear  himself  of  the  char- 
ges, especially  of  heresy  and  heinous  violence,  which  the 
Christian  world  had  made  against  him.  It  is  not  probable 
that  either  the    Pope  or  the  king  believed  that    Frederick 

(1)  HCII.I.ARD-BRKHOLLES  ;  loC.  CU.,  p.  CCCVi. 


030  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

would  dare  to  attempt  a  formal  justification  of  liis  notorious 
crimes  ;  at  any  rate  the  perverse  man  afi'ected  to  regard  the 
pontifical  offer  as  a  refusal  of  justice,  and  ere  long  St,  Louis, 
learned  that  he  had  resolved  to  march  on  Lyons,  not  for  the 
purpose  of  conferring  with  the  Poutifi",  but  in  order  to  seize 
his  sacred  person.  Then  the  disgusted  monarch  broke  off 
all  negotiations ;  he  announced  to  the  Pope  his  resolve  to 
attack  the  excommunicated  traitor,  and  would  have  led  his 
intending  crusaders  across  the  Alps,  had  he  not  learned  that 
Frederick  had  decided  to  remain  in  Italy,  and  had  not  the 
Pontiff  ordered  him  to  sheathe  his  sword.  Probabl}^  we 
have  adduced  a  sufficiency  of  proofs  in  the  matter  of  the  at- 
tachment of  St.  Louis  to  the  See  of  Kome  ;  but  it  will  not  be 
amiss  to  present  a  few  more  instances  of  an  utter  absence  of 
any  "  Gallican"  ideas  of  a  false  independence  on  the  part  of 
this  Catholic  hero.  Firstly,  then,  it  has  been  asserted  that  In- 
nocent IV.  condemned  a  league  which  certain  French  barons 
formed  for  the  purpose  of  upholding  their  own  judicial  de- 
cisions Avhen  they  differed  from  those  of  the  episcopal  tribu- 
nals. But  we  reply  with  Wallon  (1),  that  St.  Louis  was  for- 
eign to  this  league,  as  is  fully  proved  by  the  absence  of  his  seal 
in  the  original  Act.  Again,  when  the  monarch  returned  from 
the  Seventh  Crusavle  he  received  a  letter  from  Innocent  IV., 
in  which  the  Pontiff  lauded  the  zeal  wdiich  he  had  ever 
displayed  in  defending  the  rights  of  French  ecclesiastical 
establishments  against  the  exactions  of  some  of  the  royal 
bailiffs  and  certain  barons.  "The  king,"  says  the  Pope, 
"  does  not  know  of  these  crimes  (when  they  are  committed), 
and  he  grieves  when  they  are  brought  to  his  knowledge." 
The  many  favors  which  Alexander  IV.  showered  on  St.  Louis 
also  show  that  the  king  was  a  prince  according  to  his  ponti- 
fical heart.  And  that  these  concessions  were  granted  simply 
because  of  the  vitrue  of  tlie  applicant,  and  because  Eome 
realized  that  he  would  never  abuse  them,  is  evinced  by  the 
fact  that  when  the  king  begged  that  some  of  the  favors  might 
be  extended  to  his  heir,  the  request  was  refused.  Eome  is  nev- 
er blind.  The  relations  of  St.  Louis  with  Pope  Clement  IV., 
the  last  of  the  potentates  who  were  contemporary  with  him, 

V  St-  L)iiis  nud  ni<  Thiv.i.     Paris,  isti.-). 


THE   REIGN    OF  ST.    LOUIS   IX.  631 

indicate  a  perfect  harmony  of  thought  between  the  two  pow- 
ers— a  thorough  true  respect  for  the  rights  of  each.  As  the 
Bollaudists  expressed  the  idea  :  "  Negabat  alter  alteri  quod 
justis  rationibus  coucedenduiu  iu)n  putabat,  iicc  iiide  (unicitia 
Icedelnxtnr.''  Duriug  the  vacaucy  of  the  episcopal  see  of 
Rlieims,  Pope  Clement  conferred  several  benefices  which  were 
of  episcopal  right ;  but  he  soon  revoked  the  collation,  lest  he 
might  appear  indifferent  to  the  "  right  of  regalia"  enjoyed  by 
the  French  kings  (1).  St.  Louis  showed  an  equal  appreciation 
of  the  difference  between  pontifical  and  royal  prerogatives 
when  the  Greek  emperor,  Michael  Paleologus,  having  asked 
him  to  arbitrate  between  the  Pontiff  and  himself,  he  replied 
that  such  a  role  was  above  the  powers  of  even  a  king  of 
France,  since  the  Roman  Pontiff  was  the  supreme  judge  in 
Christendom.  He  would  promise  the  emperor  merely  the 
exercise  of  his"  good  offices  "at  the  pontifical  court.  When 
many  of  his  courtiers  advised  St.  Louis  to  claim  as  a  royal 
fief  the  county  of  Melgueil,  near  Montpellier,  then  in  the 
possession  of  the  bishop  of  Maguelonne,  he  followed  the 
advice  of  Pope  Clement,  and  respected  the  claims  of  the 
bishop.  When  St.  Louis  thought  of  taxing  the  merchandise 
which  passed  through  the  port  of  Aigues-Mortes,  which  had 
been  constructed  in  the  interests  of  pilgrims  to  the  Holy 
Land,  and  wishing  only  to  use  the  revenue  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  port  in  good  condition,  he  consulted  with  Pope 
Clement ;  and  received  permission  to  levy  the  desired  imposts, 
"after  consultation  with  the  bishops  of  the  province,  the 
barons  of  the  neighborhood,  and  the  consuls  of  Montpellier, 
and  on  condition  that  the  duties  would  be  moderate  and  never 
afterward  increased "  (2).  Here,  then,  we  see  St.  Louis 
asking  for  the  intervention  of  the  Pope  in  a  purely  temporal 
matter;  the  Pontiff  admits  that  the  king  can  decide  as  he 
thinks  best,  and  the  monarch  deems  it  advisable  to  follow 
the  counsel  of  His  Holiness.  Certainly  a  more  perfect  har- 
mony could  not  have  been  desired.  Did  our  limits  permit, 
we  conld  multiply  instances  of  this  concord  ;  but  the  reader 
will  probably  conclude  that  the  course  of  St.  Louis  toward 
the  Holy  See  was  always  such  as  one  would  have  expected, 
a  priori,  so  pious  a  monarch  to  follow. 

(1)  See  our  Vol.  Iv..  D-  211,  rt  »rqq.  (2)  Bollandists,  at  Aug.  v.  485. 


632  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 


III. 


The  best  efforts  of  Pope  Gregory  IX.  had  been  devoted  to 
the  preparation  of  a  new  crusade  ;  and  in  tlie  next  pontificate 
the  urgency  for  such  an  expedition  became  extreme.  Jeru- 
salem, which  for  some  years  had  been  in  Christian  hands, 
was  captured  in  1244  by  the  Mussulmans  of  Egyjjt,  who  had 
become  masters  of  Syria.  Aid  from  the  West  was  tearfully 
sought  by  the  few  Christians  of  the  Holy  Land  whom  the 
scimetar  had  spared.  But  the  king  of  England  and  the  Ger- 
man emperor  ignored  every  appeal ;  the  other  princes,  St. 
Louis  excepted,  were  too  feeble  to  do  else  than  pray  to  heaven 
for  the  success  of  a  holy  cause.  To  France,  therefore,  then, 
as  always,  the  reliance  of  Christendom  in  every  dread  emer- 
gency, the  entreaties  of  Pope  Innocent  IV.  were  directed  ; 
and  St.  Louis  arose  from  a  bed  of  sickness,  donned  the  cross, 
and  having  proceeded  t©  Notre-Dame  in  the  dress  of  a  hum- 
ble pilgrim,  went  to  Lyons  for  the  blessing  of  Christ's  vicar 
upon  his  enterprise.  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  describe  this 
expedition.  In  1248  St.  Louis  led  his  army  out  of  France, 
not  in  royal  array,  but  in  a  pilgrim's  guise,  and  with  bare 
feet,  to  impress  his  followers  with  the  truth  that  they  were 
about  to  engage  in  a  holy  task,  and  one  which  needed  a  special 
blessing  for  its  success.  In  the  same  penitential  dress  lie  en- 
tered Damietta,  chanting  the  Te  Deum.  When  the  final  re. 
verse  overtook  him,  he  was  able  to  say  with  the  Apostle, 
"  Qiium  infirmor,  tunc  poteiis  sum.'"  How  much  of  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  failure  of  the  Seventh  Crusade  must  be 
cast  upon  the  German  emperor,  Frederick  II.  ?  When  St. 
Louis  was  about  to  depart,  Frederick  feared  that  a  new  French 
principality  would  soon  be  founded  in  the  Orient,  and  he  asked 
of  the  king  a  promise  that  all  of  his  conquests  should  be  an- 
nexed to  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem.  The  saint  replied  that 
he  would  effect  nothing  to  the  prejudice  of  the  emperor,  but 
that  he  could  only  promise  that  all  his  actions  would  be  for 
the  good  of  the  Church.  Frederick  appeared  to  be  satisfied  ; 
he  ordered  his  officers  in  Sicily  not  to  overcharge  the  French 
for  the  provisions  they  would  buy  in  that  island.  But  the 
Arab  historian,  Makrizi,  declares  that  Frederick  sent  a  spec- 


THE    REIGN    Of   ST.    LOUIS    IX.  633 

ial  messenger,  disguised  as  a  iiiercliant,  to  waru  the  sultau, 
then  sick  at   Damascus,  oi  the  French  intention   to  attack 
Egypt  (1).     Such  a  course  was  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
entire  career  of  Frederick  11.     He  had  already  shown  how 
little  spirit  he  had  for  the  Holy  Wars,  when,  in   1227,  after 
years  of  incitemeub  by  Ftonie,  Italy,  Germany,  and  Hungary, 
he  had  finally  set  sail  from  Brindisi,  only  to  return  three 
days  afterward,  alleging  that  he   was  sick— conduct  which 
entailed  upon  him  his  first  excommunication  by  Gregory 
IX.  (2).     And  when  finally  he  did  appear  in  Palestine,  it  was 
only  for  the  annoyance  of  the  Christians,  he  having  hastened 
to  make  an  alliance  with  the  persecuting  sultan  of  Egypt. 
We  are  justified,  therefore,  in  believing  the  Arab  historian, 
when  he  says  that  this  false  Christian  (and  probably  renegade) 
betrayed  the  plans  of  St.  Louis.     Joinville,  the  companion 
of  the  holy  monarch  during  the  best  years  of  his  life,  and 
his  most  reliable  biographer,  narrates  that  when  Frederick 
heard  of  the  captivity  of  the  hero,  he  burst  into  a  frenzy  of  joy, 
and  gave  a  grand  feast  to  his  court.     Then  he  sent,  says  the 
seneschal,  a  messenger  to  the  sultan,  ostensibly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  negotiating  for  the  release  of  the  king,  but  really  in 
order  to  insure  the  prolongation  of  his  durance.     In  order 
to  rid  ourselves  of  so  unsavory  a  subject,  we  hasten  to  add, 
that  the  later  conduct  of  the  German  emperor  was  such  as 
to  confirm  the  recital  of  Makrizi.     Not  satisfied  with  allying 
himself  with  the  Saracens  in  their  own  land,  he  invited  to 
the  Italian    peninsula  those  of  them  who  resided  in  Sicily^ 
and  gave  them  lands  around  Lucera,  in  a  state  which  was  a 
fief  of  the  Holy  See.     He  adopted  the  manners  of  the  infidels, 
composed  his  bodyguard  of  them,  and  chose  their  prettiest 
women  for  his  hours  of  lasciviousness.     Shame  like  this  well 

(1)  The  work  of  Makrizi  is  translated  in  tlie  Bihliotheqxie  des  Croisades,  Vol.  iv. 

(2)  The  Bull  of  excommuuication  recites  that  Frederick  was  thus  punished  because  he 
had.  Ave  different  times,  violated  his  solemn  vows,  emitted  with  the  clause  that  he  would 
incur  excommunication  if  he  broke  them;  because  he  had  not  furnished  the  troops  and 
money  which  he  had  promised  to  the  eastern  Christians;  because  he  had  despoiled  their 
king  of  his  title  and  his  revenues  ;  because  he  had  prevented  the  Archbishop  of  Tarento 
from  visiting  his  diocese;  because  he  had  robbed  the  Templars  and  Hospitalers  of  their 
Sicilian  revenues ;  because  he  had  not  observed  treaties  for  the  keeping  of  which  the  Holy 
See  had  become  his  security  ;  because  he  had  robbed  of  his  property  Count  Roger,  a  Cru- 
sader, and  under  the  protection  of  the  Pope ;  because  he  had  Imprisoned  unjustly  the  son 
of  that  Count  Roger,  etc.— In  Labbe,  Vol.  xl. 


534  STUDIES    IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

befitted  the  closing  years  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  a  dynasty  the 
most  salient  characteristic  of  which  was  a  perennial  attempt 
to  destroy  the  Papacy,  an  institution  which  buried  it,  as  it  has 
buried,  and  ever  will  bury,  others  of  the  same  stamj).  The 
first  use  which  the  Saracens  made  of  their  royal  captive  was 
to  endeavor  to  obtain  from  him  an  order  on  the  Templars  and 
the  Hospitalers  for  the  surrender  of  their  fortresses  in  Pales- 
tine. When  he  refused,  and  the  sultan  threatened  to  put 
him  to  the  most  frightful  tortures,  the  king  replied  that  the 
infidel  might  work  his  pleasure.  At  length,  liberty  was  of- 
fered to  him  in  exchange  for  the  surrender  of  Damietta,  then 
held  by  the  noble  Margaret,  the  queen  of  St.  Louis,  with  a 
small  garrison  of  Frenchmen  ;  and  in  addition,  for  the  sum 
of  a  million  golden  bezants — about  two  and  a  half  millions 
of  dollars.  "  If  the  queen  consents,"  said  the  monarch,  "  I 
shall  pay  that  amount  for  my  soldiers,  and  shall  deliver 
Damietta  as  my  own  ransom ;  you  must  know  that  such 
as  I  am  are  not  exchanged  for  money."  One  incident  that 
occurred  before  the  departure  of  St.  Louis  from  Egypt  de- 
serves mention  as  indicative  of  the  true  spirit  of  Christian 
knighthood.  The  sultan  had  been  murdered  by  his  emirs, 
and  the  chief  assassin  rushed  into  the  presence  of  the  king, 
sword  in  hand,  and  demanded  that  Louis  should  dub  him 
knight  there  and  then.  The  wish  w^as  not  preposterous  ic 
the  mind  of  the  Mussulman  ;  for  had  not  Frederick,  the  head 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  knighted  the  emir  Fakr-Eddin  ? 
But  the  French  monarch  could  not  prostitute  an  essentially 
Christian  dignity,  and  calmly  he  awaited  death  from  the 
horde  of  indignant  miscreants.  The  majesty  of  his  mien 
awed  the  Saracens  ;  they  drew  back,  and  the  disappointed 
candidate  swore  to  observe  the  treaty  (1).  If  this  incident 
does  not  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  ascendency  which 
St.  Louis  exercised  over  the  minds  even  of  infidels,  we  would 
remind  him  that  the  emirs  debated  among  themselves  whether 
or  not  they  should  offer  him  the  sceptre  of  the  late  sultan. 
Then  Joinville,  being  asked  by  the  monarch  in  an  apparently 
serious  tone  whether  he  ought  to  accept,  replied  "  that  none 
but  an  insane  man  would  receive  a  diadem  from  those  who 

(1)  Memoirs  of  Joinville.    Edition  of  Wallly,  p.  185. 


THE   REIGN   OF  ST.    LOUIS   IX.  G35 

had  murdered  tlie  previous  wearer."  "And  nevertheless/ 
said  St.  Louis,  "  I  would  accept  it "  (1).  Voltaire  did  not 
credit  this  episode ;  but  we  can  understand  how  St.  Louis 
may  have  conceived  the  sublime  idea  of  availing  himself  oi 
the  intidel  sceptre,  or  rather  of  its  attendant  influence,  lii 
order  to  convert  his  new  subjects  to  the  faith  of  Christ. 
History  furnished  him  with  many  precedents  for  such  a 
hope. 

In  1270  St.  Louis  entered  upon  his  second  Holy  War,  that 
which  is  known  as  the  Eighth  Crusade.  The  commercial 
rivalry  of  the  Venetians  and  Genoese,  joined  to  the  scandal- 
ous dissensions  between  the  Templars  and  the  Hospitalers, 
had  encouraged  the  Mussulmans  to  greater  progress  than 
-they  had  ever  dared  to  anticipate  ;  and  the  condition  of  the 
Oriental  Christians  appealed  again  to  the  great  heart  of 
France.  Tunis  was  chosen  by  the  king  for  his  base  of  oper- 
ations ;  he  was  persuaded  that  the  Tunisian  prince  was  dis- 
posed to  become  a  Christian,  and  he  therefore  relied  on  that 
portion  of  the  African  coast  as  his  main  source  of  supplies. 
But  the  usually  circumspect  monarch  had  been  deceived, 
perhaps  unwittingly,  by  his  brother,  Charles  of  Anjou,  who 
had  an  ulterior  motive  for  landing  in  Tunis,  he  being  desir- 
ous of  preventing  any  Tunisian  attack  on  his  kingdom  of 
Sicily— a  worthy  intention,  but  which  hampered  the  main  ob- 
ject of  the  Crusade.  The  reduction  of  the  castle  of  Carthage 
and  successive  defeats  of  the  Tunisians  and  other  Mussulmans 
appeared  to  augur  well  for  the  expedition  ;  but  the  delay  of 
Charles  of  Anjou  to  join  the  Crusaders  had  already  filled  the 
army  with  dismay,  when  a  malignant  dysentery  incapacitated 
all  ior  action.  Among  the  many  leaders  and  nobles  who 
succumbed  was  the  Count  de  Nevers,  the  youngest  son  of  the 
kintr ;  and  soon  the  holy  monarch  himself  was  stricken.  To 
prepare  himself  for  death  was  an  easy  task  for  one  who  had 
ever  lived  the  life  of  a  saint ;  but  mindful  to  tlie  last  of  the 
welfare  of  the  nation  committed  by  God  to  his  care,  the 
hero  gave  to  his  heir  a  written  copy  of  those  instructions 
which  we  read  as  '"  The  Teachings  of  St.  Louis."  SiiR-c  this 
document  is  not  only  a  monument  of  the  purest  faith  of  tlie 

(1)  /?.irJ..p.  201. 


636  STUDIES   IN    CELRCH    HISTORY. 

Middle  Age,  but  an  epitome  of  as  wise  a  policy  as  statesman, 
ever  devised,  as  well  as  a  faithful  mirror  of  the  testator's  en- 
tire career,  we  subjoin  some  of  its  passages :  "  My  dear  on,  the' 
first  thing  I  recommend  to  you  is  that  you  direct  your  wliolj 
heart  to  the  love  of  God.  Beware  of  anything  displeasing- 
to  God ;  above  all,  beware  of  mortal  sin  (1).  If  God  sends  ad- 
versity to  you,  receive  it  patiently,  knov.'ing  that  you  have 
deserved  it,  and  that  it  will  be  profitable  to  you  ;  if  He  sends 
you  prosperity,  thank  him  lium\^ly,  so  that  pride  may  not  in- 
jure you  (2).  Go  frequently  to  confession.  Attend  all  the 
services  of  the  Church  with  great  recollection  (3).  Be  gentle 
and  charitable  to  the  poor  and  the  suffering.  Maintain  the 
good  customs  of  your  kingdom,  and  abolish  the  bad  ones  (4). 
Do  not  burthen  your  people  with  taxes.  Always  have  around 
you  worthy  men,  seculars  as  well  as  religious.  Hear  sermons 
willingly  ;  and  eagerly  seek  for  prayers  and  indulgences.  Let 
no  man  be  so  audacious  as  to  utter  a  Avord  in  your  presence 
which  might  lead  another  into  sin  ;  let  no  man  speak  ill  of 
another  behind  his  back ;  and  if  any  one  blasphemes  God  or 
His  saints,  revenge  the  insult  at  once  (5).  Be  rigid  and  loy- 
al in  the  administration  of  justice.     If  you   know   that   you 

(1)  Through  all  the  years  of  his  manhood  St.  Louis  had  been  accustomed,  1  oni  tiim-  to 
time,  to  tell  his  familiars  how  his  mother,  the  saintly  Blanche  of  Castile,  had  often  said 
that  she  would  rather  see  him  dead  at  her  feet  than  Ijnow  that  he  had  committed  one  mor- 
tal sin. 

(2)  On  the  glorious  field  of  Massourah  he  had  prostrated  himself,  and  cried:  "  I  thank 
God  for  all,  good  or  evil,  which  He  sends  to  me." 

(3)  He  had  always  heard  two  Masses  every  day ;  and  when  he  was  reproved,  he  would 
say  :  "These  gentlemen  would  Bud  no  fault,  were  I  to  spend  as  much  time  in  the  chase  or 
in  other  pleasures." 

(4)  He  had  abolished  private  wars,  judicial  duels,  etc. 

(.5)  From  very  ancient  times  it  had  been  customary  In  France  for  any  man  to  slap  the  face 
of  one  who  had  uttered  a  blasphemy,  or  even  such  a  phrase  as  "  Go  to  the  devil !  "  In  the 
days  of  Justinian,  and  through  ut  the  empire,  death  was  inflicted  on  him  who  swore  by  the 
head  or  hair  of  Ged  (Novella  6V).  Philip  Augustus  de«wed  against  blasphemers  a  penalty 
of  four  golden  livres  (about  $80.00),  and  if  the  culprit  was  too  poor  to  pay  it,  he  was  thrown 
Into  the  nearest  river,  and  pulled  out  only  when  he  was  nearly  drowned.  At  the  accession 
of  St.  Louis,  men  often  took  the  law  into  their  own  hands,  and  great  cruelties  were  some- 
times practised.  Pope  Clement  IV.  remonstrated  with  St.  Louis  for  allowing  such  treat- 
ment, and  insisted  that  there  should  be  no  danger  to  "life  or  member"  in  the  punish- 
ment. Consequently,  in  1269  a  royal  ordinance  mulcted  blasphemers  in  amounts  varying 
from  five  to  forty  livres  ;  those  who  could  not  pay,  and  were  under  forty  years  of  age,, 
were  whipped  ;  the  other  impecunious  culprits  were  pilloried  and  imprisoned.  Jacques  de 
Vitry  and  Etienne  de  Bourhon  narrate  how  a  certain  knight,  before  the  issue  of  this  edict, 
gave  a  very  heavy  blow  to  a  citizen  who  bad  blasphemed  egregioiisly :  and  when  he  was 
called  to  account  by  the  king,  he  replied  :  "  He  outraged  my  heavenly  Master,  and  I  struck 
him  even  as  I  would  have  done  had  he  insulted  my  earthly  king."  St.  Louis  told  bim  to  act 
slmilarlv  when  occasion  warranted  him. 


THE    liEUiN    OF   ST.    lOU   S   IX.  637 

possess  what  belougs  to  uiiothpr,  restore  it  immediately  ;  if 
the  ownership  is  doubtful,  let  prudcut  and  just  men  iuvesti- 
rraie  the  matter  (1).  Lot  your  best  endeavors  be  exerted  for 
the  furtherance  of  peace  within  and  outside  your  kingdom. 
Maintain  the  franchises  of  your  good  cities  and  communes  ; 
for  by  the  strength  and  wealth  of  those  cities  and  communes 
the  peers  and  barons  will  be  compelled  to  respect  you.  Hon- 
or and  love  most  especially  all  religious  and  all  ecclesiastical 
persons.  It  is  narrated  of  ray  grandfath(»r,  King  Philip 
(Augustus),  that  when  one  of  his  councilhn's  remarked  thnt  it 
was  strange  that  he  should  allow  certain  clerics  to  interfere  with 
his  rights,  he  replied  that  he  knew  very  well  that  certain  cler- 
ics so  acted,  but  that  when  he  reflected  how  very  good  the  Lord, 
had  been  to  him,  he  preferred  to  relinquish  some  of  his  rights 
rather  than  raise  difficulties  with  the  Church  (2).  Love  and 
revere  your  father  and  mother,  and  obey  all  their  commands  (3). 
As  to  ecclesiastical  benefices,  confer  them  on  worthy  per- 
sons, and  after  having  consulted  with  prudent  men.     My  son, 

(1)  His  subjectsoften  upbraided  St.  Louis  with  excessive  zeal  in  the  matter  of  restitution  ; 
for  Instance,  they  said  that  he  had  restored  to  the  king  of  England  far  more  than  justice  de- 
manded. 

(2>  This  passage  should  be  considered  by  those  who  think  that  St.  Louis  was  the  author  of 
the  Pragmatic  Sanction  ;  fnr  this  monarch  was  much  more  scrupulous  in  ecclesiastical 
matters  than  his  grandfather  dreamed  of  being. 

(3t  People  of  our  day  who  read  the  life  of  St.  Louis  must  think  that  he  carried  this  filial 
deference  to  an  extreme.  Joinville,  in  all  simplicity,  gives  some  curious  instances  of  the 
subjection  of  the  king  to  his  saintly,  but  rather  imperious  mother,  even  in  matters  of  his 
married  life.  And  he  insisted  on  his  devoted  spouse,  the  noble  Margaret  of  Provence,  being 
in  all  things  an  obedient  daughter-in-law.  The  following  passage  is  intere-sting :  "  Sd 
severe  was  Queen  Blanche  toward  Queen  Margaret,  that  she  would  not  jiermit,  so  far  as 
she  could  have  her  way,  her  son  to  enjoy  the  company  of  his  wife  except  at  night,  when  they 
retired  together.  Their  favorite  palace  was  at  Pontoise,  and  they  preferred  it  because  the 
king's  apartment  was  immediately  above  the  queen's,  a  winding  stairway  connecting  them. 
On  this  stairway  they  used  to  converse,  having  arranged  with  the  chamberlains  on  duty  that 
when  the  (juoen-mother  would  appear  in  the  corridor  leading  to  the  apartment  of  her  son, 
they  would  strike  their  wands  on  the  door  of  that  apartment ;  and  (hen  the  kino'  would  hur- 
ry at  once  to  his  quarters.  In  the  same  way.  if  the  queen-mother  was  approaching  the 
rooms  of  Queen  Margaret,  the  offlcers  would  give  the  siirnal  on  her  door  :  and  then  she  would 
hasten  to  her  domicile.  On  one  occasion  the  king  had  gone  to  his  wife'schamber,  whereshe 
was  lying  at  death's  door,  because  of  a  recent  difUcult  acaonchcmeiU.  Suddenly  Queen 
Blanche  appeared,  and  takina  the  king  by  the  hand,  she  exclaimed  :  '  Come  awav  ' :  you  have 
no  business  here  ! '  When  Queen  Margaret  saw  her  mnther-in-law  leadin  r  the  king  away,  she 
cried  :  'Alas  I  you  will  not  allow  me  to  have  my  lord,  either  in  life  ordeath.'  Then  she  faint- 
ed, and  they  thouL'ht  her  dying.  The  king  returned  to  her,  and  they  had  ninch  dilBculty  in 
reviving  her."  Old  chroniclers  say  that  Margaret  followed  her  husband  in  his  first  Crusade, 
principally  that  at  last  she  might  have  him  to  herself.  But  it  seems  that  the  gentle  queen 
really  venerated  Blanche,  and  loved  her.  When  the  news  of  the  queen-mother's  death 
reached  Palestine,  Mnrtraret  showed  every  token  of  deep  sorrow  ;  but  we  note  that  Joinville 
thought  that  she  grieved  bee  luse  of  her  sympathy  with  the  king. 


638  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

I  instruct  yo\x  iv  be  ever  reverent  toward  the  Cliurcli,  and 
toward  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  our  father.  Honor  the  Pope,  for 
he  is  your  spiritual  father.  Destroy  heresy  as  far  as  your 
power  will  permit  you"  (1).  When  the  dying  saint  had 
handed  this  document  to  his  heir,  the  future  Philip  III.,  he 
had  himself  raised  from  his  bed,  and  kneeling,  he  received 
his  Sacramental  Lord.  Then  he  lay  on  the  ground,  which 
he  had  ordered  to  be  strewn  with  ashes.  Having  received 
Extreme  Unction,  he  calmly  awaited  his  summons  to  be  dis- 
solved, and  to  be  with  Christ.  At  midnight  of  August  25, 
1270,  the  everlasting  glory  of  the  French  monarchy  cried : 
"  Now  we  go  to  Jerusalem,"  and  he  had  gone  indeed  to  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem. 

He  who  discerns  in  St.  Louis,  as  he  undertakes  his  cru- 
sades, merely  the  French  warrior  who  is  ambitious  of  conquest, 
will  not  realize  the  true  significance  of  the  monarch's  efforts. 
Nor  will  that  significance  be  grasped  by  him  who  regards 
St.  Louis  as  possessed  by  the  sole  idea  of  restoring  to 
Christendom  the  holy  places  which  were  sanctified  by  the 
tears  and  blood  of  the  God-Man.  With  St.  Louis,  under  the 
cuirass  of  the  Christian  warrior  throbbed  the  heart  of  an 
apostle  of  the  Christian  faith.  He  had  not  designed  merely 
to  subjugate  the  Holy  Land  to  European  or  probably  French 
domination.  He  had  intended  to  convert  the  heretical  and 
Mussulman  inhabitants  of  the  Orient ;  and  to  effect  that  work 
his  serried  battalions  were  accompanied  by  a  little  army  of 
Dominican  and  Franciscan  friars.  According  to  the  chroni- 
cle of  Primat,  these  missionaries  converted  five  hundred 
Arabs  during  the  saint's  short  sojourn  in  Saint-Jean-d'Acre  ; 
and  hence  we  may  judge  of  what  they  effected  during  the 

(1)  The  sole  ordinance  issued  by  St.  Louis  in  reference  to  lieresy  is  dated  in  1250.  Previ- 
ously he  had  been  unable  to  follow  the  dictates  of  bis  heart  by  modifying  the  rigor  of  his 
mother's  ordinance  of  1229,  which  was,  however,  strictly  in  accord  with  the  r  ommon  law  of 
the  time.  The  revolts  excited  by  the  remnants  of  the  Albigenses  in  the  south  of  France 
had  forced  St.  Louis  to  apply  the  laws  against  heresy  with  rigor.  But  the  submission  of 
the  count  of  Toulouse  caused  the  barons  of  Languedoc  to  cease  their  struggles  against  the 
royal  authority,  and  then  the  king  was  free  to  pursue  his  policy  of  reconciling  the  North  with 
the  South.  The  chief  articles  of  the  decree  of  1250  are  these:  "The  properties  talcen  from 
heretics  in  virtue  of  the  ordinance  of  1229  shall  be  restored  to  them,  unless  they  have  fled 
from  the  kingdom,  or  unless  they  continue  in  their  obstinacy.  Wives  shall  not  lose  their 
properties  on  account  of  the  crime  of  their  husbands.  The  goods  of  heretics  who  die  in  the 
faith  shall  be  restored  to  tneir  heirs. 


THE    REIGN    OF    ST.    LOUIS    IX.  639 

Seventh  aud  Eighth  Crusades.  Godfrey  de  Beaulieu  and 
Etienne  do  Bourbon,  who  saw  the  converts  in  France,  speak 
of  many  Saracens  who  were  baptized  during  the  king's  first 
expedition,  aud  accompanied  him  on  his  return,  afterward 
marrying  French  women,  and  raising  families  which  for 
many  years  remained  under  the  direct  protection  of  the  crown. 
About  the  time  that  Pope  Innocent  lY.  sent  the  Franciscan, 
Piano  Carpini,  into  Tartary,  our  saint  sent  many  other  friars 
on  the  same  apostolic  mission.  The  results  of  his  enter- 
prise were  only  partial  and  isolated  ;  but  they  show  what 
was  the  policy  of  St.  Louis  in  that  Eastern  Question  which 
was  then  far  more  vital  than  it  is  in  our  day.  In  a  word, 
his  design  was  to  arrest  the  advance  of  pagan  barbarism,  by 
force  when  that  was  necessary,  but  constantly  and  principally 
by  the  Christiauization  of  the  orientals.  And  if  we  look  for 
his  successors  in  this  order  of  ideas,  where  shall  we  find  them  ? 
"  In  the  camps,  or  on  a  throne?  "  asks  Lecoy  de  la Marche ; 
"  among  the  partisans  of  Kussia,  or  among  the  defenders  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire  ?  No  ;  they  will  be  found  in  the  hum- 
ble tunic  of  those  heroic  friars  whose  glorious  path  St.  Louis 
opened.  They  will  be  fouud  in  the  persons  of  those  perse- 
vering missionaries  who  are  preaching  the  Gospel  in  the 
heart  of  the  old  oriental  world,  and  who,  like  certain  ambassa- 
dors of  St.  Louis,  incur  thousands  of  dangers  in  order  to 
probably  save  a  few  souls.  These  men  may  truly  be  termed 
the  heirs  of  the  spirit  of  St.  Louis.  When  they  cross  burning 
plains  and  arid  mountains,  they  can  sustain  their  courage 
by  the  thought  that  they  are  realizing  the  dream  of  the 
wisest  and  most  perspicacious  of  French  kings  (for  three- 
fourths  of  them  ore  Frenchmen).  And  when  they  fall  under 
the  strokes  of  executioners,  when  they  shed  their  blood  in 
the  cause  which  St.  Louis  championed  so  vigorously,  they 
may  well  be  saluted  with  that  exclamation  which  once  greet- 
ed the  departure  of  another  martyr :  '  Son  of  St.  Louis,  as- 
cend to  heaven  ! '  " 

IV. 

That  the  thirteenth  century,  the  century  of  St.  Louis,  was 
the  zenith  of  the  Middle  Age  ;  that,  together  with  the  twelfth 
century,  it  "  formed  the  most  important,  complete,  and  re- 


640  STUDIES    IN    CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

splendent  period  in  the  history  of  Catholic  society  "  (1)  ;  is 
admitted  by  not  only  Catholic  polemics,  but  by  most  of  our 
modern  adversaries,  from  Voltaire  to  Guizot.  It  remained^ 
however,  for  the  picturesque  theist,  Michelet,  to  pretend 
that  modern  skepticism  dates  from  the  thirteenth  century, 
and  that  the  chief  personification  of  the  Christian  idea  in 
that  period,  St.  Louis,  was  a  victim  of  religious  doubt. 
"  Such  was  the  aspect  of  the  world  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
At  the  summit,  the '  great  dumb  ox  of  Sicily '  (2),  ruminating 
his  questions.  Here,  man  and  liberty  ;  there,  God,  grace,  the 
divine  foresight,  fatality  ;  at  the  right,  observation  proclaim- 
ing human  liberty;  at  the  left,  logic  impelling  invincibly 
toward  fatalism.  .  .  .  The  ecclesiastical  legislator  drew  back 
at  the  brink,  fighting  for  good  cense  against  his  own  logic, 
which  would  have  precipitated  him.  This  steadfast  genius 
paused  on  the  edge  of  a  sword  between  two  abysses,  the 
depth  of  which  he  realized.  A  solemn  figure  of  the  Church, 
he  kept  his  balance,  tried  for  an  equilibrium,  and  perished 
in  the  attempt  "  (3).  The  eloquent  historian  flattered  him- 
self that  he  understood  the  philosophy  of  the  Angelic  Doc- 
tor ;  but  he  thought  that  none  of  the  scholars  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  appreciated  the  delicacy  of  that  positioL 
"  between  two  abysses."  He  continues  :  "  From  below,  the 
world  looked  up  to  the  elevated  region  in  which  he  calcu- 
lated and  understood  nothing  of  the  combats  which  were 
fought  in  the  depths  of  that  abstract  existence."  Having 
invented  this  tremendous  struggle,  of  course  Michelet  com- 
prehended it.  "  Beneath  that  sublime  region  raged  the  winds 
and  the  tempest.  Beneath  the  Angel  was  man,  morality  be- 
neath metaphysics,  St.  Louis  beneath  St.  Thomas.  In  St. 
Louis  the  thirteenth  century  had  its  Passion— an  exquisite, 
intimate,  profound  Passion,  of  which  previous  ages  had 
scarcely  any  presentiment.  I  speak  of  the  first  laceration 
which  doubt  effected  in  souls  ;  when  the  entire  harmony  of  the 

(1)  MONTALEMBERT  ;  in  the  Introduction  to  his  beautiful  J/(>fory  of  St.  Elizabeth  of 

Hungary. 

(2)  So  the  early  fellow-students  of  St.  Thomas  termed  him.  He  was  born  in  Aquino,  a 
town  of  Terra  di  Lavoro,  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples  ;  but  that  kingdom  was  then  one  of  the 
Two  Sicilies. 

(3)  Mici'klet;  Ili.-^tovu  of  Franre,  Vol.  11.,  bk.  4,  ch.  9. 


THE    REIGN    WF   ST.    LOUIS    IX.  641 

Middle  Age  was  disturbed  ;  when  the  graml  edifice  on  which 
Bocietj  liad  beeu  built  begau  to  totter  ;  wheu  saiuts  cried 
agaiust  saints,  right  waged  war  on  right,  and  the  most  docile 
souls  saw  themselves  obliged  to  examine  and  to  judge.  The 
pious  king  of  France,  wlio  wanted  merely  to  submit  and 
to  believe,  was  very  soon  forced  to  struggle,  to  doubt,  and  to 
choose.  Humble  though  he  was,  and  diflfident  of  himself 
he  had  to  resist  his  mother  ;  to  act  as  arbitrator  between  the 
Pope  and  the  emperor  ;  to  judge  the  spiritual  judge  of  Chris- 
tendom ;  and  to  recall  to  moderation  him  whom  he  would 
have  preferred  to  regard  as  a  model  of  sanctity.  Afterward 
the  Mendicant  Orders  attracted  him  by  their  mysticism ;  he 
entered  the  Third  Order  of  St.  Francis  ;  and  he  took  part 
against  the  University.  But  nevertheless,  the  book  of  John 
of  Parma,  received  by  very  many  Franciscans,  filled  him 
with  strange  doubts."  Michelet  wastes  many  pretty  phrases 
in  an  attempt  to  convince  his  readers  that  St.  Louis  was  a  skep- 
tic because  he  once  resisted  the  will  of  his  mother  ;  but  he  did. 
so  in  order  to  don  tLe  cross,  she  having  feared,  like  many 
others  and  even  himself,  that  the  expedition  might  be  futile- 
Michelet  presents  the  saint  as  a  skeptic  because  he  combated, 
the  University  and  the  pamphlet  of  William  de  Saint-Amour  ; 
but  he  did  so  in  order  to  protect  the  Dominicans  and  Fran- 
ciscans (1).  Michelet  discerns  skepticism  in  the  relations 
which  St.  Louis  had  with  Pope  Gregory  IX.  ;  but  it  is  abso- 
lutely false  that  the  French  king  was  called  upon  "  to  judge 
the  supreme  judge  of  Christendom."  As  to  the  book  entitled 
The  Eternal  Go-spel,  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  it  was 
written  by  the  Franciscan  general,  John  of  Parma  ;  but  when 
Michelet  tells  us  that  the  faith  of  St.  Louis  must  have  va- 
cillated when  he  saw  some  of  his  Franciscan  friends  defend- 
ing a  condemned  book,  we  are  asked  to  believe,  not  that  the 
pious  king  w'as  a  skeptic,  but  that  he  was  a  ninn}". 

Michelet  asserts  that  "  the  thirteenth  century  had  its 
Passion  "  ;  he  perceives  in  its  sombre  tableau  the  creakings 
of  a  social  edifice  which  is  about  to  tumble  into  chaos,  and 
he  judges  that  this  social  disorder  must  have  affected  the 
faith  of  men,  especially  of  him  who  was  the  foremost  layman 

'D  Flkcry  ;  Eccles.  Hist.,  bk.  Ixxxi7.,  ch.  32. 


642  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

in  Christendom.  But  the  interesting  historical  writer  (a 
great  historian  he  is  not)  ignores  the  notorious  fact  that  the 
eleventh  century  was  far  nearer  to  chaos  than  the  thirteenth'. 
Let  the  reader  remember  the  state  of  Italy  and  Germany 
before  and  after  the  German  emperor,  Henry  IV.,  "  went  to 
Canossa  "  ;  a  state  of  affairs  that  wrung  from  the  heart  of  St. 
Gregory  VII.  the  exclamation,  "  I  have  loved  justice  and 
hated  iniquity ;  therefore  I  die  in  exile."  Certainly  the 
eleventh  century  was  not  a  period  of  skepticism.  But  Mich- 
elet  thinks  that  "  the  man,  St.  Louis,"  must  have  plunged 
into  the  abyss  of  doubt,  because,  as  he  affects  to  believe,  "  the 
Angel,  St.  Thomas,"  knew  not  how  to  withdraw  his  faith  from 
the  clutches  of  his  logic.  It  is  true  that  St.  Thomas  was 
frequently  the  adviser  of  St.  Louis  in  religious  matters,  as 
he  probably  was  in  things  political  (1) ;  but  the  logic  of 
Michelet  could  not  have  "  clutched  "  his  mind  very  firmly 
when  he  arrived  at  this  conclusion.  But  what  authority  is 
there  for  the  supposition  that  the  Angelic  Doctor  "  fought  for 
good  sense  against  his  own  logic,"  and  that  fearful  "  combats 
were  fought  in  the  depths  of  that  abstract  existence  "  ?  Cer- 
tainly neither  St.  Thomas  nor  his  contemporaries  even  hint  at 
such  struggles  ;  and  who  has  found  any  indications  of  skepti- 
cism in  the  works  of  the  Angel  of  the  Schools  ?  Take  up  the 
treatises  on  the  liberty  of  man,  grace,  and  predestination, 
which  seem  to  have  served  as  a  foundation  for  the  ravings  of 
Michelet.  Of  course,  we  meet  the  usual  videtar  qaod  ;  but 
with  what  triumphant  serenity  the  master  always  pronounces 
his  patef,  or  his  manifestum  est !  Very  different  from  the 
judgment  of  Michelet  and  his  school  is  the  appreciation  of 
St.  Thomas  by  one  avIio  had  studied  all  the  scholastics  with 
a  profundity  to  which  Michelet  was  always  a  stranger.  In 
his  admirable  work  on  Abelard,  M.  Charles  de  Kemusat 
says  :  "  St.  Thomas  of  Aquino  includes  the  whole  of  theology 
in  his  wonderful  work.  He  lays  down  the  pro  and  the  contra 
of  every  question,  and  of  every  proposition  in  each  question ; 
and  presenting  every  possible  objection  and  the  answer  to  it, 
he  opposes  authority  to  authority,  reasoning  to  reasoning, 
giving,  without  ever  weakening,  witliout  ever  doubting,  a  work 

U)  BoLLANniSTs;  at  March,  in  the  Life  of  S<.  Thomas. 


THE  REIGN   OF   ST.    LOUIS   IX.  643 

•w^bich  is  as  dogmatic  iu  its  conclusions  as  it  is  skeptical  in 
its  examinations.  The  Summa  Theologica  presents  the  whole 
of  religion  as  an  immense  dialectical  controversy,  in  which 
dogma  always  ends  by  being  in  the  right.  It  is  the  frankest 
and  most  developed  negation  of  dogmatic  absolutism."  Now 
Michelet  seems  to  hold  that  as  the  master  is,  so  is  the  pupiL 
Tlierefore,  since  "  St.  Louis  realized  on  earth  and  in  practical 
life  that  which  preoccupied  the  genius  of  St.  Thomas  in  the 
world  of  abstractions  "  (1),  we  may  conclude,  with  all  due 
admiration  for  the  most  poetic  pamphleteer  (not  historian)  of 
modern  times,  that  the  faith  of  St.  Louis  was  as  unshakable 
as  that  of  the  Angelic  Doctor.  We  have  not  thought  it 
proper  to  waste  any  of  our  limited  space  in  quoting  any  of 
the  instances  of  fact  which  Michelet  adduces  as  pretended 
supports  of  his  amusing  theory.  They  are  too  puerile  for 
serious  attention  ;  but  the  reader  may  be  better  satisfied,  if 
we  furnish  one  specimen  which  is  a  worthy  exemplification 
of  all.  Michelet  discerns  skepticism  in  the  mind  of  St.  Louis, 
when  that  monarch  asks  Joinville  :  *'  What  is  God?  "  The 
seneschal  tlms  naively  records  the  incident :  "He  called  me, 
one  day,  and  said  :  '  On  account  of  your  subtle  mind  I  do 
not  like  to  ask  you  concerning  the  things  of  God  ;  but  since 
these  friars  are  present,  I  shall  put  one  question  to  you.  It 
is  this  :  What  is  God  ? '  "  That  here  the  king  was  only  play- 
ing the  catechist,  half  jocularly  and  half  seriously  with  his 
familiar  companion,  appears  from  the  fact  that  he  compli- 
mented Joinville  because  the  seneschal's  reply  was  identical 
with  that  contained  in  the  book  which  he  then  held  in  his 
hand  (2).  The  fact  is,  and  it  serves  as  another  indication  of 
his  character,  that  St.  Louis  was  very  fond  of  catechizing 
his  friends,  and  even  his  private  soldiers.  He  also,  on 
occasion,  preached  sermons.  During  his  voyage  to  Africa, 
the  sailors  wanted  to  go  to  confession ;  whereupon  he 
preached  to  them  a  discourse  on  the  nature  and  benefits  of 
the  Sacrament  of  Penance  (3).  In  his  library  at  Paris,  which 
was  open  to  the  public,  he  was  wont  to  explain  to  the  nearest 

(1)  GoRixi ;  Defense  of  the  Church,  pt.  1..  ch.  20.    Paris,  18.>3. 

(2)  Joinville  ;  loc.  cit.,  p.  19-t. 

(3)  Belloloco;   Life  of  St.  Louis,  In  the  Collection  of  Historians  of  the  GauU, 
Vol.  XX. 


644  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTOEY. 

student  some  passage  of  the  works  of  the  Fathers  which 
generally  formed  his  literary  pabulum  (1).  Once  he  remind- 
ed a  lady  of  the  court  that  she  had  arrived  at  an  age  when 
a  woman  could  not  occupy  her  mind  with  other  beauties 
than  those  of  her  soul,  unless  she  was  williog  to  incur 
ridicule  (2).  Once  he  asked  Joinville  what  was  his  father's 
name  ;  and  when  the  seneschal  replied  that  it  was  Simon, 
he  asked  the  poor  man  how  he  knew  that  such  was  the  case. 
Then,  says  Joinville,  "  I  told  him  that  I  knew  it,  because  my 
mother  had  so  informed  me.  Then  he  said  that  we  ought 
to  believe  most  firmly  all  the  articles  of  our  faith,  to  which 
the  Apostles  had  testified"  (3). 

Michelet  says  that  St.  Louis  must  have  been  affected  by 
the  spirit  of  skepticism  which  began  to  invade  the  Christian 
world  in  his  time.  "  In  St.  Louis  the  thirteenth  century  had 
its  Passion.  ...  I  speak  of  the  first  laceration  which  doubt 
effected  in  souls."  He  would  be  indeed  an  enterprising  inda- 
gator  into  the  recondite  who  could  determine  the  date  of  the 
■entrance  of  incredulism  into  the  world  ;  but  when  Michelet 
discovered  that  date  in  the  thirteenth  century,  would  he  not 
have  been  more  worthy  of  admiration  if  he  had  found  his 
-champion  skeptic,  not  in  St.  Louis,  but  in  the  German  Fred- 
<erick  II.,  who  regarded  Christ  as  one  of  the  three  impostors 
■who  had  deceived  the  world  ?  (4).  Skepticism  had  infected 
humanity  long  before  the  thirteenth  century.  There  are  three 
kinds  of  skeptics  ;  those  who  do  not  believe  in  the  Catholic 
Church,  those  who  do  not  believe  in  any  of  the  forms  of 
emasculated  Christianity,  and  the  gross  materialists  who  deny 
Ood  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  last  form  did  not 
.appear  in  Christendom  until  about  the  time  of  the  full  devel- 
.opment  of  the  Renaissance,  toward  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. But  the  otherforms  of  skepticism  appeared  in  their  full 
audacity,  simultaneously  with  the  intellectual  movement  of  the 
eleventh  century,  when  the  Manichseans  reappeared  in  France 
.and  in  Northern  Italy  ;  when  Leuthard  destroyed  so  many 

(1)  Ibid. 

(2)  William  of  Chartres;  Life  and  Mi7-acles  of  St.  Louis,  in  the  Collection,  uM 
supra. 

(3)  Loc.  at.,  p.  197. 

(4)  The  authority  for  this  accusation  is  Pope  Gregory  IX.,  in  hlsEpist.  12  to  the  Archbishop 
.of  Canterbury.    See  Labbe's  CoKricik,  Cent.  XHI. 


THE  REIGN  OF  ST.  LOUIS  IX.  045 

religious  images  ;  wbeu  Goudulphus   preached  the  absurdity 
of  Baptism,  Peuance,  aud  the  Eucharist ;  when  Turin  and  Milan 
heard  many  prochiiming  tliat  the  Sou  of  God  is  each  soul  il- 
luminated by  the  Lord.     Aud  then  the  twelfth  century  beheld 
Tauchelm  posing  as  the  Son  of  God  ;  Peter  de  Bruis  abolish- 
ing churches  ;  and  the  Cathari,  Patarines,  etc.,  attributing 
creatit)n  to  the  devil,  and  proclaiming  fate  as  master  of  men. 
But  the  reader  may  ask,  could  Michelet  have  expected  men  to 
credit  his  presentation  of  St.  Louis  as  an  incredulist '?     Well, 
the  attempt  was  not  extraordinarily  audacious  at  the  hands 
of  him  who  had  not  only  declared  that  Pope  St.  Gregory  YII. 
was  a  skeptic,  but  had  so  far  blasphemed  as  to  cast  the  same 
foul   aspersion  on  the   Divine  Saviour  of  men  :  "  There  is  a 
moment  of  fear  and  of  doubt.     Here  is  the  tragic  and  the  ter- 
rible of  the  drama ;  it  is  this  which  rends  the  veil  of  the  tem- 
ple, and  covers  the  earth  with  darkness  ;  it  is   this   which 
troubles  me  when  I  read  the  Gospel,  and  causes  my  tears  to 
flow.    That  God  should  have  doubted  of  God !     That  the  Holy 
Victim  should  have  cried  :  '  My  God,  My  God,  why  hast  Thou 
abandoned  me?  '    This  trial  has  been  experienced  by  all  heroic 
souls  who  have  dared  great  things  for  the  human  race ;  all  of 
these  have  felt  more  or  less  of  this  ideal  of  grief.     It  was    in 
such  a  moment   that   Brutus   exclaimed  :  '  Virtue,  thou  art 
only  a  name.'     It  was  in  such  a  moment  that   Gregory   VII. 
cried  : '  I  have  followed  justice  and  hated  iniquity  :  tlierefore  I 
die  in  exile  '  "  (1).     The  veriest  tyro  in  ascetical  or  even  mod- 
erately spiritual  matters  knows  that   the   expression  of  the 
holy  victim  of  Henry  IV.  did  not  issue  from  a  heart  submerged 
in   the  despair  of  doubt ;   that  the  words  of   the  dying  Pon- 
tifi"  were  rather  a  sublime  indication  of  his  invincible  trust  in 
God,  of  his  confidence  that  a  reward  in  heaven  would  be  the 
recompense  for  an  earthly  suffering  which  had  been  entailed 
by  his  worthy  fulfilment  of  his  duties  as  vicar  of  Christ.     As 
to  the  calumny  against  Christ,  which  Michelet  dared  to  pro- 
nounce at  the   foot  of  the  cross,  let  us  say,  with   Gorini,  that 
he  only  joined  the  crowd  who  passed  in  front  of  the  sacred 
tree,  blaspheming :  " prcelereuntes autem  hlasphemahanty    The 
sublime  lessons  of  the  cross  were  foolishness  to  Michelet,  as 

(1)  Log  cif..  Vol.  11..  bk.  4.  ch.  9. 


646  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

the}'  ever  will  be  to  all  of  his  scliool ;  and  therefore  such  as 
they  caunot  understand  St.  Louis  of  France.  We  who  have 
spent  much  time  in  the  stud}^  of  the  prince  wdio,  even  accord- 
ing to  Voltaire,  was  as  pious  as  an  anchorite  and  possessed 
of  every  royal  virtue,  must  agree  with  the  judgment  of  St. 
Francis  de  Sales,  that  "  St.  Louis  was  the  beloved  of  God  and 
of  men,  and  one  of  the  grandest  sovereigns  upon  wdiom  the 
sun  has  shone."  We  must  say,  with  Chateaubriand  :  "  Each 
epoch  has  a  man  who  represents  it.  Louis  IX.  is  the  model 
man  of  the  Middle  Age  ;  he  is  legislator,  hero,  and  saint. 
Marcus  Aurelius  showed  power,  united  with  philosophy  ; 
Louis  IX.  power,  united  with  sanctity  ;  the  advantage  remains 
with  the  Christian." 


CHAPTEE  YIIL 

THE   SIEGES   OF   RHODES  ;    EPISODES  IN   THE   HISTORY  OF   THE 
SOLDIER-MONKS.* 

On  June  8,  1476,  a  solemn  silence  reigned  in  the  island  of 
Rhodes.  The  thirty-eighth  grand-mp,ster  of  the  glorious 
Military-Eeligious  Order  of  St.  John  ^i)  had  yielded  his  va- 
liant soul  to  the  God  whose  Chu\ch  and  people  it  had 
intrepidly  served  ;  and  now  disse/ision — perhaps  the  chief 
bane  of  even  those  human  institutions  which  are  directly  in- 
tended for  the  honor  of  the  Most  High — was  at  its  fell  work 
among  the  knights.  Four  centuries  had  elapsed  since  Ger- 
ard Tunc  and  Raymond  Dupuy  had  founded  their  celebrated 
order  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  a  summarization  of  its  utility  and 
glory  during  all  its  vicissitudes  would  have  been  made  by 
Siijing,  crescit  euiido.  As  a  bulwark  of  Christendom  against 
the  hordes  of  Islam,  it  had  rivalled  the  brilliant  order  of  the 
Temple — that  most  dazzling  of  Catholic  organizations — 
whose  rule  was  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  St.  Bernard  ;  but 
it  had  succeeded  better  than  the  Templars  in  at  least  so  far 

*  This  chapter  appeared  in  the  Catholic  WorW,  July,  1894. 

(1)  Such  was  the  proper  title  of  this  celebrated  order.  A  Bull  of  Pope  Paschal  II.,  dated  in 
1118.  conQrms  Brother  Gerard  Tunc  as  "  president  of  the  hospital  founded  near  the  church 
of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  in  Jerusalem."  Hence  the  members  were  also  styled  "  Hospitalers." 
After  the  knights  had  fixed  their  headquarters  in  Rhodes,  in  1310,  they  came  to  be  popu- 
larly known  as  Knights  of  Rhodes  ;  and  in  1530,  when  they  moved  to  Malta,  their  designa- 
tion was  assumed  from  that  iSiand. 


THE  SIEGES  OF  RHODES.  647 

resisting  corruptiou  as  not  to  be  eugulfed  iu  it  (1).  Like 
that  of  all  the  other  niouastioo-niilitary  orders,  the  universal 
and  indomitable  bravery  of  the  Hospitalers  is  admitted  by 
historians  of  every  class.  In  his  ]5ull  contirming  tlieir  stat- 
utes, Pope  Innocent  II.  (y.  1130)  ordered  the  following 
monition  to  be  read  to  the  novice  at  his  solemn  profession  : 
"  If,  which  we  deem  impossible,  you  should  ever  turn  your 
back  to  the  enemies  of  Christ,  or  if  you  should  abandon  the 
banner  of  the  cross,  you  will  be  deprived  of  this  holy  sign 
(the  insignia,  an  eight-pointed  cross,  embroidered  on  the 
left  breast)  and  cut  off  from  our  body  as  a  putrid  member." 
It  is  noteworthy  that  in  all  the  acts  of  the  order  there  is  but 
one  instance  of  this  penalty  having  been  incurred.  Kash- 
ness,  however,  was  not  encouraged ;  although  it  is  true  that 
these  monastic  knights  had  views  concerning  the  constituents 
of  rashness  which  were,  perhaps,  somewhat  extravagant. 
Thus,  the  initiatory  oath  of  a  Templar  required  him  "  never 
to  ask  for  quarter,  and  never  to  decline  battle  unless  the 
odds  were  at  least  four  to  one."  On  the  summer-day  of 
which  we  are  now  writing,  sadness  might  well  have  been 
dominant  in  every  heart  which  throbbed  in  the  mother- 
house  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John.  Now  that  the  Templars 
were  no  more,  having  been  suppressed  by  the  Holy  See  in 
1311  ;  and  now  that  the  followers  of  the  false  j^rophet  had 
but  lately  raised  their  emblematic  half-moon  over  the  proud 
dome  of  St.  Soi)liia's  patriarchal  cathedral  (y.  1453)  ;  the 
Christians  of  the  West  realized  that  their  hopes  were  to  be 
centred,  under  God,  chiefly  on  the  Knights-Hospitalers. 
Rhodes  was  the  advanced  sentinel  of  European  religion  and 
civilization.  Placed  between  Egypt,  where  the  Mamelukes 
held  full  sway,  and  Asia  Minor,  where  the  redoubtable  con- 
queror of  Constantinople  was  encamped,  it  had  refused  to 
pay  tribute  to  this  prince,  and  it  knew  that  he  liad  sworn  on 
the  Koran  to  take  the  life  of  every  chevalier  of  the  Hospital 
Avho  might  fall  into  his  hands.  Every  hope  of  success  for 
the  Cross  in  the  coming  struggle  depended  on  tlie  wisdom 
displayed  in  the  imminent  election  of  a  grand-master.  That 
this  prudence  wT)uld  be  manifested  was  uncertain,  for  precise- 
CD  Sep  our  apposite  di.ssertatlon  on  the  Siippression  of  the  Ti-niplars,  Vol.  il. 


648  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

ly  at  that  time  national  jealousies  were  rife  in  nearly  every 
preceptory  of  the  order.  But  heaven  had  decreed  to  use  the 
services  of  the  Hospitalers  for  many  years  to  come.  As  the 
hour  for  the  election  drew  near,  the  chief  dignitaries  resolved, 
in  the  interest  of  harmony,  to  introduce  an  innovation  in  the 
electoral  procedure.  They  appointed  as  president  of  the 
Electoral  College  a  kniglit  who  had  been  a  candidate  in  the 
last  election,  and  whose  zeal  and  piety  were  pre-eminent — 
Raymond  Ricard.  Then  all  the  knights  voted  for  three  as- 
sistants to  the  president,  who  were  to  be  styled  the  chaplain, 
the  kniglit,  and  the  servant  of  the  ceremony.  These  foiir 
officers  swore  to  seek  only  the  good  of  Christendom,  and  then 
tlie>^  chose  a  fifth  ;  the  five  then  chose  a  sixth  ;  and  so  on, 
until  fifteen  had  been  selected — two  from  each  nationality  or 
"  language  "  (1),  excepting  in  the  case  of  the  Germans,  who 
received  but  one  representative,  there  being  very  few  of  them 
in  the  order.  Each  member  of  this  Electoral  College  then 
took  the  customary  oath,  but  on  a  portion  of  the  True  Cross, 
which  he  was  obliged  to  touch  with  his  hand.  After  three 
hours  of  deliberation,  the  electors  announced  that  their 
choice  was  eftected  ;  and,  when  all  the  knights  of  every  grade 
and  class  had  assembled  in  the  chapel,  an  oath  was  exacted 
from  each  that  he  would  recognize  and  obey  the  chosen 
grand-master.  This  precaution  might  have  been  omitted,  for 
wiien  the  name  of  the  grand-prior  of  Auvergne,  Peter  d'Au- 
bussou,  was  jiroclaimed,  the  enthusiasm  of  all  was  indescrib- 
able. 

Peter  d' Aubusson,  a  scion  of  one  of  the  noblest  families  of 
France,  had  made  his  first  campaigns  against  the  Turks,  and 
in  the  train  of  the  Dauphin,  afterward  King  Louis  XL  ;  and 
he  had  shared  with  that  prince  in  the  glory  of  the  battle  of 
Bale,  in  1444,  where  the  Swiss  were  defeated.  But  the  des- 
tined fame  of  the  young  noble  was  not  to  be  attained  by 
combats  against  Cliristians.  From  his  childhood  the  woes 
of  the  Holy  Land  had  affected  his  heart ;  especiall}^  im- 
pressed in  the  memories  of  his  boyhood  was  the  flaying 

(1)  In  the  early  days  of  the  order  there  were  ?even  "languages  "  ;  viz.,  Italy,  France, 
properly  so  called  ;  Provence,  Auvergne,  Aragon,  England,  and  Germany.  This  division 
subsistwl  at  the  time  of  which  we  write ;  hut  when  England  became  heretical,  her  "  lan- 
guage "  was  abolished,  and  those  of  Castile  and  Poitugal  were  added. 


THE   SIEGES  OF  RHODES.  549 

of  a  papal  nuncio  hy  the  Mussulmans,  wliile  still  alive.  Then 
had  come  the  capture  of  Constantiuo})le  ;  and,  although  his 
Catholic  mind  regarded  that  event  as  Heaven's  punishment 
of  the  schismatic  arrogance  of  the  Greeks,  it  showed  liim 
that  the  "West  needed  to  be  on  the  alert  if  it  hoped  not  to 
become  the  prey  of  Mohammedan  fanaticism.  The  most 
eminent  of  the  European  nobility,  especially  those  of  liis 
own  fair  France,  were  then  wearing  their  armor  over  the 
cassock,  so  why  should  not  he  also  enlist  in  that  holy 
militia  which  warred  under  the  blessing  of  the  Vicar  of 
Christ,  and  which  was  regarded  by  every  Christian  youth  as 
the  very  apogee  of  human  glory?  Therefore,  after  his 
return  from  the  Swiss  campaign,  D' Aubusson  informed  King 
Charles  VII.  of  his  ambition  ;  and  as  that  monarch  saw  no 
prospect  of  any  need  of  the  young  noble's  services  in  France, 
a  truce  with  the  English  having  lately  been  arranged,  he 
granted  his  permission,  remarking  to  his  courtiers  :  "  I  have 
never  seen  so  much  fire  and  wisdom  united  in  one  man." 
Having  taken  farewell  of  his  friend  the  Dauphin,  who  was 
afterward,  as  Louis  XI.,  to  render  great  assistance  to  the 
Hospitalers  in  the  time  of  their  direst  extremity,  D'Aul)us- 
son  proceeded  to  the  nearest  preceptory  of  the  admired 
order,  and  donned  the  monastic  tunic.  His  first  military 
service  as  a  chevalier  of  St.  John  was  in  the  Grecian  Archi- 
pelago ;  and  after  winning  the  commendations  of  the  succes- 
sive grand-masters,  John  de  Lastic  and  James  de  Milly,  the 
year  14G0  found  him  castellan  of  Rhodes  and  prefect  of  its 
finances.  John  des  Ursins,  whom  he  was  to  succeed  in  the 
superiorship,  made  him  superintendent  of  the  Rhodian 
fortifications  and  captain-general  of  the  city,  and  from  that 
moment  he  w'as  the  soul  of  all  the  preparations  which  were 
being  made  for  the  struggle  with  Mahomet  II.  When  he 
entered  upon  the  grand-mastership,  naturally  the  zeal  of 
D' Aubusson  redoubled;  but  a  description  of  all  his  improve- 
ments in  the  defences  of  the  island  would  interest  only  the 
military  reader,  nor  are  we  competent  for  the  task,  although 
we  do  not  imply  that  the  priest  or  religious  is  always 
incompetent  to  understand  the  mysteries  of  Mars,  especially 
when  these  partake  of,  or  are  derived  from,  the  scientific. 


650  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

We  know  that  among  the  priests  of  the  military-religious 
orders  there  were  many  accomplished  generals  and  engineers, 
although  they  were  non-combatants.  And  in  the  last  cent- 
ury the  Jesuit,  F.  Carlo  Borgo  of  Vicenza,  wrote  a  work  on 
fortifications  which  so  pleased  the  "  great "  Frederick  of 
Prussia,  that  he  forwarded  to  the  author  a  commission  as 
lieutenant-colonel  in  his  army — an  "  honor  "  that  was  not 
accepted.  (1). 

Among  the  preparations  which  demanded  the  prompt 
attention  of  D'Aubusson,  was  an  increase  of  the  garrison ; 
his  letter  to  all  the  houses  of  the  Hospitalers  throughout 
Europe  is  pathetic  in  its  religious  patriotism  and  earnest- 
ness, and  it  resulted  in  an  almost  complete  renunciation,  on 
the  part  of  every  establishment,  of  all  their  possessions, 
that  means  might  be  obtained  for  the  relief  of  the  mother- 
house.  Indeed,  when  we  remember  that  just  then  tlie 
Knights  of  St.  John  were  bearing  the  brunt  of  a  shock 
directed  against  all  Europe,  we  must  admit  that  besides 
offering  up  their  lives  —which  they  valued  lightly  in  so 
tremendous  a  contingency — these  heroes  did  far  more  than 
their  share  in  procuring  the  sinews  of  war.  But  the  grand- 
master soon  experienced  the  joy  of  seeing  his  religious 
reinforced  by  many  of  the  best  soldiers  of  Europe,  especially 
of  France  and  Italy.  As  was  his  duty  and  his  pride,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  traditions  of  the  Roman  See,  ever  foremost 
in  advancing  or  upholding  the  standard  of  civilization.  Pope 
Sixtus  IV.  contributed  large  sums  from  the  papal  treasury, 
and  ordered  a  Jubilee  in  aid  of  the  Knights.  D'Aubusson 
also  wrote  to  King  Louis  XL,  reminding  him  of  their  ancient 
comradeship,  and  sending  to  the  royal  zoological  collection 
some  curious  beasts  and  birds.  Louis  showed  his  own 
good  memory  by  a  large  gift  to  the  treasury  of  Rhodes. 
By  means  such  as  these  the  grand-master  was  enabled  to 
purchase  much-needed  war  material  and  provisions,  not 
only  for  the  garrision  of  religious  and  for  his  volunteer 
auxiliaries,  but  also  for  the  sustenance  of  the  Rhodians,  whose 
means  of  subsistence  would  be  destroyed  by  the  Moslem 

(1)  For  the  distinctioa  between  the  combatants  and  the  non-combatants  in  the  Military- 
Religious  Orders,  see  this  Volume,  p.  130. 


THE    SIEGES    OF    UHODES.  651 

invasioD,  whicliever  w.-iv  the  strumxlo  euiled.  Oue  of  the 
last  measures  taken  by  D'Aubussou  before  the  conflict 
indicates  the  scnipahius  devotion  of  these  soUlier-nionks  to 
thpir  senii-nii^iiistic  obliLijatious.  It  will  be  readily  under- 
stood, by  any  of  onr  roadiM-s  wlio  belong  to  a  religious 
community,  that  the  fulhlment  of  the  ordinarj-  conventual 
duties  was  an  impossibility  to  our  Knights  in  the  circum- 
stances then  surrounding  them.  The  grand-master,  there- 
fore,  besought  the  Pontiff  to  grant  the  brethren  of  the 
Hospital,  then  under  arms  in  Rhodes,  such  dispensations  as 
His  Holiness  might  deem  appropriate.  Accordingly,  the 
Knights  were  freed  from  every  obligation  excepting,  of  course, 
those  entailed  by  the  three  vows  of  obedience,  poverty,  and 
chastity. 

Meanwhile,  the  sultan  prepared  for  what  he  regarded  as 
the  chief  enterprise  of  iiis  wonderful  career,  not  excepting  even 
his  Constantinopolitan  campaign.  Besides  the  last  remnant 
of  the  oldenByzantine  Empier,  he  had  subjugated  Thrace, 
Macedonia,  Greece,  Servia,  Wallachia,  Moldavia,  and  Bosnia, 
Nearly  all  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago  had  also  succumbed 
to  the  sou  of  Amurath,  and  from  the  ccunpanih  of  St.  Mark's 
the  dismayed  Venetians  had  seen  the  flames  devouring  the 
rich  possessions  of  the  Queen  of  the  Adriatic,  only  a  few 
miles  from  their  own  lagoons  ;  hence  The  Most  Serene  was 
fain  to  buy  exemption  from  the  same  fate  by  a  promise  of 
an  annual  tribute  to  the  Sublime  Porte  of  the — for  that 
time — exorbitant  sum  of  eighty  thousand  golden  scudi. 
Circassia,  Georgia,  and  even  the  Crimea,  had  become  Mus- 
sulman. In  the  midst  of  this  ruin  of  so  many  national- 
ities, indomitable  Rhodes,  defended  by  a  mere  handful 
of  religious,  strong  in  their  faith  and  their  own  self-abne- 
gation, rather  than  in  their  incontestable  valor,  awaited 
imperturbably  the  onslaught  of  the  "Alexander  of  Islam." 
From  the  Rhodiau  Greeks,  generally  termed  Rhodiotes, 
the  Knights  could  not  hope  for  much  assistance.  Most 
of  these  islanders  were  indeed  Catholics  ;  but  there  were 
many  who  were  descended  from  persons  who  had  joined 
the  Photian  Schism  when  the  island  was  a  Byzantine  depen- 
dency.    These  were  Schismatics,  and  naturally   thev   hated 


652  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY, 

the  Knights,  who  were  a  source  of  strength  to  what  they 
called  "  Latinism."  To  this  party  probably  belonged  the 
one  of  the  Rhodian  traitors  who  gave  much  trouble  to  the 
Hospitalers.  This  man,  Meligalo  by  name,  was  of  noble 
birth ;  and  had  dissipated  his  patrimony  in  debauchery. 
He  thought  to  restore  his  fortunes  by  revealing  the  military 
secrets  of  the  island  to  Mahomet.  Having  drawn  exact 
plans  of  the  fortifications,  he  proceeded  to  Constantinople 
and  sold  his  information. 

Mahomet  began  his  Rhodian  campaign  by  an  attack  on  the 
islands  of  Piscopia,  Nizzaro,  Calamo,  and  Cefalo,  which  were 
ravaged,  and  saw  all  their  able-bodied  men  and  boys  carried  off 
into  slaver}^  (1),  the  women  being  destined  for  Eastern  harems. 
On  May  23,  1480,  the  Turkish  expedition,  commanded  by 
Mesis  Virzir,  appeared  before  Rhodes.  In  the  siege  which 
followed,  all  of  the  Catholic  Rhodiotes,  inspired  by  the  de- 
votion and  bravery  of  D'Aubusson,  rivalled  the  Hospitalers 
and  their  auxiliaries  in  zeal  and  patience.  The  aged,  the 
women  and  children,  and  even  the  nuns,  helped  indefatigably 
to  repair  the  damages  caused  by  the  enormous  balls  of 
granite — two  feet  in-diameter — which  the  Turkish  balistas 
discharged  night  and  day,  against  the  ramparts  and  into  the 
town.  Several  assaults  were  made  against  Fort  St.  Nicholas, 
perhaps  the  key  of  the  place  ;  but  the  heroism  of  the  knights 
of  the  Italian  "  language,"  led  by  the  commander,  Fabrizio 
Carretto,  rendered  the  desperate  courage  of  the  Moslems  a 
mere  waste  of  blood.  In  his  blindness  concerning  the  spirit 
animating  the  defenders,  Mesis  Vizir  thought  that  if  he  could 
procure  the  death  of  the  grand-master,  the  city  would  yield. 
Accordingly,  the  few  traitors  within  the  Christian  lines  were 
instructed  to  poison  D'Aubusson.  But  the  design  was  dis- 
covered, and  the  enraged  populace  tore  the  miscreants  limb 
from  limb.  This  attempt  having  failed,  the  pasha  essayed 
another  assault,  and  this  one  was  made  at  night.  The  com- 
bat lasted  for  hours,  and  an  immense  number  of  the  Islam- 
ites perished.  D'Aubusson  seemed  to  be  omnipresent ;  and 
if  any  of  the  knights  would  fain  have  sunk  in  their  sanguin- 

(1)  In  accordance  wltb  the  Turkish  custom  of  that  day,  the  healthy  boys  were  made 
cadets  in  the  famous  Janissaries,  and  of  course  were  trained  as  Mohammedans. 


THE   SIEGES   OF   RHODES.  0o5 

arj  fatigue,  his  cheery  cry  of  "  Mountjoy  and  St.  Denis  !  " 
and  the  example  of  his  good  right  arm,  gave  them  confidence 
that  numbers  wouhl  not  av;iil  against  the  sokliers  of  Christ 
and  the  sons  of  Mary.  With  tlie  dawn  of  morning  the  pasha 
found  that,  wliile  the  flower  of  his  army  had  perislied,  he  was 
no  nearer  to  the  attainment  of  his  object  then  he  liad  been 
when  still  in  the  Dardanelles.  The  futility  of  another  as- 
sault, made  simultaneously  on  every  part  of  the  works,  led 
him  to  adopt  a  curious  stratagem.  His  archers  affixed  to 
their  bolts  pieces  of  parchment,  on  which  were  described  the 
alleged  tyranny  of  the  Hospitalers,  men  foreign  to  Khodes 
and  to  the  fallen  Lower  Empire  ;  and  then  were  de- 
scribed the  glories  and  sweet  disposition  of  Mahomet  II.,  the 
favored  by  Allah,  the  tolerant  prince  who  was  so  well-dis- 
posed to  Christianity,  so  desirous  of  satisfying  the  aspira- 
tions of  all  his  subjects,  that  he  would  accord  full  religious 
liberty  in  their  lovely  isle  (1).  When  Mesis  Virzir  learned 
that  the  Rhcdiotes  treated  his  missives  with,  scorn,  he 
turned  his  overtures  to  D'Aubusson.  A  flag  of  truce  ob- 
tained for  an  envoy  an  int;n-view  with  the  hero;  and  after  an 
exalted  estimate  of  the  sultan's  power  had  been  unfolded, 
the  unconquerable  valor  of  the  Moslem  soldiery  was  extoUetl. 
Then  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  grand-master  as  prince  and 
as  general.  As  prince,  observed  the  turbaued  pleader,  D'Au- 
busson  ought  not  to  expose  his  subjects,  the  devoted  Illio- 
diotes,  to  the  horrors  of  war  ;  as  general,  he  sliouUl  have 
regard  for  his  soldiers.  Let  Him,  therefore,  concluded  the 
envoy,  surrender  Rhodes  ;  and  the  possessions  of  the  Order 
of  St.  John  would  be  ever  respected  by  the  sublime  Porte. 
The  reply  of  the  Christian  leader  Avas  simple  and  to  the 
point.  By  one  path  alone  could  the  followers  of  the  Crescent 
enter  into  Rhodes;  it  might  be  the  duty  of  the  pasha  to  try 
to  open  that  path,  but  it  certainly  would  be  that  of  the  Hospi- 

(1)  It  would  be  intereslinsr  lo  know  whether,  in  this  nienriacious  flociiment.  ilie  pasha 
made  use  of  that  story  which  has  Ix'cn  credited  by  many  Kuropean  writers,  to  the  elTect 
that  Mahomet  U.  was  born  of  a  Christian  mother,  Irene,  daughter  of  Prince  Geortre  Bii!  • 
oovich,  despot  of  Servia.  T)iis  presumed  Christian  oriirin  is  an  alisurdlty  ;  firstly,  because 
Mahomet  was  born  in  1400,  ami  Amuraih  married  Irene  in  \Vi'>.  Secondly,  beeause  a  son 
of  Irene  could  have  been  only  flfte.'n  years  old  when  Amiiratli  died  in  U")i  :  and  all  the 
Turkish  chroniclers  describe  Mahomet  as  inheriting  the  Ottoman  sceptre  when  he  was  in 
his  twenty-second  year. 


654  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

talers  to  oppose  him  to  the  death.     Another  assault,  there- 
fore, was  now  made  on  the  stronghold  ;  and  this  time  the 
Islamites  succeeded  in  penetrating  through  a  breach.     But 
suddenly  D'Aubusson,  accompanied  by  his  brother,  the  Vis- 
count de  Monteil,  showed  himself  at  the   head  of  a  picked 
body  of  knights,  and,  though  the  enemy  outnumbered  his 
followers,  together  with  those  originally  defending  the  breach, 
by  twenty  to  one,  the  further  advance  of  the  half-moon  was 
stopped.     Blood  flowed  as  it  had  not  flowed  since  the  siege 
began.      Many  times  the  standard  of  St.  John  fell  out  of 
sio-ht,  as  its  bearer  was  cut  down ;  but  just  so  often  it  was 
again  waved  on  high  as  another  intrepid  hand  grasped  its 
staff,  and  with  cries  of  "  To  us,  Jesus  and  Mary  !  "  and  "  To 
us,  St.  John !  "  revived  the   strength — not  the  courage,  for 
that  never  failed — of   the  devoted  band.     Finally,  with  an 
tjxhibition  of  valor  which  the  Turks  afterward  described  as 
superhuman,  the  soldier-monks  drove  the  infidels  out  of  the 
city,  pursuing  them  into  their  intrenched  camp,  and  from  the 
very  tent  of  the  pasha  carrying  off  in  triumph  the  great  Stan- 
dard of  Islam.      If,  in  this  last  attempt  to  capture  Khodes 
which  that  century,  witnessed,  the   lieutenant  of  Mahomet 
II.  felt  a  shame  proportioned  to  the  extent  of  his  defeat,  he 
found  some  consolation  in  an  explanation  of  that  defeat  given 
by  his  fatalistically  inclined  followers.      They  insisted  that 
during  the  most  intense  part  of  the  struggle  within  the  walls 
they  had  plainly  seen,  "  high  up  in  the  air,  a  shining  cross 
of  gold,  and  a  virgin  clothed  in  white,  carrying  a  lance,  and 
followed  by  a  troop  of  richly-armed  warriors."     None  of  the 
knights   mentioned   any  such  vision  ;  and  probably   it   was 
either  an  hallucination  of  the  highly-wrought  imaginations 
of  the  Moslems,  or  a  cleverly  devised  excuse  for  their  fail- 
ure.    Be  this  as  it  may— and,  of  course,  we  do  not  deny  the 
possibility  of  the  appearance — the  presumed  miracle  had 
the  efiect  of  soothing  their  pain  ;  for,  they  reflected,  since  Al- 
lah had  thus  protected  the  Christians  rather  than   the    true 
believers,    mortal  Mussulman   could  do  no   more.     It   may 
have  been  owing  to  his  real  or  affected  belief  in  this  prodigy 
that  Mahomet  II.  did  not  consign  his  discomfited  general  to 
the  bowstring,  but  contented  himself  with  sending   the  un- 


THE   SIEGES   OF   KHODES.  Qob 

fortunate  into  exile.  We  do  not  know  the  exact  number  of 
the  troops  with  which  Mesis  Vizir  jittacked  Kliodes  ;  but  he 
admitted  that  on  the  day  after  tiie  tiual  failure  he  found  that 
his  dead  and  seriously  wounded  were  more  than  twenty-five 
thousand.  When  we  consider  that  the  Knights  Hospitalers 
engaged  in  the  defence  numbered  only  450,  and  their  aux- 
iliaries 2,000,  we  do  not  wonder  that  D'Aubusson  regarded 
his  victory  as  miraculous,  and  that  the  hostile  fleet  had  no 
sooner  set  sail  than  he  summoned  his  little  band  to  the 
cathedral  for  a  solemn  thanksgiving  to  God  and  Our  Blessed 
Lady.  When  the  news  of  this  event,  so  important  to  the 
welfare  of  Christendom,  reached  the  Holy  See,  the  Pontiff 
determined  to  signify  his  appreciation  of  the  chivalrous 
devotion  and  sublime  piety  of  the  Order  of  St.  John  by  an 
act  which  would  reflect  glory  upon  the  entire  organization, 
as  well  as  upon  its  immediate  beneficiary.  He  forwarded  a 
cardinal's  hat  to  the  grand-master. 

After  the  hopelessness  of  capturing  Rhodes  had  been  im- 
pressed upon  his  iiuwilling  mind,  Mahomet  II.  confined  his 
ambitions  to  objects  of  easier  attainment ;  but  when  his  suc- 
cessor, Bajazet,  manifested  an  inclination  to  emulate  the 
enterprises  of  his  father's  earlier  years,  D'Aubusson's 
activity  seemed  to  indicate  a  renewal  of  youth.  Incessant 
hostilities  in  the  Adriatic,  in  the  Archipelago,  and  on  the 
coast  of  Greece,  gave  abundant  employment  to  the  dashing 
navy  of  the  Hospitalers  ;  but  the  astute  grand-master  thought 
that  all  these  minor  skirmishes  were  a  mere  waste  of  time, 
blood,  and  money.  He  told  the  Pope  that  if  Christendom 
was  seriously  bent  on  at  least  checking  the  advance  of  the 
Crescent,  a  great  blow  must  be  struck  ;  let  a  Christian  fleet 
force  its  way  into  the  Dardanelles,  burn  Gallipoli,  and  mak- 
ing a  dash  on  Constantinople,  burn  it  also,  if  it  could  not  be 
permanently  retained.  The  moment  was  favorable,  urged 
the  veteran  ;  for  the  attention  of  Bajazet  was  then  draAvn  by 
the  advance  of  a  new  enemy  and  Mussulman  rival,  the  Shah 
of  Persia,  into  Armenia.  At  first  the  powers  agreed  to  form 
a  league  to  carry  out  the  bold  design ;  but  alas  !  the  latter 
part  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  true  to  itself — it  was  the 
vital  end  of  the  Middle  Age  ;  and  alreadv  men  might  antici- 


656  STUDIES  IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

pate  tlie  remark  afterward  made  to  Leibnitz  by  Pomponne, 
Minister   of  Louis   XIV.,    that   Crusades   were   no   longer 
the  fashion.     Sorrow  rankled  in  the  heart  of  tlie  old  soldier- 
monk  ;  perhaps  he  foresaw  that  twenty  years  after  this  cul- 
pable negligence  on  the  part  of  tiie  Christian  governments, 
the  same  neglect  would  be  manifested  by  an  ambitious  and 
egoistic  emperor  (Charles  V.),  who  could  not  for  an  instant 
compromise  his  petty  schemes  in  the  Milanais  for  the  sake 
of  Christendom  ;  and  that  Khodes,  the  most  important  out- 
post of  Christianity,  and  therefore  the  beacon  light  of  civiliza- 
tion, would  capitulate  to  the  Crescent.      The  chagrin  of  the 
hero  entailed  an  illness  which  terminated  fatally  on  July  3, 
1503  ;  and  throughout  the  Catholic  world  there  ensued  deep 
and  long-lasting  mourning  for  him  who  had  for  m^.ny  years 
been  styled  the  "Liberator,"  and  the  "  Shield  of  the  Church." 
The   chronicles  of  the  time  show  that,  as  was  quite  natural 
and  appropriate,  the  obsequies  of  Cardinal  Grand-Master 
d'Aubusson  were  far  more  ornate  and  ceremonious  than  the 
Hospitalers,  in  their  monastic  simplicity,  were  wont  to  ac- 
cord to  their  deceased  brethren.     The  body  was  carried  to 
the  council  hall,  and  placed  on  a  catafalque  covered  with 
cloth  of  gold.     Around  stood  knights  in  habits  of  mourning 
and  bearing  the  cardinalitial  hat,  the  cross,  the  standard  of 
St.    John,   and   the  escutcheon  of   the   deceased.     On   his 
breast  was  a  golden  crucifix,  his  hands  were  encased  in  silk 
gloves,  and  his  feet  wore  slippers  of  cloth  of  gold.     Beside 
the  remains  were  the  robes  of  a  prelate,  his  well-worn  armor, 
and  the  glorious  sword  yet  tinged  with  Moslem  blood,  which 
he  had  wielded  at  the  siege  in  1480.     Not  only  all  the  reli- 
gious, his  comrades  at  the  altar  and  on  the  field  of  battle, 
kissed  his  pure  though  valiant  hands  ;  the   common  people 
and  peasantry,  groaning  and  beating  their  breasts,  also  ten- 
dered him  that  homage,  for  D'Aubusson  had  been  known  as 
the  father  of   the    Rhodiote    poor.     When    the   body    was 
brought  out  of  the  palace  of  the  grand-master,  an  immense 
cry  of  lamentation  went  up  to  heaven,  and  women  tore  their 
hair  in  their  extreme  grief.     After  the  burial  in  the  vaults 
of  the  church   of  St.  John,   the  hero's  maggiordonio  broke 
his  marshal's  baton  over  his  tomb,  and  his  squire  did  the 


THE   SIEGES   OF   RHODES.  G57 

same  with  the  spurs  (1).  Thus  was  laid  to  rest  the  body  of 
one  of  the  greatest  and  most  valiant  captaius  tliat  ever  drew 
sword  in  the  cause  of  Holy  Church.  The  glorious  Order  of 
St.  John  produced  many  real  heroes  and  true  religious  ;  but 
of  its  grand-master,  the  Cardinal  D'Aubusson,  it  might  well 
say: 

".  .  .  Si/radun  iUuh((t>ir  orhis, 
Iiiijiacidi(mferieiit  rHiiice. '' 
After  the  death  of  the  heroic  D'Aubusson,  the  two  suc- 
ceeding grand-masters  entertained  little  anxiety  concerning 
the  safety  of  Rhodes.  The  memory  of  the  signal  defeat  of 
1480  was  too  fresh  in  the  mind  of  Bajazet,  tlie  son  of  Ma- 
homet II.,  to  allow  him  to  do  more  than  threaten  to  under- 
take an  enterprise  which  had  proved  too  mighty  for  his  more 
warlike  father.  But  in  1513,  the  Grand-Master  Fabrizio 
Carretto,  of  the  "  language  "  of  Italy,  began  to  anticipate  an 
attack  from  Selim.  This  sultan  had  already  subjugated 
Egypt  and  Syria,  and  Persia  seemed  about  to  succumb 
to  his  arms.  He  was  known  to  be  anxious  for  fame,  and 
hence  Carretto  bent  all  his  energies  to  render  the  island 
tit  to  sustain  another  siege.  He  engaged  the  services  of 
two  eminent  Italian  engineers  for  the  erection  of  new  and 
powerful  fortifications,  and  he  augmented  the  navy  of  the 
order  ;  but  his  exertions  were  terminated  by  death.  AVhen 
the  knights  assembled  for  the  election  of  a  new  master,  it 
was  found  that  three  competitors  divided  their  sympathies. 
These  were  Villiers  de  I'lle-Adam,  grand-prior  of  France  ;  the 
Commander  d'Amaral,  a  Portuguese,  chancellor  of  the  order, 
and  grand-prior  of  Castile  ;  and  Thomas  Ocray,  grand-prior 
of  England.  The  Englishman  had  no  great  merits  beyond 
the  possession  of  powerful  relatives  who  might  be  of  some 
service  to  the  order;  hence  his  name  was  dropped  when  the 
importance  of  a  wise  selection  became  manifest.  Apparently 
the  Portuguese  had  more  valid  claims  for  the  suffrages.  He 
was  a  skilful  commander,  both  on  sea  and  on  land  ;  but  he 
was  overbearing  and  conceited,  and  on  rejflection  the  electors 

(1)  P'or  the  facts  concerning  Cardinal  D'Aubusson  we  have  relied  on  the  Lives  of  the 
Grnntl-M istirs  of  the  IIdIh  Onlir  <>/  S/.  John  of  JirusaU'in,  Written  by  the  Com- 
mandcr.  Brother  (jirohimo  M  iruUi.  Naples,  1636.  Also,  on  Daru's  Republic  of  Vcn, 
ice.     Paris.  18::i  :  and  on  Fl;indrin"s  History  of  the  Kniohtsof  Rhodes.    Parirf,  1876. 


658  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

deemed  it  dangerous  to  confide  the  magistral  staff  to  such 
hands.  There  remained,  therefore,  Villiers  de  I'lle-Adam 
a  knight  of  great  nobility  of  charactei ,  a  man  prudent  in 
counsel,  a  veteran  of  a  hundred  battles,  a  fine  strategist. 
and  a  true  religious.  With  but  one  exception  all  the  votes 
were  cast  for  the  grand-prior  of  France  ;  tlie  exception  being 
the  vote  of  the  disappointed  Portuguese,  who  so  far  forgot 
himself  as  to  cry  :  "  May  ruin  fall  on  Rhodes  and  the  order !  " 
Unfortunately,  no  attention  was  then  paid  to  his  chagrin; 
and  only  when  it  was  too  late  did  the  knights  discover  that 
the  miserable  man  had  already  become  a  renegade  in  his 
heart.  At  the  very  time  that  I'lle-Adam  received  the  staff 
of  grand-master  of  the  Hospitalers,  the  throne  of  the  Otto- 
man empire  was  inherited  by  Soliman  II.,  a  prince  of  greater 
audacity  than  his  father,  Selim,  and  who  was  fresh  from  that 
victorious  campaign  against  the  Hungarians  which  had  re- 
sulted in  the  reduction  of  Belgrade.  It  was  said  that  he 
regretted  the  conquests  of  his  ancestors,  since  now  he  had  a 
smaller  number  of  victories  before  him.  In  his  exalted  im- 
agination he  saw  the  Order  of  St.  John  constantly  taunting 
him  with  the  injuries  which  it  had  heaped  upon  the  Crescent : 
with  the  defeat  of  Osman  (y.  1310),  and  the  abortive  attempt 
of  Orcan  to  avenge  his  father  (y.  1323) ;  with  the  innumerable 
naval  disasters  of  the  Ottoman  fleets,  which  never  dared  to 
meet  the  galleys  of  the  Hospital  on  equal  terms ;  with  the 
successful  assistance  given  to  the  rebellious  Mussulmans  of 
Egypt ;  and  with  that  most  disgraceful  catastrophe  that  ever 
befell  the  Islamites,  the  failure  of  Mahomet  II.  to  crush  the 
indomitable  spirit  of  D'Aabussou.  And  never  could  Soliman 
■expect  again  so  favorable  an  opportunity  to  sweep  the  hated 
order  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  knights  could  rely  just 
then  upon  no  aid  from  the  western  powers.  The  struggle 
for  supremacy  in  Italy  was  of  more  importance  to  Cliaries 
V.  than  any  interest  of  the  Church  or  of  the  Christian  body- 
politic.  His  chivalrous  adversary,  Francis  I.,  would  have 
strained  every  nerve  to  aid  a  cause  which  appealed  to  his 
soldierly  instincts,  and  to  the  Catholic  traditions  of  his 
crown  ;  but  the  fortunes  of  war  had  been  adverse  to  him,  and 
he  was  reduced  to  unwilling  inactivity.     The  Pontiff  was  of 


THE   SIEGES  OF   RHODES.  659 

no  value  in  a  military  sense.  The  Venetians  who,  by  means 
of  their  powerful  fleet,  coultl  have  extended  more  valuable 
aid  tliau  either  France,  Sj)ain,  or  the  Empire,  were  envious 
of  the  maritime  power  of  the  Hospitalers  ;  the  rest  of  Italy 
was  too  deeply  involved  in  the  combat  between  France  and 
Austria-Spain.  Hungary  was  prostrate  before  the  half-moon. 
And  still  another  encouragement  to  attack  llhodes  was  fur- 
nished to  Soliman  from  within  the  very  council-chamber  of 
the  Hospitalers.  The  Portuguese  chevalier,  D'Amai-al,  had, 
as  he  afterward  expressed  the  idea,  "  sold  his  soul  to  the 
demon "  ;  and  immediately  after  his  failure  to  obtain  the 
gi'and-m aster's  staff  he  had  sent  to  the  sultan  a  plan  of  the 
Khodian  fortifications,  and  all  other  information  valuable  to 
an  intending  aggressor.  And  the  Turk  was  still  further  aided 
from  within  the  Christian  lines  by  the  cunning  of  a  Jewish 
physician,  who  had  feigned  conversion  to  Christianity  in 
order  to  play  the  spy  more  efficiently. 

The  intentions  of  Soliman  soon  became  apparent  to  the 
grand-master ;  and  he  held  a  review  of  the  garrison,  that  he 
might  judge  of  its  fitness  for  the  coming  trial.  There  were 
less  than  300  Hospitalers,  of  Avliom  the  "  language  "  of 
France  contributed  140  ;  those  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  88  ; 
that  of  Italy,  47  ;  England  and  Germany  together,  only  17. 
But  these  soldier-monks  were  truly  a  cor ps-d' elite ;  right 
worthy  to  uphold  the  standards  of  Jesus  and  Mary  ;  men 
who  realized  thoroughly  the  sublimit}'  of  their  vocation  to 
the  evangelical  counsels,  and  soldiers  who  felt  that  they 
combatted  under  the  prayerful  eyes  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff 
of  Christendom.  To  these  veterans  of  a  hundred  holy  fights 
were  joined  many  gentlemen  of  various  lands,  each  followed 
by  some  soldiers  who  were  equipped  and  maintained  at  his 
expense.  Then  there  were  the  auxiliary  troops  in  the  service 
of  the  knights,  men  who  wore  the  insignia  of  the  order,  and 
fought  under  its  banners  ;  but  who  took  no  religioiis  vows, 
and  did  not  reside  in  the  convent.  Their  officers  were  always 
Hospitalers,  and  as  a  rule  these  auxiliaries  imbibed  much  of 
the  spirit  of  their  patrons.  Many  of  them  in  time  joined 
the  brotherhood  ;  but  not  as  knights.  To  become  a  knight, 
four  quarterings  of  nobility,  on  the  side  of  both  father  and 


660  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

mother,  were  requisite.  The  inferior  brethren  were  stylej 
*'  serving  brothers,"  and  they  were  obliged  to  recite  the  Lord's 
Prayer  one  hundred  and  fifty  times  each  day.  These 
auxiliaries  increased  the  total  force  to  about  5,00x1  men 
One  Italian  knight  who  had  only  lately  entered  the  order 
must  be  especially  mentioned  :  namelj^  the  engineer-in-chief, 
Martinenghi.  A  native  of  Brescia,  and  regarded  as  the  first 
engineer  of  his  time,  he  had  been  emj^loj-ed  by  Venice  to 
fortify  Caudia,  and  he  had  rendered  it  almost  impregnable. 
Entering  the  service  of  the  Hospitalers,  he  was  so  impressed 
by  their  piety,  courage,  and  self-denial,  that  he  begged  for 
admittance  into  the  holy  militia.  Very  soon  he  had  so 
distinguished  himself  that  he  was  raised  to  the  grade  of 
grand-cross  (1)  and  was  made  superintendent  of  the  fortifi- 
cations. Perhaps  the  heroic  prolongation  of  the  resistance 
to  the  arms  of  Soliman  was  chiefly  due  to  the  inventive 
genius  of  this  Italian  engineer.  When  I'lle-Adam  had  made 
all  the  military  preparations  possible,  he  began — if  indeed 
this  was  not  always  being  made — the  preparation  of  the 
souls  of  his  brethren.  The  Great  Standard  of  St.  John  was 
entrusted  to  the  care  of  a  French  knight  named  Grole-Pacim  ; 
and  the  honor  of  bearing  at  the  side  of  the  grand-master 
during  the  battle  the  banner  of  the  Orucifixiou,  a  present 
from  the  Holy  See  to  the  Cardina'j  Grand-Master  d' Aubusson, 
was  accorded  to  the  Chevalier  de  Tintenille,  a  nephew  of 
i'lle-Adam.  Then  the  entire  garrison,  or  rather  community, 
began  a  series  of  prayars,  fastings,  and  scourgings  ;  and  these 
devotional  exercises  did  not  cease  until  the  hostile  sails  were 
descried  jl  the  offing.  Then  the  heroes  were  ready  to  draw 
cheir  swords  in  the  holiest  of  causes ;  and  they  smilingly 
i-omrajtted  its  issue  into  the  hands  of  God. 

Jt  was  on  the  26th  of  June,  1522,  that  Mustapha,  a  brother- 
in-law  of  Soliman,  anchored  a  fleet  of  about  400  vessels 
in  front  of  Zimboli,  five  miles  from  Ehodes.  Here  he  dis- 
embarked 100,000  men  and  300  cannon.  These  were  to  be 
followed  in  a  few  day^  by  Soliman  in  person,  at  the  head 
of   another  army  of  equal  strength.     The  grand-master  im- 

(1)  There  were  three  grades  of  Knights-Hospitalers  ;  the  chevaliers  or  simple  kuights 
the  knlghtscommanders,  and  the  knights-grand-cross. 


THE   SIEGES   OF   RHODES.  661 

mediatelj  left  his  palace,  which  he  was  never  again  to 
inhabit,  and  established  his  headquarters  at  the  advanced 
post  of  Our  Lady  of  Yictc^ries,  a  position  which  the  last 
sieg'3  had  pro  veil  to  be  the  most  exposed  of  all  in  the  enceinte 
to  ussault.  As  in  the  narrative  of  the  siege  of  1-180,  we  shall 
avoid  details  and  present  only  the  most  important  points  of 
this  memorable  event.  The  first  balls  of  the  Turks  were 
received  and  returned  by  the  bastions  confided  to  the 
languages  of  Provenge,  Spain,  and  England ;  and  no  less 
than  twenty  times  were  the  Moslems  driven  from  their 
trenches  by  the  impetuous  sorties  of  these  knights.  This 
unexpected  result  of  the  first  operations  demoralized  even 
the  Janissaries,  then,  as  ever,  the  choicest  troops  in  the  Ot- 
toman service  ;  and  when  the  account  reached  Soliman,  he 
hastened  to  the  scene  with  his  reinforcements.  While  the 
siege  was  being  pressed  with  greater  vigor,  a  conspiracy 
was  formed  among  the  Mohammedan  slaves — prisonei-s  of 
war  as  yet  uuransomed.  The  design  was  to  fire  the  town  in 
many  places  simultaneously  ;  but  the  discovery  of  the  plot, 
and  the  public  execution  of  the  leaders,  prevented  any  more 
attempts  of  that  nature.  But  there  was  another  source  of 
serious  mischief  which,  originating  in  only  one  person,  was 
less  easily  discovered.  Mention  has  been  made  of  a  Jewish 
physician,  a  feigned  convert,  who  acted  as  a  spy  for  the  Mos- 
lems (1).  To  him  the  knights  owed  the  foiling  of  some  of 
their  most  promising  schemes.  One  effect  of  his  machina- 
tions was  especially  injurious  to  the  besieged.  From  the 
top  of  the  cathedral  tower  one  could  easily  observe  every 
movement  of  the  Osmanlis  ;  and  here  the  grand-master  was 
wont  to  watch  for  hours  at  a  time.  By  advice  of  the 
Jew,  the  Ottoman  fire  was  directed  against  this  tower  until 
it  tumbled  to  the  ground.  From  the  moment  that  Soliman 
appeared  on  the  scene,  every  means  known  to  the  science  of 
engineering  at  that  time,  every  strategy  of  good  general- 
ship, and  the  most  prodigal  sacrifice  of  life,  were  adopted  to 
crush  the  defiant  and  persistently  confident  knights  of  St. 

(1)  The  Hospitalers  also  employed  spies.  The  most  successful  of  these  was  a  serving 
brother  named  Raymond,  who,  speaking  Turkish  and  Ai-abic  perfectlv,  and  havlnfr  so- 
journed in  Mohammedan  lands  many  years,  was  able  to  pjiss  as  one  of  the  faithful.  He 
was  wont  to  employ  certain  signals,  and  then  shoot  his  message  over  the  walls. 


662  STUDIES  IN  CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

John.     Having  perceived,  as  had   Mesis  Vizir   in   the   last 
siege,  that  Fort  St.  Nicholas  was  the  key  of  the   town,  the 
sultan  directed,  during  ten  successive  days  and    nights,  a 
constant  fire  from  twenty-two  of  his  heaviest  guns  against  it ; 
but  in  vain.     The  guns  of  the  Hospitalers  were  better  served 
than  his  own,  and  Soliman  beheld  his  soldiers  surely  and 
quickly    disappearing.      At   last,   after    many    murderous 
assaults  upon  various  and  separate  portions  of  tli^  works,  a 
simultaneous  attack  was  made  on  every  point.     Beaten  back 
everywhere  else,  the  Turks  effected  a  lodgment  in  the  bas- 
tion entrusted  to  the  language  of  Spain,  and  the  oga  of  the 
Janissaries  there  planted  his  standard.    Then  ensued  a  strug- 
gle of  several  hours,  at  the  end  of  which  the  Mussulmans 
retreated  to  their  entrenchments,  leaving  behind  many  of 
their  banners  and  15,000  dead.     But  the  Ottoman  superior- 
ity in  numbers  began  to  speak  eloquently  of  the  probable 
doom  of  Rhodes  ;  every  day  the  breaches  yawned  wider  and 
wider.     To  add  to  the  general  distress,  it  was  found  that 
the  supply  of  powder   was   nearly   exhausted.     Before   the 
siege,  and  while  there  was  yet  time  to  augment  the  stock, 
the   Portuguese  traitor,  D'Amaral,    whose   duty   it   was   to 
inspect  the  magazines,   had   reported   a    sufficiency  of   the 
indispensable  requisite.     But  the   Hospitalers  did  not  lose 
courage  ;  they  merely  studied  the  aiming  of  their  guns  more 
carefully,  and  began  to  manufacture  powder  in  mills  impro- 
vised in  the  vaults  underneath  the  palace  of  the  grand-master. 
Fortunately  they  possessed  a  large  quantity  of  carbon  and 
nitre.     The   treachery   of   D'Amaral    had    failed   precisely 
where  he  had  thought  it   would   be   most   efficacious ;   and 
just  as  during  the  first  weeks  of   the   siege,    so   now,   every 
assault  of  the  Osmanlis,  though  made  with  their  natural 
bravery  intensified  by  religious  zeal  and  desperation,   failed 
ignominiously  before  the  heroic  patience  of  the  Knights  of 
St.  John.     So  furious  did  Soliman   become,  that  he  would 
have   ordered  his  general,  Mustapha,    brother-in-law    and 
favorite  though  the  unlucky  man  was,  to  be  flogged  to  death, 
had  not  all  the  pashas  united  in   prevailing  upon  him  to 
banish  the  unfortunate.     Having  realized  that  his   choicest 
troops  were  no  more,    and   that   the   Hospitalers    were    as 


THE   SIEGES   OF   RHODES.  663 

resolved  as  ever,  the  sultau  now  began  to  think  seriously  of 
abaudoaiiig  his  bloo.ly  eutHi'prise.  Siiildeuly  a  message 
from  the  wreti'hed  D'Aiuaral  filled  hiin  with  iiowhopp.  The 
recreant  clievalier  iut'oniiad  Si)limau  that  the  defenders 
could  not  possibly  resist  many  days  longer  ;  let  the  monarch 
press  a  few  more  assaults — he  could  afford  the  loss  of  a  few 
more  thousands —and  the  place  must  be  his,  viere  that  end  to  be 
dueonlvto  the  sheer  exhaustion  of  the  few  remainin*''  kui<^hts. 
The  sultan  withh3ld  the  order  to  raise  the  siege  ;  but  lie  who 
had  induced  this  change  of  mind  had  already  received  the 
punishment  of  a  traitor.  His  disloyalty  had  been  discovered; 
his  habit  had  been  torn  frotn  him,  his  knightly  spurs  had 
been  knocked  off  by  the  hangman,  and  the  caitiff  who  might 
have  b^en  au  earthly  8t.  Michael  was  decapitated  (1).  Mean- 
while th3  Osmanlis  pushed  forward  their  trenches,  and  opened 
fresh  mines.  Several  more  assaults  were  made  ;  but  Soliman 
found  himself  no  nearer  to  the  object  of  his  desires.  He  now 
began  to  reflect  on  the  necessity  of  offering  to  the  Hospitalers 
honorable  terms  of  capitulation.  The  ramparts  of  Rhodes 
were  nearly  ruined,  and  the  town  might  almost  be  termed  au 
open  place  ;  but  he  knew  that  even  his  Janissaries  hesitated 
to  confront  the  indomitable  defenders  in  another  attack. 
Six  months  of  siege  had  cost  him  the  lives  of  114,000  men, 
He  ordered  a  white  flag  to  be  displayed  before  the  trenches, 
and  tsvo  soldiers  advanced  to  the  walls,  bearing  a  letter  to  the 
grand-master.  This  first  offer  of  Soliman  was  rejected,  for 
the  knights  were  constantly  scanning  the  horizon  in  hope  of 
descrying  approaching  aid  from  the  European  powers.  But 
at  length  I'lle-Adam  presented  the  matter  to  the  Chapter. 
Each  member  declared  that  a  capitulation  was  proper,  nay, 
necessary.  To  save  Rhodes  was  now  beyond  the  bounds  of 
human  possibilities.  If  tlie  place  were  taken  by  assault,  the 
inhabitants  would  either  be  massacred  or  carried  into  slav- 
ery ;all  the  objects  so  venerated  by  the  Order  of  St.  John,  the 
churches,  the  relics  of  the  saints,  the  tombs  of  their  brethren, 
would  be  defiled  by  the  infidels.  They  were  all  willing  to 
die  with  their  grand-master,  if  lie  gave  the  word  ;  but  they 
did  not  think  that  duty  called  upon  the  order  to  sacrifice  the 

(1)  The  Jewish  physician  had  been  detected  and  hung  sereral  days  previously. 


664  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

lives  of  women  and  children  for  a  point  of  mere  military 
pride.  And  for  that  matter,  the  honor  of  the  knights  was  in 
no  jeopardy.  At  this  juncture  the  grand-master  learned  that 
heavy  reinforcements  of  men  and  material  had  reached  the 
enem}^  and  that  Soliman  requested  him  to  visit  the  imperial 
quarters,  there  to  consult  as  to  the  terms  of  capitulation. 

With  a  heart  bursting  with  anguish  the  veteran  complied 
with  the  invitation.  When  the  two  dignitaries  met — what  a 
subject  for  a  soulful  painter  ! — the  grand-master  immediately 
produced  the  document  wherein  Sultan  Bajazet  had  coven- 
anted for  himself  and  his  successors  to  respect  the  indepen- 
dence of  Rhodes.  For  answer  Soliman  tore  the  parchment 
into  shreds,  and  trampled  them  into  the  dust.  But  in  a 
moment,  as  though  deeply  impressed  by  the  calm  dignity  of 
rile- Adam,  and  probably  ashamed  of  his  ebullition  of  dis- 
respect for  his  father's  sign-manual,  he  expressed  regret  at 
being  compelled  to  eject  so  old  a  man  from  his  home,  and 
after  complimenting  his  foe  upon  his  knightly  worth,  he 
promised  him  great  rewards  if  he  would  abjure  Christianity 
and  enter  the  service  of  the  Porte.  The  interview  terminated 
by  the  signing  of  the  terms  of  capitulation,  and  if  we  consider 
the  violent  nature  of  Soliman,  and  the  weakened  situation  of 
the  knights,  the  conditions  were  highly  honorable  to  the 
Hospitalers.  Of  course  all  the  possessions  of  the  Order  of 
St.  John  in  Asia  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks  ;  but  the 
knights  were  allowed  to  embark  with  all  their  movable  prop- 
erty, the  sacred  vessels,  their  archives,  money,  plate,  and 
books.  They  could  also  take  as  much  artillery  and  ammuni- 
tion as  was  necessary  for  the  equipment  of  the  ships  which 
bore  them  away.  The  sultan  agreed  to  respect  the  churches  of 
the  island,  and  to  allow  full  religious  liberty  to  the  inhabit- 
ants ;  but  it  is  almost  needless  to  note  that  this  promise 
was  shamefully  violated.  The  churches  were  all  defiled,  and 
some  destroyed.  The  altars  were  profaned,  and  the  tombs 
of  the  grand-masters  were  opened,  the  ashes  being  scattered 
to  the  winds.  Every  dwelling  was  sacked,  and  the  inhabitants 
were  subjected  to  the  wonted  licentiousness  of  a  Mohamme- 
dan army.  Thus  terminated  a  siege  in  which  5,000  Chris- 
tians withstood  for  six  months  the  efforts  of  200,000  Mo- 
hammedaaia. 


THE   SIEGES   OF  RHODES,  665 

On  January  1,  1523,  the  little  remnant  of  the  glorious 
Order  of  St.  John  embarked  on  galie3\s  painted  in  black,  as 
a  sign  of  its  grief.  Only  one  tiag  was  visible  in  the  fleet, 
the  one  floating  from  the  mainmast  of  the  grand-master's 
vessel,  and  it  was  the  standard  of  Our  Lady  with  the  motto  : 
"  Afflicfis  Spes  Mea  Rebus — Thou  art  my  reliance  in  my 
misfortune."  Villiers  de  I'lle-Adam  led  his  gallant  brethren 
to  the  Eternal  City,  and  at  its  gates  he  was  received  formally 
by  the  entire  pontifical  household  in  robes  of  ceremony,  by 
all  the  cardinals  then  in  Rome,  and  by  the  ambassador  of 
France.  The  reception  of  the  grand-master  by  the  Sover- 
eign Pontiff  was  naturally  most  touching  (1),  and  the  veteran 
soldier  of  the  Cross  felt  that  the  thanks  of  the  Vicar  of 
Christ  were  an  earnest  of  the  reward  which  God  held  in 
store  for  his  faithful  champions.  Viterbo  was  assigned  as 
a  residence  for  the  knights,  and  during  several  years  they 
led  a  purely  conventual  life,  though  ever  on  the  search  for 
a  new  centre  where  they  might  resume  their  military  ac- 
tivity, and  thus  continue  the  noble  traditions  of  the  Hospital. 
And  ere  long  Providence  hearkened  to  their  prayer.  The 
Turkish  corsairs  were  then  terrorizing  the  Italian  coasts  at 
their  pleasure,  and  Charles  V.,  master  of  Sicily  and  the 
neighboring  islands,  well  realized  how  much  benefit  would 
accrue  to  that  portion  of  his  dominions  if  the  Order  of  St. 
John  undertook  to  dispute  the  supremacy  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean with  the  Osmanlis.  Accordingly,  he  ofiered  to  it 
the  island  of  Malta  and  its  dependencies,  as  well  as  the 
principality  of  Tripoli,  with  full  sovereign  and  proprietary 
right.  Villiers  de  ITle-Adam  cheerfully  accepted  the  new 
responsibility  ;  and  on  October  26,  1530,  the  knights  made 
their  solemn  entry  into  Malta,  thus  inaugurating  the  third 
period  of  the  glorious  history  of  the  Military  Order  of  St. 
John, — a  period  which  endured,  in  spite  of  many  attacks  on 
the  part  of  the  Turks,  until  1798,  when  Bonaparte,  while  on 
his  way  to  Egypt,  planted  the  tricolor  on  the  fortifications 
of  Malta,  almost  without  resistance.     The  French  conquest 

fl)  Some  olden  chronicles  narrate  that  while  Pope.;Ailrlan  vj.  was  celebratinc  Mass  In  St. 
Peter's  on  the  Christmas  of  1522  the  day  when  the  Tiirl>«  took  possession  of  Rhodes— 
astone  in  the  cornice  became  detached  and  fell  at  his  feet,  ^inv^  all  Rome  was  then  trem- 
bling for  the  fate  of  the  l«land,  this  incident  was  regarded  as  a  presape  of  its  capture. 


666  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HIPTORY. 

of  their  motlier-liouse  and  last  strongl'old  was  virtually  the 
death  of  the  Kiiights-Hospitalers,  althoucrh  the  order  still 
subsists — void  of  auy  military  significan'^e — as  an  aristocratic, 
organizatiou,  with  its  headquarters  in  Rome,  devoted  to 
the  furtherance  of  Catholic  interests,  and  to  the  sanctification 
of  its  members.  We  need  make  no  moro  than  an  allusion 
to  the  insolent  claim  of  the  Russian  czars  '^o  a  still  persistent 
grand-mastership  of  an  "  Order  of  Malta,"  a  claim  based  on 
the  per  se  invalid  renunciation  of  the  last  grand-master,  the 
German  Ferdinand  Von  Hompesch,  in  favor  cf  the  i^his- 
matic  autocrat,  Paul  I. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  FABLE  OF  THE  TWO-WIVED  COUNT  OF  GLEICHEN. 

When  men  began  to  perceive,  during  the  first  days  of  the  so- 
called  Reformation,  that  the  new  dispensation  was  much 
easier  to  live  up  to  than  the  old,  and  that  it  knew  very  little  of 
sacrifice  or  mortification  for  the  sake  of  God  or  for  the  good  of 
man,  one  of  the  first  to  appreciate  this  laxity  was  the  Land- 
grave, Philip  of  Hesse  ;  and  we  can  imagine  his  gratitude  tow- 
ard the  burly  Doctor  Martin,  when  that  innovator,  agreeing 
with  the  gentle  Melancthon,  manifested  no  reluctance  to  pan- 
der to  the  brutal  passions  of  the  powerful  and  wealthy.  This 
prince  was  anxious  to  repudiate  his  lawful  spouse,  and  to 
marry  a  more  attractive  woman.  Not  a  shadow  of  a  reason 
could  be  alleged  for  the  divorce,  save  the  ordinary  one  of 
disgust  for  the  wife  and  an  inclination  toward  her  rival.  In 
this  emergency  Philip  applied  for  aid  to  Luther,  who  was 
already,  in  many  respects,  the  Protestant  Pontiff.  One  of 
the  chief  objects  of  the  Wittenberg  revolutionist,  and  one 
without  the  attainment  of  which  his  cause  would  have  col- 
lapsed, was  to  secure,  not  only  the  toleration  of  the  civil  power 
for  his  sectarians,  but  the  active  co-operation  of  that  power 
in  his  heretical  propaganda.  Here  was  an  opportunity  not 
to   be   ignored ;  and   accordingly   a   formal    authorization, 


THE   FABLE    OF  THE   TWO-WIVED    COUNT   OK   (iLKlCIIKN.      (IC? 

signed  bv  Luther  and  Melaucthou,was  issueel  to  tlie  Land- 
grave of  Hesse,  allowing  him  the  delectable  favor.  And  in 
order  to  silence  the  tongues  of  any  possibly  sccniddUzdhle 
persons,  the  story  was  put  forth  that  once  upon  a  time  the 
Holy  See  had  sanctioned  a  case  of  bigamy  in  favor  of  a 
German  noble.  In  the  faction  which  Philip  drew  up  for  his 
justilication,  we  read  that  the  Pope  "  once  allowed  a  Count 
of  Gleicheu  to  have  two  wives  at  once  ;  he  having  married  the 
second  in  the  Holy  Land,  being  of  belief  that  the  tirst  was 
dead." 

This  presumed  fact,  adduced  by  the  Reforming  Popes  of 
Germany  to  justify  their  flagrant  and  utterly  shameless  vio- 
lation of  divine  and  civil  law,  w^as  not  without  effect  upon  the 
common  people.  The  popular  version  of  the  story,  however, 
indicated  a  more  revolting  state  of  affairs  in  the  Gleichen 
household  than  was  narrated  in  the  manifesto  of  the  Land- 
grave ;  for,  according  to  the  vulgar  acceptation,  the  Count 
of  Gleichen  had  married  lady  No.  2,  knowing  perfectly  well 
that  No.  1  was  living  at  that  very  time  ;  and  the  Pontiff  not 
only  tolerated,  but  positively  sanctioned,  the  simultaneous 
bigamy.  What  a  delicious  morsel  for  the  admiring  and 
credulous  victims  of  Doctor  Martin  ;  and  how  acceptable 
to  the  historically  brilliant  yokels  of  our  day,  had  not  an 
almost  total  oblivion  been  its  lot !  Certainly  it  is  wonderful 
that  no  Protestant  historical  painter,  no  ambitious  playwright 
of  the  spectacular  school  (of  course  he  should  be  of  the  class 
which  holds  that  theatric  exigencies  are  superior  to  histori- 
cal truth),  has  ever  used  this  subject  for  his  own  profit,  or 
for  the  transient  gratification  of  heresy,  or,  which  would  be 
the  more  likely  event,  for  the  further  mystification  of  ignor- 
amuses. Strange !  They  have  placed  the  Roman  prelacy 
upon  the  stage,  to  bless  with  melodious  (operatic)  chant  the 
daggers  which  are  to  inaugurate  the  Barthelemy  ;  and  there 
are  scores  of  other  instances  of  the  dramatization  of  subjects 
far  less  characterized  by  picturesque  lies  than  is  the  Gleich- 
en romance.  And  yet  how  effective  would  be  the  care- 
ful representation  of  the  scene  where  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
unites  the  Count  to  lady  No.  2  !  The  Pope  is  seated  upon 
his  throne  ;  such  a  ceremony  as  this  must  be  conducted  with 


G6S  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

all  possible  dignity.  The  Heatl  of  the  Church  is  about  to 
give  the  lie  to  the  Church  past,  present,  and  future.  Such 
an  act  is  not  to  be  consummated  perfunctorily,  or  by  the 
intervention  of  ordinary  bureaucracy.  Those  who  by  right 
surround  the  Papal  throne  and  a  number  of  cardinals  add 
splendor  to  the  scene.  Now  appears  the  fortunate --perhaps 
unfortunate — Gleichen,  leading  by  either  hand  liis  wife  i))  re 
and  the  wife  hi  spe.  Much  care  must  be  given  to  the  expres- 
sion of  countenance  worn  by  all  these  personages.  The  Pope 
must  look  like  an  incarnation  of  despair  on  the  brink  of  hell. 
The  artist  or  stage  manager  can  allow  much  latitude  of  judg- 
ment as  to  the  looks  of  Gleichen,  according  as  to  whether 
he  deems  the  Count's  position  a  reward  of  virtue  or  a  punish- 
ment of  sin.  The  dusky  bride  No.  2  must  appear  as  sim- 
plicity itself,  if  not  as  the  essence  of  idiocy.  As  to  the  orig- 
inal Countess  of  Gleichen,  no  actress  should  attempt  to 
portray  her,  no  painter  to  depict  her,  if  they  cannot  make 
her  countenance  convey  the  idea  that  her  soul  is  ever  dom- 
inated, at  one  and  the  same  time,  by  sisterly  love  and  grat- 
itude toward  No.  2,  and  by  the  most  poignant  jealous}^  and 
hatred. 

In  a  little  church  of  Erfurt,  in  Thuringia,  the  officious^ 
guide  draws  the  attention  of  the  tourist  to  a  sepulchral  slab, 
bearing  very  rude  carvings,  but  which  at  once  challenges  in- 
terest by  the  nature  of  the  artist's  subject.  A  knight  of  tall 
stature  is  represented  as  reposing  between  two  women ;  and 
the  guide — he  is  generally  the  sacristan — tells  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  sculpture  in  something  like  the  following  words  : 
While  warring  under  the  Cross  near  Jerusalem,  the  Count  of 
Gleichen  was  taken  prisoner.  Falling  to  the  lot  of  the  sultan, 
he  was  assigned  to  labor  in  the  royal  gardens,  and  here  he 
soon  attracted  the  favorable  notice  of  the  sultan's  daughter. 
Their  acquaintance  ripened  into  love  on  the  part  of  the  prin- 
cess ;  and  she  offered  to  become  a  Christian,  to  consummate 
the  captive's  liberation,  and  to  accompany  him  to  Europe, 
provided  he  would  marry  her.  This  truly  Christian  knight 
and  pink  of  chivalry  consented  ;  the  escape  was  effected,  the 
pair  betook  themselves  to  Rome,  and  laid  their  case  before 
tlie  Pope.     A  Protestant  may  imagine  the  quandarj-  in  which 


THE    FABLE   OF   THE    T\V(,)-\VIVED    COUNT   OF   GLEICHEN.      (j()9 

the  Poutiff  I'ouud  himself ;  a  Catholic  will  faucy  the  iinpu- 
deut  fool  politely  escorted  out  of  the  papal  presence.  But 
the  story  ^oes  that  the  Pope  decided  tiiat  the  Saraceu  girl, 
who  had  risked  so  much  ou  the  faith  of  a  Christian  knight, 
especially  since  she  demanded  baptism  as  well  as  marriage, 
should  m)tbe  disappointed.  It  has  been  suggested  that  this 
complacent  Pope  was  the  very  one  who  had  been  miraculous- 
ly reproved  for  having  refused  a  chance  of  repentance  to  the 
supplicant  Taidiau.ser,  thus  causing  him,  in  his  desperation, 
to  return  to  the  feet  of  Venus,  and  thereby  ensure  his  eter- 
nal danmation.  At  any  rate,  Gleichen  was  permitted  to  have 
two  simultaneously  legitimate  waves,  and  started  rejoicing 
for  Thuringia  to  introduce  the  ladies  to  each  other.  There 
was  not  much  anxiety  in  the  breast  of  the  Saracen  claimant 
to  wifely  honors,  concerning  her  reception  at  Castle  Gleich- 
en ;  born  and  raised  amidst  polygamy,  she  perceived  noth- 
ing unnatural  in  her  matrimonial  aspirations.  But  the  mind 
of  her  lord  was  terribly  harassed  as  they  neared  the  fast- 
ness, where  he  knew  his  lawful  lady  was  praying  for  his  safe 
return  to  his  loving  family.  Strange  to  say,  however,  when 
the  transports  of  joy  for  the  reunion  were  over,  and  the  hus- 
band had  informed  the  wife  of  all  his  obligations  to  his 
dusky  companion,  and  had  showed  the  papal  dispensation, 
there  was  no  sign  of  rage,  not  even  of  displeasure,  on  the 
part  of  the  half-dethroned  one.  She  took  the  newcomer  to  her 
arms  in  all  sisterly  affection,  assuring  her  that  she  regarded 
their  uxorious  rights  as  equal.  From  that  day  the  trio  lived 
in  unity  and  peace. 

Such  is  the  popular  Protestant  tradition  concerning  the 
two-wived  Gleichen,  and  it  requires  but  little  perspicacity  to 
discern  that  it  has  originated  from  the  necessity  of  explain- 
ing, in  some  plausible  way,  the  sculptured  effigies  on  the 
tomb  at  Erfurt.  In  1887,  in  a  session  of  the  "Academie 
des  Inscriptions  et  Belles  Lettres  " — a  more  appropriate 
name  for  which  would  be  "  Academie  des  Sciences  Histori- 
ques," — one  of  the  members,  b}'  no  means  a  clerical,  M. 
Gaston  Paris,  read  a  paper  on  this  subject ;  and  in  it  he  said 
that  he  found  in  the  tombstone  of  Erfurt  one  of  the  numer- 
ous   examples  of  what    is    called  iconographic    mythology, 


670  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

Antiquarians  universally  admit  that  a  vast  number  of  le- 
gends owe  either  their  origin  or  their  localization  to  a  popu- 
lar desire  to  explain  works  of  art,  the  meaning  of  which  has 
been  lost.  Now,  the  tombstone  at  Erfurt  bears  no  name  ; 
popular  imagination  (only  that,  and  simply  because  the 
Gleichens  had  a  feudal  establishment  in  the  neighborhood,  in 
the  olden  time)  assigned  the  sepulchre  to  some  of  that  family. 
And,  of  course,  concluded  the  essentially  accurate  popular 
mind,  some  Gleichen  had  two  wives  at  the  same  time.  But 
how  can  we  exj)laiu,  most  appositely  demands  M.  Gaston 
Paris,  the  erection  of  a  monument  in  favor  of  bigamy  in  a  Cath- 
olic church  ?  "  Certainly  the  Pope  must  have  authorized 
it ;  and  to  call  forth  such  permission  most  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances must  have  happened.  The  second  wife  must 
liave  given  life  and  liberty  to  the  already  married  Gleichen." 
Then  M.  Paris  shows  how,  by  this  same  popular  logic  and 
facility  of  producing  indefinite  sequences,  the  actuating  scene 
of  the  drama  was  naturally  laid  in  the  Orient  ;  the  Crusades 
were  to  the  Middle  Age  very  much  what  the  Trojan  war  was 
to  the  Greeks,  above  all  others  the  Heroic  Age.  "  The 
troubles  which  these  distant  expeditions  excited  in  family 
life  were  especially  adapted  to  upset  every  imagination. 
The  various  risks  undergone  by  the  returning  warrior  of  the 
Sepulchre  gave  rise  to  as  many  tales  as  did  the  deeds  of  the 
conquerors  of  Ilium.  Hence  it  is  that  we  find,  under  forms 
the  most  varied,  this  same  pathetic  theme  of  the  return  of 
the  husband  at  the  very  moment  when  the  despondent  wife 
is  about  to  yield  to  one  of  her  suitors, — a  theme  which  forms 
the  essential  idea  of  the  Odi/sseij,  and  which  probably  is 
of  far  more  ancient  origin  than  the  poem.  Here  the  theme 
is  inverted."  Quite  naturally,  then,  a  Saracen  lady  becomes, 
in  the  legend,  the  second  wife  of  the  Count  of  Gleichen  ;  and, 
of  course,  as  is  always  the  case  in  mediteval  romances,  where 
a  Christian  knight  is  delivered  by  an  Oriental  lady,  she  is  a 
king's  daugliter.  Many  used  to  imagine  that  they  could 
discern  traces  of  a  croAvn  over  the  head  of  one  of  the  femi- 
nine figures  on  the  Erfurt  slab ;  and  in  1836,  when  the  tomb 
was  displaced  and  the  adjacent  vault  cleaned  out,  a  physician 
examined  the  skulls  of  the  supposed  Gleichen  trio,  with  the 


iHE   CONTROVERSY   oN   THE  CHINESE  RITES.  (ill 

result  that  lie  reported  that  the  anatomical  characteristics  of 
one  of  them  proved  it  to  have  been  that  of  au  Eastern  foniale. 
But  it  was  afterward  shown  that  this  enthusiast's  own  report 
did  not  really  evince  the  sex  of  the  subject.  In  contradic- 
tion to  the  credulous  physican's  absolute  faith  in  the  lej,'end 
consecrated  by  Luther  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  there 
now  came  forth  a  scientist  who,  with  an  apparent  show  of 
erudition,  essayed  to  demonstrate  that  the  Erfurt  monument 
was  of  no  more  ancient  date  than  the  fifteenth  century,  in- 
stead of  being  of  the  thirteenth,  the  epoch  of  the  much-mar- 
ried knight's  supposed  career;  in  fact,  it  seemed  to  be 
proved  that  the  disputed  tomb  was  the  last  resting-place  of 
Count  Sigismund  Gleichen,  who,  toward  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  brought  from  the  East  a  Turkish  woman, 
introduced  her  into  the  castle  indeed,  but  with  whom  he  never 
dreamed  of  entering  into  matrimony.  However,  it  has  been 
finally  demonstrated,  as  M.  Gaston  Paris  proved  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  French  Academy  in  solemn  session,  that 
the  Erfurt  sculpture  represented  Count  Lambert  II.,  who 
died  in  1227,  who  never  went  into  the  East,  and  who  indeed 
had  possessed  two  wives,  but  not  siuiultaueously. 

Such,  then,  was  the  chief  of  the  flimsy  pretexts  by  which  the 
leader  of  the  Keformers  justified  the  permission  given  to 
Philip  of  Hesse  to  repudiate  Christina  of  Saxony,  to  whom 
he  had  been  united  sixteen  years,  and  who  had  borne  him 
eight  children  ;  and  to  espouse  Margaret  von  Saal,  a  maid  of 
honor  to  his  sister  Elizabeth. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  CONTROVERSY  ON  THE  CHINESE  RITES. 

In  the  year  1645  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  the  Propa 
ganda  was  requested  to  settle  a   controversy  which  had  dis 
turbed  the  missionaries  in  China  during  several  years,  and 
which,   afterward  agitated   with  a  bitterness    on  both  sides 
which  would  have  better  befitted  a  less  sacred  cause,  was  of 
great  detriment  to  the  propagation  of  the  faith  in  the  Celestial 


672  STUDIES   IN    CHUKCH    HISTORY. 

Empire,  and  iDroductive  of  great  scandal  tlirougbout  Christen- 
dom. From  tlie  day  when  the  Jesuits  resumed  in  China  that 
propagation  of  the  Gospel  which  the  sons  of  Sts.  Dominic 
and  Francis  had  intermittently  undertaken  during  the  two 
previous  centuries,  they  had  wisely  and  determinedly  endeav- 
ored to  conciliate  the  apparently  ineradicable  prejudices  of 
those  whose  confidence  was  to  be  gained,  ere  the  Christian 
Faith  could  make  conquest  of  their  intelligences.  It  was  in 
accordance  with  this  design  that  the  Jesuits  in  China  soon 
discarded  the  simple  costume  and  ostentatiously  humble 
manners  of  the  native  Bonzes — dress  and  demeanor  which 
at  first  they  had  adopted.  They  soon  donned  silken  robes, 
used  litters  when  travelling,  and  did  many  other  things  which 
were  appropriate  for  lettered  jaersons,  such  as  they  undoubt- 
edly were,  and  such  as,  for  the  sake  of  their  mission,  they 
wished  to  be  considered.  With  the  same  object  in  view,  the 
Jesuit  missionaries  allowed  their  neophytes  to  continue  the 
practice  of  certain  ceremonies  which  they  woidd  have  pref- 
erably abolished,  but  which  they  regarded  as  capable  of  other 
than  an  anti-Christian  interpretation,  and  to  which  the  deni- 
zens of  the  Middle  Kingdom  were  invincibly  attached.  Thus, 
the  Jesuit  superior,  Ricci  of  Macerata,  had  convinced  him- 
self that  there  was  not  necessarily  anything  idolatrous  or 
even  superstitious  in  the  prostrations  and  sacrifices  which 
the  Chinese  offered  to  the  shades  of  their  ancestors ;  that, 
in  fine,  these  ceremonies  were  not  those  of  worship,  prop- 
erly speaking,  but  rather  demonstrations  of  filial  devotion. 
Nor  can  it  be  said  that  in  forming  this  conclusion,  the  wish 
of  Ricci  was  the  father  of  the  thought ;  for  he  believed  that 
the  doctrine  of  Confucius  on  the  nature  of  God— a  doctrine 
on  which  depended  the  permissibilit}^  of  the  rites  in  ques- 
tion— was  not  different  from  that  which  Christianity  presented. 
Ricci  contended  that  the  Chinese  sage  had  not  asked  his 
disciples  to  adore  merely  the  visible  heavens ;  the  Jesuit 
fancied  that  the  Confucian  utterances  indicated  the  Lord  of 
Heaven,  the  True  God,  as  the  supreme  object  of  human 
homage.  Most  of  the  Jesuits  in  China  adopted  the  views  of 
their  superior  ;  but  in  the  course  of  time  the  Dominicans 
insisted  that  no  Cliristian  evangelist  could  hold  such  opin- 


THE   CONTROVEliSY  ON   THE   CHINESE   KITES.  GT."^ 

ions.  The  Preaching  Friars  discerned  atheism  in  the  teach- 
ings of  Confucius  ;  they  declared  that  the  sage  recognized 
only  a  material  hoavon,  and  not  a  pure  spirit  wlio  is  the 
Creator  of  the  Universe. 

The  Dominicans  having  formulated  their   complaints  at 
the  Propaganda  in  KUo,    the  Sacred  Cougregatiou  prohibit- 
ed the  Chinese  ceremonies  in  question,  until  the  Holy  See 
should  pronounce  a  definitive  sentence  ;  but  in  1C56,  the  Jes- 
uits having  presented  evidence  which  ajiparently  favored 
their  opinion  of  the  criminated  practices,   the  Congregation 
issued  another  decree  tolerating  said  ceremonies  as  purely 
civil  and  political.     The  dispute  waxed  warmer  ;  and  in  16G9 
and  1674  the  question  was  again  debated  at  Home.     The 
opponents  of  the  Chinese  Bites  were  now  reinforced  by  the 
suffrages  of  all  the  missionaries  whom  the  Seminar}' for  for- 
eign Missions,  that  celebrated  monument  of  French  zeal  for 
religion  which  had  been  recently  established  in  Paris,  had 
sent  into  China.     In  1693,  Maigrot,  bishop  of  Conon  and 
vicar-apostolic  of  Fo-Kien,  issued  a  pastoral  in  which  he 
ordered  his  clergy,  firstly,  to  use  the  words  Tien-chu, "  Lord 
of  Heaven,"  when  they  wished  to  convey  the  idea  of  God  to 
the  Chinese  ;  in  the  same  circumstances  the  words  I'un  and 
Xamti,  "  Heaven  "  and  "  Emperor,"  were  never  to   be  used. 
The  prelate  ordered,  secondly,  that  there  should  be  allowed  in 
the  churches  no  tablet  bearing  the  inscription,  Kimj-Tici}, 
"  Adore  Heaven."     Thirdl}',  enjoined  the  bishop,  the  Chi- 
nese Christians  could  not  be  permitted  to  assist  at  the  semi- 
annual oblations  made  to  Confucius  and  to  the  dead.     Mai- 
grot also  stigmatized  as  false  in  many  points  the  explanation 
given  by  the  Jesuits  to  Pope  Alexander  VII.,  and  which  hac' 
procured  the  tolerating  decree  of  1656.     The  bishop  })raised 
those  missionaries  who  had  already  prohibited  the  tablets 
just   mentioned ;   and   he  condemned  several  propositions, 
bearing  on   the   matter   in   agitation,   which   had  been  ad- 
vanced by  certain  Jesuit  writers.     This  pastoral  of  the  vicar- 
apostolic  of  Fo-Kien  caused  great  excitement ;  and  the  Jes- 
uits upbraided  the  bishop  "  for  having  presumed  to  decide,  by 
his  sole  authority,"  a  question  which  the  Holy  See,  as  they 
contended,  regarded  as  debatable.     Of  the  six  bishops  then 


674  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

forming  the  Chinese  hierarchy,  only  two  upheld  the  Jesuit 
position ;  against  it  were  ranged,   besides  four  bishops,  all 
the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  and  all  the  secular  priests, 
from  the  Seminary  for  Foreign  Missions.     A  new  element 
now  entered  into  the  controversy.     Most  of  the  missionaries 
being  then,  just  as  they  are  in  our  day,  from  the  Land  of  the 
Lilies,  it  was  quite  natural  that  the  Sorbonne,  as  yet  a  pow- 
erful factor  in  all  things  Catholic,  should  participate  in  the 
dispute.     On  Oct.  18,  1700,  the  still  justly  revered  Faculty 
condemned  several  propositions  which  a  Jesuit  author  in 
Europe  had  advanced  in  favor  of  the  views  held  hj  his  breth- 
ren in  China.     Such  was  the  condition  of  things  when  Pope 
Innocent  XXL  appointed  a  special  Congregation  to  consider 
the  nature  of  the  Chinese  Bites  ;  and  perhaps  superficiality 
would  not  have  been  predicated  of  him  who  would  have  then 
declared  that  apparently  charity  had  become  a  stranger  in  the 
hearts  of  all  who  were  debating  the  matter.     In  the  words 
of  one  of  the   most   judicially-minded  polemics  who  have 
commented    on    this    melancholy   subject,  "  In   these   dis- 
cussions there  were   most    regrettable  animosities.     Some 
bitter   foes   of   the   Jesuits   painted   their   conduct   in   the 
darkest  colors,  exaggerating  their  faults,  and  accusing  them 
of  idolatry  ;  whereas  at  most,  they  might  have  been  charged 
with  excessive  tenderness,  human  prudence,  or  laxity.     But 
the  Jesuits,  on  their  side,  imagined  that  they  were  right  in 
reality,  because  their  adversaries  were  apparently  wrong  ; 
and  they  clung  the  more  to  their  opinion,  because  they  saw 
that  many  combatted  it  through  passion,  and  without  under- 
standing it.     An  effect  of  extreme  injustice  is  to  embitter, 
and  to  disgust ;  and  this  fact  seems  to  explain  the  long  re- 
sistance of  the  Jesuits.     Undoubtedly  we  do  not  yearn  to 
discover  culpability  in  a  body  of  men  whom  we  esteem ;  but 
facts  do  depose  against  many  of  the  Society.     We  have  al- 
ready recorded  the  results  of  our  researches  in  this  matter ; 
and  we  have  received  many  protests,  urging  us  to  read  the 
apologies  written  by  certain  members  of  the  Society.     How- 
ever, those  apologies  do  not  seem  to  us  as  excusing  entirely 
the  faults  of  the    missionaries,  of    whom    we    have  spoken. 
The  Memoirs   of  Father   d'Avrigny   and   the   collection   of 


THE   CONTROVERSY   ON  THE   CHINESE   RITES.  675 

Edifying  Letters,  rather  furuisli  testimony  against  them  "  (1). 
On  April  18,  1705,  Mgr.  de  Tournou,  titular  patriarch  of 
Aiitioeh,  who  had  been  paj)al  legate  in  India,  arrived  in  Cliina 
with  the  usnul  legatine  faculties.  This  envo^-  of  the  Holy 
See  had  already  experienced  trovible  with  the  Jesuit  mis- 
sionaries in  India,  because  of  the  Rites  of  Mahibar  (2)  ; 
therefore  he  was  well  fitted  to  cope  with  the  difficulties  of 
his  Chinese  legation.  In  September  he  was  received  in 
solemn  audience  by  the  emperor ;  but  having  notified  His 
Majesty  that  the  Holy  See  had  condemned  the  practices 
which  the  Jesuits  tolerated,  he  was  ordered  to  leave  the 
empire.  Speaking  of  this  episode,  Picot  says :  "  In  his 
narrative  of  this  embassy,  Father  d'Avrigny  gives  no  exalted 
idea  of  the  moderation  or  intelligence  of  Mgr.  de  Tournon, 
nor  any  similar  appreciation  of  the  qualifications  of  Mgr. 
Maigrot,  the  bishop  of  Conon  and  vicar-apostolic.  However, 
this  writer  appears  to  aim  only  at  a  justification  of  such  of 
his  brethren  as  favored  the  Chinese  Rites.  One  would 
imagine  that  he  counted  as  nothing  the  sentimevits  of  other 
missionaries,  the  authority  of  the  papal  legate,  and  the  ex- 
press decisions  of  the  Holy  See.  These  last  decisions  alone 
ought  to  have  restrained  a  religioas  7\'hD,  on  all  other  occa- 
sions, professes  a  legitimate  respect  and  a  laudable  zeal  for 
the  apostolic  judgments.  . .  .  I^i  two  letters  written  at  this 
time  by  the  legate  to  Mgr-  Maigrot  and  to  the  Jesuits  of 
Pekin,  he  upbraids  those  religious  most  strongly  for  having 
abused  the  favor  of  the  emperor  in  order  to  nullify  the  pur- 

(1)  Picot  ;  Memoirs  to  Serve  for  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  Eighteenth  Ccn- 
lurj/.  Vol.  i.,  p.  213.    Paris,  1853. 

(2)  When  the  patriarch  arrived  in  Pondieherry  in  1703,  he  found  that  the  Capuchins, 
Dominicans,  and  seculars  complained  that  the  Jesuits  tolerated  several  idolatrous  practices 
on  the  part  of  their  converts.  The  charges  were  based  on  the  fact  ttiat  the  neophytes  were 
allowed  to  retain  images  which  resembled  idols,  and  that  gum  of  them  as  were  musicians 
were  permitted  to  play  at  the  feasts  of  the  idolaters.  The  Jesuits  were  also  charped  with 
neglecting  the  despised  Pariahs  ;  with  omitting  some  of  the  ceremonies  of  baptism  ;  with 
deferring  the  baptism  of  infants;  with  performiuK  the  marriage  ceremony  for  children 
who  were  only  six  years  of  ape  ;  vpith  allowincc  baths  which  were  taken  merely  for  luxury  ; 
with  practicing  superstitious  and  even  immodest  rites  at  nuptials;  and  with  several  other 
things  of  lesser  moment.-  Afteran  examination  which  lasted  six  months,  the  legate  issued 
»  pastoral,  condemning  these  usages.  The  Jesuits  sent  deputies  to  Rome,  asking  to  be 
allowed  to  follow  such  usages  of  the  Indians  as  were  in  themselves  ino'ilTerent,  and  such 
M  the  missionaries  had  remlered  innocuous  by  elimination  of  everything  baneful ;  alleging 
•he  invincible  attachment  of  the  Indians  to  their  customs.  Nevertheless,  on  Jan.  7,  1706, 
♦.he  Holy  Inquisition  commanded  that  the  pastoral  of  the  legate  should  be  observed.    Pope 


676  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

pose  of  the  Pope's  representative  "  (1).  Having  received  his 
dismissal  at  the  imperial  hands,  the  patriarch  proceeded  to 
Nankin,  wliere  he  issued  a  decree  condemnatory  of  the- 
Chinese  Rites,  and  announced  that  on  Nov.  20,  1704,  the 
Supreme  Pontiff  had  ordered  the  missionaries  to  observe  the 
rules  given  by  Mgr.  Maigrot  in  1693.  Tlie  Jesuits  ignored 
the  legatine  prescriptions  ;  most  of  them,  and  a  few  of  the 
other  missionaries,  had  already  promised  the  emperor  to 
continue  the  honors  to  Confucius,  and  never  to  return  to 
Europe,  thus  entitling  themselves  to  an  imperial  rescript 
which  accorded  them  the  freedom  of  the  empire.  All  who 
obeyed  the  legate,  that  is,  all  of  the  secular  clergy,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  were 
banished  ;  but  many  of  these  confessors  succeeded  in  elud- 
ing the  imperial  police,  and  continued  to  perform  their 
apostolic  work  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the  Head  of  the 
Church.  Twent3--two  Jesuits  signed  an  appeal  to  the  Pope, 
dated  May  28,  1707,  in  which  they  sought  to  justify  their 
compliance  with  the  imperial  wishes  by  the  dangers  which 
a  refusal  would  have  entailed  on  the  missions.  In  the  mean- 
time Mgr.  de  Tournon  had  been  arrested  at  Nankin,  conduct- 
ed to  Macao  (a  Portuguese  possession),  and  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  Portuguese  authorities,  w^ho  w^ere  requested  to 
allow  him  to  have  no  communication  with  the  Chinese  empire. 
The  Portuguese  officials  were  hostile  to  the  patriarch ;  for 
while  he  was  in  Lisbon,  on  his  way  to  the  Orient,  he  had 
memorialized  His  Most  Faithful  Majesty  concerning  the 
rapacity  and  generally  un-Christian  conduct  of  the  royal 
representatives  in  the  East.  Quite  naturally,  therefore,  the 
legate  was  thrown  into  prison,  and  was  furthermore  treated 

Clement  XI.  was  obliged  to  renew  this  order  several  times,  so  determined  were  the  Jesuits, 
especially  as  they  were  sustained  by  two  of  the  Indo-PortuRuese  bishops,  to  continue  the 
obnoxious  practices.  However,  one  of  the  Jesuits,  Visilelou,  whom  Tournon  had  appointed 
bishop  of  Claudiopolis,  differed  radically  from  his  brethren  in  this  matter;  and  he  obeyed 
the  pontifical  injunction  to  use  every  means  to  secure  obedience  to  the  legate's  orders. 
The  practices  were  still  continued  ;  again  they  were  condemned  by  Benedict  XIH.  in  1727  ; 
by  Clement  XII.  in  1739;  by  Benedict  XIV.  in  1744.  It  is  well  to  note  that  Benedict  XIV. 
solved  the  tremendous  difficulty  concerning  ministrations  to  the  despised  Pariahs— a  dif- 
ficulty derived  from  the  system  of  caste  which  allowed  no  Hindoo  of  another  class  to  com- 
hiunicate  in  any  way  with  one  who  had  communicated  with  those  outcasts— by  ordering 
that  certain  priests  should  be  designated  for  their  special  and  exclusive  service. 
(1)  Ubi  supra. 


THE  CONTROVERSY  ON  THE  CHINESE  RITES.  (577 

with  the  utmost  cruelty.  Pope  Clement  XI.  replied  to  the 
appeal  of  the  Jesuits  by  enrolling  his  legate  in  the  Sacred  Col- 
lege ;  but  when  the  hiirtta  reached  the  prelate,  he  was  dying, 
and  Father  Carre,  the  bearer  of  the  insignia,  enjoyed  the 
greater  honor  of  administering  the  last  Sacraments  to  him  (1). 
The  apologists  of  the  recalcitrant  missionaries  are  fond  of 
dilating  on  the  alleged  "  imprudences  "  of  Cardinal  deTour- 
non ;  indiscretions  or  worse,  according  to  these  apologists, 
which  entailed  all  his  suffering  and  his  premature  death. 
Thus,  Francesco  Pellico,  the  Jesuit  brother  of  the  renowned 
Silvio,  tells  us  that  the  legate  "did  not  conduct  himself  with 
that  prudence  "  which  befitted  the  circumstances,  and  that 
therefore  "  he  experienced  many  tribulations  "  (2).  The  sole 
"  imprudence"  of  the  patriarch  was  his  obedience  to  the  pon- 
tifical commands — a  deference  which  should  have  extorted 
the  admiration  of  Father  Pellico,  who  could  be  very  eloquent 
when  he  undertook  to  extol  the  obedience  of  his  brethren 
to  their  general.  Cretineau-Joly,  the  most  ultra  among  the 
apologists  of  the  Society,  insinuates  that  when  the  patriarch 
refused  to  obey  the  imperial  command  to  tolerate  the  Chinese 
Rites,  he  "  outraged  "  the  proper  independence  and  dignity 
of  the  monarch  ;  and  the  same  Cretineau-Joly,  defending  the 
Jesuits  against  the  Jansenistic  calumny  which  asserted  that 
they  "  were  the  real  murderers  of  the  cardinal"  (3),  compla- 
cently adduces  the  "neutrality"  observed  by  the  Jesuits  in 
the  contest  between  the  papal  representative  and  the  Chinese 
sovereign  (4).     Such  desperate  attempts  at  extenuation  will 

(1)  Not  the  least  amusing  among  the  innumerable  audacities  of  Voltaire,  sinre  all  Fraui-e 
knew  the  history  of  Mgr.  de  Touinon  well,  was  his  representation  of  the  prelate  as  an  ad- 
venturer, "  a  Savoyard  priest  named  Maillard.  who  assumed  the  name  of  Tournon."  The 
patriarch  was  born  in  Turin,  and  was  the  second  son  of  Victor  Amadeus  Maillard.  Count  of 
Tournon  and  Marquis  of  All)y.  His  ecclesiastical  studies  were  made  in  the  College  of  the 
Propaganda  in  Rome;  and  his  body,  brought  by  the  vlcar-apostoIic.  Mezzabarba,  was  in- 
terred in  the  sepulchral  vaults  of  that  institution. 

f2)  Thus  in  the  open  letter  entitled  Francrxm  PcUicn,  of  the  Socictu  nf  Jcxitt),  to  Vi7i- 
cenzo  Giiihcrti,  p.  18;}.  Genoa.  1845.  This  work,  written  in  reply  to  the  Pro/of/omf  »ii  of 
Globeril.  and  especially  as  a  refutation  of  that  philosopher's  charges  against  the  Society 
(accusations  which  were  mild,  if  compared  with  the  venom  contained  in  the  posterior 
Jfo(ie7")i  Jc-sitif),  bears  this  epigraph  at  the  beginning  of  the  volume:  '^  Inxiundariqui- 
vUf  innocena  potent  ;  rcvinri  nixi  nacciix  uon  j^o^f.sf." 

(3)  This  absurd  charge  was  formulated  by  Cuudrette,  in  his  General  History  of  the 
Birth  of  the  Societi/  of  J'cjsiw,  Vol.  il.,  p.  2.S.").     Paris,  17C(t. 

(4)  "  Kaug-Hi  n't'tait  pas  hahitvf  a  voir  douter  de  m  parole  et  de  son  autnrite.  R 
ne  tolerait  la  coiitradictinn  que  par  patixetcmpit ;  elle  venait  id  nous  la  ftrrmed^un 
outrage  :  il  bannit  de  son  empire  Mainiot,  vicaire  apostolique,  et  il  ordonna  de  liv- 


678  STUDIES   IN    CHDRCH    HISTOllY. 

scarcely  be  endorsed  by  the  Jesuits  of  our  day.  But  we 
would  draw  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  judgment 
which  Pope  Clement  XI.  delivered  when  he  announced  the 
death  of  his  legate  to  the  Sacred  College  :  "  We  have  lost 
a  most  zealous  friend  of  true  religion;  an  intrepid  defevder 
of  the  pontifical  authority  ;  a  valiant  vindicator  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline  ;  a  great  luminary  and  ornament  of  your 
College.  We  ourselves  have  lost  a  son,  your  brother,  ivho 
loas  exhausted  hy  the  many  labors  lohich  he  performed  for 
the  cause  of  Christ ;  who  was  crushed  by  the  daily  sufferings 
which  afflicted  him  ;  who,  like  gold,  was  purified  in  a  crucible 
— a  crucible  of  innumerable  insults  ivhich  he  endured  luith 
great  strength  of  soul. .  . .  We  are  bidden  to  hope  by  that 
unconquerable  constancy,  because  of  which  this  truly  apos- 
tolic man,  although  fed  by  the  bread  of  tribulation  and  the 
water  of  anguish,  never  failed  in  his  dut}- ;  and  because  of 
which  he  withstood  imprisonment  and  other  grievous  in- 
juries bravely  until  the  last  moment  of  his  life.  He  fought 
a  good  fight;  he  kept  the  faith''  (1).  Pope  Clement  XL 
would  scarcely  have  pronounced,  in  full  Consistory,  such  a 
eulogy  on  a  prelate  whose  character  was  familiar  to  all  the 
cardinals,  had  the  subject  been  of  that  calibre  which  has 
been  assigned  to  him  by  the  defenders  of  the  Chinese  Eites. 
Before  we  bid  farewell  to  Cardinal  de  Tournon,  we  Avould 
note  that  one  of  the  best  sources  of  information  concerning 
him  is  the  Capuchin,  Pierre  Parisot,  known  in  religion  as 
Father  Norbert,  whose  Historiccd  Memoirs  on  the  Jlissions 
in  the  East  Indies,  Presented  to  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  Bene- 
dict XIV.,  were  praised  by  that  perspicacious  Pope,  and  were 

rer  mix  Po7'tnyuais  Ic  Legal  du  Saint-Siege.  ...  Les  .Jcstiitca  rcstercnt  neutrcs  dam 
ccUc  circotititance.  .  .  .  /Z.s  n^osercnt  pas  ae  porter  rm'diatcurx  entre  le  monarque  ct  le 
Legal.'"  Cretineau-Joly  ;  Religioxis,  PoUticaUand  Literary  Hiftrn-y  of  the  Society 
of  JesMS,  Vol.  v.,  ch.  1.     Paris,  1840. 

(1)  "  Amigimiui  orthodoxcB  rcligionis  zelatorcm  inaximnm  ;  poutificice  aiietoritatis 
intrepidum  defensor  cm ;  ecclesiasticce  discipUncv  assertorem  fortissimum  ;  magnum 
Ordinis  vestri  lumen  et  ornamentum.  Amimmns  jiUum  nostrum  fratrem  vestrum, 
plurimis  quos  pro  Cfirisli  catisa  suscepit,  laborihiis  atiritnm  ;  diutiirnis.  quos  pcrttdit 
cBTumnis  eonfectnm  ;  conlumcliis,  quas  forti  maguoque  a)nmo  s^istinuit  innumeris, 
ixlut  aurum,  in  fornace  prohatum.  .  ..  Sperare  nos  demum  jubct  invicta  ilia  sac er- 
dotalis  rnboris  constantla,  qua.  vir  vere  apostolicus,  tametsi  stistentarctur  pane  trib- 
ulationis  ct  aqua  angustiw,  offlcium  tamen  suum  numquam  dimisit ;  ac  non  minus 
diutiaruc  custodice  injuriis,  quam  aliis  gi-avissimis  vcxationibns  ad  supremiim  usque 
vitiv  8pi7'itum  fortder  t()lcrati.%  homim  certamen  certavit,  cursum  consummavit, 
fidcm  servavit."    Norbert  ;  Memoirs,  Vol.  11.,  p.  6.    Paris,  1742. 


THE    CONTItOVKHSV    ON    THE    CHlNKSj;    KIIES.  079 

formally  approved  by  Fra  Carlo  Maria  ila  Perugia,  Quali- 
Hcator  of  the  Holy  Office,  aud  Coiisultor  of  the  Congregation  of 
the  Index.  The  defenders  of  the  Cliinese  Eites  endeavored  to 
nullify  the  eifeet  of  this  work  by  decrying  the  character  of  its 
author ;  but  with  small  success.  Another  authority  for  the 
learning,  zeal,  and  prudence  of  Cardinal  de  Tdurnon  is  one  that 
cannot  be  decried.  The  celebrated  Cardinal  Passionei,  than 
whom  no  man  was  better  versed  iu  the  diplomatic,  theologi- 
cal, aud  literary  history  of  the  seventeenth  and  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  centuries  ;  and  to  whose  judgment 
the  critical  Pope  Benedict  XIV.  habitually  deferred  ;  gives  full 
evidence  that  the  legate  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree  the 
virtues  aud  talents  which  his  opponents  refused  to  discern 
in  him  (1). 

Pope  Clement  XL  now  gave  to  the  world  the  decree  which 
he  had  signed  in  1704,  and  in  virtue  of  which  his  legate  had 
acted.  Accompanying  the  pontifical  mandate  which  was 
sent  to  all  the  superiors-general  of  the  various  institutes  rep- 
resented among  the  missionaries  in  China,  were  strict  orders 
to  each  of  those  superiors  to  enforce  obedience  to  the  Papal 
prescriptions.  Among  the  generals  who  promised  to  re- 
spect the  commands  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  was  Tamburini 
of  the  Jesuits ;  and  on  Nov.  20,  1710,  in  the  presence  of  his 
assistants  and  of  the  deputies  of  the  various  provinces  then 
assembled  in  the  Eternal  City,  this  head  of  the  Society  de- 
clared that  he  would  not  recognize  as  a  Jesuit  any  one  who 
would  thereafter  defend  the  permissibility  of  the  criminated 
Chinese  Rites.  Why  was  this  declaration  of  their  general  ig- 
nored by  the  immense  majority  of  the  Jesuits  who  were  la- 
boring in  China  ?  We  must  reply  with  Picot,  that  this  matter 
is  one  of  the  things  which  we  cannot  undertake  to  explain. 
Father  d'Avrigny  vainly  endeavors  to  excuse  his  recalcitrant 
brethren  by  a  use  of  the  same  arguments  which  were  adduced 
by  those  Janseuists  whom  his  Society  so  zealously  and  bril- 
liantly refuted.  "  These  traits,  and  man}'  others,"'  remarks 
Picot,  "  are  too  similar  to  those  manifested  by  mere  partisans 
(and  by  all  heresiarchs)  ;  and  they  are  not  redolent  of  that 

(1)  Passionei  ;  Hif^tariral  Mcmairs  Cancerning  the  Legation  and  Ixalli  of  tartii- 
val  dc  Tounwn.    Rome,  17C2. 


080  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

frank  submission  wliicli  Father  d'Avrigny  demands  from 
others  when  different  matters  are  involved — a  submission,  an 
example  of  which  he  should  have  given"  (1).  On  March  19, 
1715,  Clement  XL,  issued  his  Bull  Ex  ilia  die,  in  which  he 
stated  that  the  decree  of  the  pontifical  legate  ought  to  have 
put  an  end  to  all  the  dissensions  concerning  the  Chinese  Rites ; 
but  that  the  defenders  of  the  ceremonies  had  refused  to  aban- 
don them,  under  various  23retexts,  and  chiefly  relying  on  a 
misinterpretation  of  the  decree  of  Pope  Alexander  VII. 
The  Pontiff  reminded  the  Christian  world  how  Pope  Inno- 
cent XII.  had  instituted  a  commission  of  theologians,  among 
whom  was  the  vicar-apostolic  of  Hon-Quang,  then  just  re- 
turned to  Europe,  for  an  examination  of  the  questions  which 
the  Jesuits  had  presented  in  regard  to  the  pastoral  of  Mgr. 
Maigrot.  This  examination,  observes  the  Pontiff,  lasted  dur- 
ing several  years ;  and  finally,  in  1704,  the  condemnation  of  the 
ceremonies  was  issued  by  himself  (Clement  XL),  the  legate 
in  China  being  ordered  to  see  that  the  decree  was  observed. 
On  Sept.  25,  1710,  continued  the  Pope,  the  Holy  See  con- 
firmed the  decree  which,  in  accordance  with  the  pontifical 
desire,  Mgr.  de  Toucnon,  had  promulgated  on  Jan.  25, 1707  ; 
and  nevertheless,  laments  the  Head  of  the  Church,  very 
many  of  the  missionaries  were  still  disobedient.  In  con- 
clusion, therefore,  in  order  to  obviate  every  possible  subter- 
fuge in  the  future,  the  Pope  ordered  that  each  missionary 
in  China  should  subscribe,  under  oath,  to  a  formula  which  he 
would  receive  ;  and  from  the  moment  that  he  received  that 
formula  until  the  same  should  have  been  signed,  no  mission- 
ary should  presume  to  exercise  his  priestly  functions. 
Most  of  the  recalcitrants  yielded  to  this  pressure  ;  and  in 
1720,  the  Holy  See  despatched  another  legate  to  China  who 
was  to  relieve  the  unfortunates  from  the  censures  which 
they  had  incurred.  The  chosen  prelate  was  Charles  Am- 
brose Mezzabarba,  a  referendary  of  the  Segnatura,  who 
was  now  raised  to  the  dignity  of  patriarch  of  Alexandria  (2). 
On  his  arrival  in  China,  many  of   the  Jesuits  applied  for 


(1)  hoc.  Ctt.,  p.  279. 

(2)  Picot  speaks  of  Mpzzabarba  as  patriarch  of  Antioch  ;  but  all  the  contemporary  doc- 
uments ascribe  Alexandria  as  the  source  of  his  titulnr  dignity. 


THE   CONTIiOVEliSY   ON  THE  CHINESE   RITES.  fiSl 

absolution  from  their  censures ;  so  ulso  did  tlie  bishop  of 
Macao,  who  hud  incurred  excommuuieatiou  bj  ]iis  com- 
plicity in  the  iniquitous  treatment  of  the  late  legate. 

After  some  difficulty,  Mezzabarba  obtained  an  audience 
with  the  Chinese  sovereign  ;  but  he  found  that  Kang-Hi  had 
determined  to  meet  the  papal  resolution  with  a  decree  ban- 
ishicc  all  Christians  from  his  dominions.  Under  the  very 
eyes  of  the  legate,  many  were  arrested ;  and  the  persecution 
was  suspended  only  when  Mezzabarba  had  promised  to  re- 
turn to  Europe  without  exercising  any  more  acts  of  jurisdic- 
tion. The  details  of  this  embassy  are  given  in  the  narrative 
published  in  Milan  in  1739  by  Yiano,  a  Servite  who  had 
accompanied  Mezzabarba.  Much  of  Viano's  account  is  in- 
credible ;  we  therefore  decline  to  receive  his  assertion  that 
the  Jesuits  had  poisoned  the  mind  of  Kaug-Hi  against  the 
legate,  filling  it  with  apprehensions  lest  the  upholders  of 
the  pontifical  decrees  should  jjrove  to  be  rebels  to  the  civil 
authority  of  the  emperor.  Mezzabarba  returned  to  Macao  ; 
and  on  Nov.  4,  1721,  a  few  days  before  his  departure  for 
Europe,  he  issued  an  address  to  the  missionaries,  exhorting 
them  to  persevere  in  fidelity  to  the  commands  of  the  Holy 
See.  Ho  declared  that  although  it  was  not  his  intention  to 
derogate,  in  any  way,  from  the  force  of  the  Bull  Ex  Ula  die, 
nevertheless,  love  of  peace  persuaded  him  to  yield  tempo- 
rarily so  far  as  to  grant  certain  "  permissions  "  in  the  mat- 
ter of  the  Chmese  Kites.  However,  added  the  legate,  these 
"  permissions  "  were  not  to  be  made  known  to  the  neophytes, 
nor  even  to  be  t/anslated  into  the  Chinese  or  Tartar  lan- 
guage, under  pain  of  excommunication,  lata  scnteniia:  these 
"  permissions  "  could  be  used  at  the  discretion  of  each  mis- 
sionary, according  as  contingencies  might  demand.  In  fine, 
Mezzabarba  insisted  tir.it  the  general  tenor  of  the  pontifical 
prohibitions  was  to  be  held  as  inviolable.  We  note  the  "  per- 
missions "  as  they  were  afterward  recorded  in  the  Constitu- 
tion E.I-  quo  singiilari,  issued  by  Benedict  XIY.  on  Aug.  9, 
1742.  I.  It  was  allowed  to  tht.  Chinese  Christians  to  have 
in  their  domiciles  the  customary  "tablets  of  the  dead,"  in- 
scribed merely  with  the  name  of  the  deceased  ;  but  on  con- 
dition that  all  superstition  and  e\ery  danger  of  scandal  were 


682  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

avoided.  II.  Permission  v/as  given  for  ceremonies  referring 
to  the  dead,  when  those  ceremonies  were  purely  civil,  and 
therefore  free  from  any  suspicion  of  superstition.  III.  A 
purely  civil  respect  was  tolerated  for  the  memory  of  Confu- 
cius ;  candles,  eatables,  etc.,  could  be  placed  in  front  of  his 
tablets.  IV.  Candles,  incense,  etc.,  could  be  used  at  funerals, 
and  offered  for  the  funeral  expenses,  if  no  superstition  was 
intended.  V.  Prostrations  of  respect  were  allowed  before 
the  tablets,  biers,  and  corpses.  YI.  It  was  permitted  to 
place  food  at  the  side  of  a  bier,  if  respect  for  the  dead  was 
the  sole  object  of  the  act.  YII.  The  prostration  Ko  ten  be- 
fore a  tablet,  especially  on  the  Chinese  feast  of  the  New  Year, 
was  allowed  YIII.  As  in  the  case  of  biers  and  graves,  so 
candles  and  incense  could  be  used  before  tablets  which  were 
not  redolent  of  superstition.  These  "  permissions,  "  as  we 
have  observed,  were  not  to  be  made  known  indiscriminately 
to  the  neophytes,  lest  in  their  simplicity  those  converts  might 
form  an  idea  that  all  the  Chinese  ceremonies  were  laudable  ; 
nay,  the  "  permissions  "  could  not  be  communicated  to  others 
than  missionaries — aid  caiquam  qui  missionariiis  non  esset 
earn  palam  faceref.''  But  in  defiance  of  this  explicit  pro- 
hibition, the  bishop  of  Pekin,  a  Jesuit,  availed  himself  of  the 
concessions  to  convey  the  impression  that  they  manifested 
the  mind  of  the  Holy  See  in  regard  to  the  entire  matter  of 
the  Chinese  Rites  ;  that,  in  fine,  they  equivalently  j^roclaimed 
that  the  rebellious  course  of  the  Jesuits  had  been  approved 
by  the  representative  of  the  Roman  Pontiff.  The  prelate  of 
Pekin  even  dared  to  emit  two  pastorals,  dated  July  6,  and 
■  Dec.  23,  1723,  in  which  he  enjoined  on  his  clergy,  under  pain 
of  suspension  ipso  facto,  to  interpret  the  Bull  Kv  ilia  die  as 
fully  explained  by  the  "permissions."  These  pastorals 
were  condemned  by  Clement  XII.  in  1735. 

According  to  the  Continiiators  of  Alexandre's  Ecclesiastical 
History,  in  their  day  there  were  preserved  in  the  Archives  of 
the  Propaganda  documents  which  showed  that  on  Aug.  29, 
1723,  Pope  Innocent  XIII.  sent  for  Tamburini,  the  general 
of  the  Jesuits,  and  after  expressing  his  indignation  because 
of  the  persistent  disobedience  of  the  members  of  the  Society 
who  were  laboring  in  China,  told  the  general  that  the  Sec- 


THE  CONTROVERSY   ON   THE    CHINESE   RITES.  683 

retary  of  State  would  inform  him  as  to  what  His  Holiness 
required  of  him.  Pursuing  their  narrative,  the  Continuators 
say  tliat  when  Tand)uriui  waited  on  the  Secretary,  he  learned 
that  if  he  wished  the  Society  to  exist  any  longer,  he  should 
promise  as  follows  :  I.  All  the  Jesuits  would  reverently 
observe  the  provisions  of  the  Clementine  Constitution  Ex 
ilia  die.  II.  If  any  of  the  Jesuits  should  refuse  this  submis- 
sion, he  would  immediately  summon  them  to  Rome.  III. 
Within  three  years  the  Holy  See  was  to  receive  authentic 
proof  of  the  persevering  obedience  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
to  the  papal  commands.  IV.  From  that  day  no  new  mem- 
bers were  to  be  received  into  the  Society.  Y.  No  more 
Jesuits,  and  no  more  seculars  who  would  join  the  Society 
upon  their  arrival  in  China,  could  be  sent  to  the  Chinese 
missions.  \1.  The  Jesuits  then  in  China  were  to  be  ordered 
to  remain  at  their  posts  ;  but  they  were  to  perform  no 
missioijary  work  until  further  orders  from  the  Holy  See 
reached  them.  VII.  The  general  was  to  revoke  the  faculties 
possessed  by  certain  inferior  officers  of  the  Society,  whereby 
they  were  empowered  to  send  members  to  the  Orient.  VIII. 
Since  it  was  well  known  that  the  Jesuits  of  Pekin  had  pro- 
cured the  imprisonment  of  certain  missionaries,  the  general 
would  try  to  effect  the  liberation  of  those  missionaries.  IX. 
The  general  would  warn  all  his  subjects  never  again  to  dare 
to  disregard  the  Constitutions  emitted  by  the  Apostolic  See. 
X.  Father  Nicholas  Giampriamo  would  never  leave  Eome 
without  the  permission  of  the  Pope.  The  Continuators  say 
that  Tamburiui  signed  a  promise  to  observe  these  injunctions, 
and  that  the  document  was  countersigned  by  his  assistants, 
on  Sept.  13,  1723  (1).  But  whether  or  not  this  testimony  of 
the  Continuators  of  Alexandre  be  true,  it  is  certain  that  Popes 
Benedict  XIII.  and  Clement  XII,  found  no  less  obstinacy  in 
the  recalcitrant  Jesuits  than  their  predecessors  had  exper- 
ienced since  the  beginning  of  the  controversy.  When  Clem- 
ent XII.  condemned  the  pastoral  of  the  bishop  of  Pekin,  rw. 
announced  that  he  reserved  to  the  Apostolic  See  the  right  to 
determine  the  true  significance  of  the  "  permissions  "  accord- 

(1)  Supplement   to  the  EccleiiiaKtkal  UMnrij  of   Noel  Alexandre,  pt.  2,  Diss.  4. 
Biugen,  1791. 


684  STUDIES  m  church  history. 

ed  by  the  papal  legate,  Mezzabarba — "  permissions  "  wliich 
the  rebellious  missionaries  still  adduced  in  justification  of 
their  audacity.  Death  prevented  Clement  XII.  from  accom- 
plishing his  design ;  but  on  July  11,  1742,  Benedict  XIV. 
promulgated  his  Constitution  Ex  quo  singulari,  in  which, 
after  a  detailed  narrative  of  all  that  his  immediate  prede- 
cessors had  effected,  and  all  else  that  they  had  attempted, 
in  the  matter  of  the  Chinese  Eites,  he  declared  that  when 
the  patriarch  of  Alexandria  granted  the  '"'  permissions '' 
which  had  been  so  impudently  abused,  the  said  legate  of  the 
Apostolic  See  merely  used  "  a  sort  of  economy  which  was 
necessary  in  the  circumstances,  and  which  he  would  have 
abandoned,  had  he  been  able  to  discuss  the  matter  with 
learned  men  who  were  zealous  for  the  purity  of  Christian 
worship,  and  who  were  faithful  to  the  Apostolic  decisions.'' 
Then  referring  to  the  bishop  of  Pekin,  the  Pontiff  solemnly 
reprobated  that  prelate's  interpretation  of  the  "  permissions  " 
— an  interpretation  which  indicated  that  the  position  assumed 
by  the  recalcitrants  was  justifiable  (1).  Finally,  His  Holiness 
pronounced  the  "  permissions  "  superstitious  ;  and  declared 


(1)  We  give  the  text  of  this  passage:  '"  Quum  autem  patriarcha  Alexandrinus  in 
■prccalUita  pantmali  mentem  suam  satis  priidenter  expUcuisset,  nimirum  pastoralis 
suce  epistoUe  itotitia  opus  noti  esse  ad  promovendum  in  neoplujtis  erga  poutiflcia  de- 
creta  veneratianem  et  ohservantiam,  qimm  satis  esset  utjuxta  Constitutio)iis  Ponti- 
ficicE  mandata  in  via  salutis  dirigerentur ;  prceterea  qimm  omnibus  interdictnm  vol- 
uisset.  Sill)  pc^na  qunque  exeommunicationis latce sententice,  ne  quis illam  in  Sinensium 
aut  Tartaricum  sermonem  verteret,  aid  cuiquam  qui  missionarius  non  esset  earn 
pnlam  faceret ;  de  perm  issionihus  autem  quum  statuisset  non  nisi  caute,  et  uhi  tantum 
utilitasvel  necessitas  id  postitloret,  esse  evidgandas;  profecto  omnis,  ad  quern  pas- 
toralis  ilia  epistola  dirigehatw;  ex  tali  lyrocedendimodo  haud  obscure  inferre  debebat 
quantis  ille  animi  angustiis  obsessus,  et  quam  anceps  et  pcrple xus in  permissionibus 
hujusmodi  'jyroponendis  extitisset;  adcn  utoeconomia  qiiadam  vstts  fuissct  ad  loci  et 
temporis  circumstantias  prnrsus  Jiccessaria;  aqua  piUandum  est  eum  recessurum 
fxiisse,  si  libertas  siln  data  esset  rem  discidiendi  cum  episcojm  aliisque  doctis  viris  qui 
nihil  aliud  quam  Christiani  cidtus  puritatem,  et  ApostohccB  Constitid ionis  obser- 
vantiam  ante  (iculos  haberent.  At  permissiones  illw  contra  exprcssam  adeo  patri- 
arcbce  ipsius  voluntatem  enulgatce,  et  quod  mirum,  Pekini  episcopus  per  biiias  suas 
pastorales  mandavit^  siib  pcena  suspensionis  ipso  facto  incurrendce,  univcrsis  diocoesis 
snw  missionariis  ut  nbservarent  et  observari  pra^cipereut,  Constitutionem  Ex  ilia  Dei 
juxta  permissiones  quas  ipse  conteudebat  ad  ea  potissimum  referri  quae  in  prcecitata 
ConstitiUione  fuerat  snlemniter  iiiterdicta  ;  proicepit  insuper  ut  Christi  Hdcles  quater 
singiiUs  annis  in  diebus  omnium  celebeiTimis  distincte  instrne^-entur  quum  in  iis  quce 
a  patriarcha3  Alexandrini  pastorali  permittuntur.  Clemens  Papa  XII.,  pi'a:decessor 
neater,  tarn  audax  episcnpi  Pekinensis  factum  oiquo animo  ferre  liaud  potens,  mu7ieri 
sv/)  maxime  interesse  binas  illas  epi.-toZos  damnare,  ac  penitus  reprobare,  Apostolico 
Brcvi  quod  anno  173")  primndaavit.'''' 


THE   CONTROVERSY   ON    THE   CHINESE    RITES.  «)8.> 

that  they  "  should  be  as  though  they  never  had  been  "  (1). 
The  intimation  of  punishment  t\)r  the  refnu-tory  is  as  foHows  : 
"  If  any  of  the  reguhir  missionaries  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  or 
of  any  other  order,  congregation,  or  institute,  refuse — which 
God  forbid  ! — exact,  full,  absolute,  inviolable,  and  strict  obe- 
dience to  all  that  which  is  prescribed  in  this  Constitution,  we 
command  their  superiors,  both  provincial  and  general,  and 
in  virtue  of  holy  obedience,  to  remove  such  contumacious  and 
reprobate  men  from  the  missions  withoiit  delay,  to  call  them 
to  Europe,  and  to  inform  us  of  the  fact,  so  that  we  may  punish 
them  according  to  the  degree  of  their  crime.  ^  If  any  of  the 
aforesaid  provincial  or  general  superiors  do  not  obey  this  our 
command,  or  are  slow  in  obeying  it,  we  shall  not  hesitate  in 
proceeding  also  against  them,  even,  among  other  punish- 
ments, depriving  them  forever  of  the  privilege  or  faculty  of 
sending  any  members  of  their  order  to  the  missions  "'  (2).    We 


(1)  "  XoleiUes  itaque  quemqxtam  ad  Coustitutinnem  ipmm  summo  (lirUstiaiutre- 
U{fwnis  damno  maUtioge  evertendam  permismonihiui  cjimnmli  uti,  ditiiiinnisac  de- 
clarixmus  prcefcttas  jje/nii^si'iDir.s-  ita  fs.sr  hnhoidas  ac  .vi  mtnu/uam  ijiitisucut,  (nrum- 
quc  pt-a.rim  tamqiuttn  ><uijerxtifiiisain  (imitiwi  damiiamu^  ct  i.rscciainur."' 

(2)  "  Ex  privdictoriun  SancUv  liomance  Eccleakt  cardiiuiUum  cmitiUUi,  motn 
Quoqiie  proprio,  ac  certa  acientia,  maturaque  deliberatione,  turn  etiam  de  plcnitudinf 
Apnstnhcct  potestatis,  Constitutinnis  prccsentis  tenor e,  in  virttitc  naiictft  ohedientke 
prcecipimus  et  expre^ite  mandamus  omnibxis  et  singidia  airhiepigcopi^  et  cpincopisin 
Sinarum  imperio  aliisqneregnissivc  finitunUi  sive  adjacentibiis  nunc  cxiMetUibus, 
aut  olim  pi-o  tempore  futnru^,  sub  pccnis  sxispcnsiouis  a  pontificalium  cxercitio,  et  ab 
ecclesm  ingressu  interdicti,  eorum  vera  officialibus  et  vicariis  in  spiritidibtis  general- 
ibus,  alli!<que  eorumdem  locorum  ordinariis  vicariis,  turn  etiam  eoiutn  provicariis, 
et  insiiper  missionariis  universis  tarn  nacularibii^  quam  rcgidnrilius,  cujiiticumque 
ordinis,  congregationis,  institidi,  etiam  Societatis  Jem,  sub  puiiis  privatUmis 
qiuirrimcximque  quitnis  gaudent  facuUatum,  et  suspensionis  ab  exercHin  eurer  anima- 
rum,  turn  etiam  stii>pensionis  a  rfiridi-s  ipso  facto  incurrendcv al)sque  (dia  derlaratUme, 
demum  excommunication  is  latcesententia,aqua  uou  possint  nisi  a  nobis  et  a  Romano 
Pontifice  pro  tempore  exUtentc  absolvi,  prctter  quam  i7i  articjdo  mortis  cnnstitutU 
addita  quoad  regulares  etiam  x'ocis  activ(v  et  passiv<v  privationis  prcna.  ))rctci))imus 
et  districte  mandamus  xd  omnia  et  singula  quw  in  hac  nosfj-a  Owstitutione  cordinen- 
tur,  cxacte,  integre,  absohUe,  inviolabiUter,  atque  immobiliter,  non  modo  ipsi  oUser- 
vent,  sed  etiam  omni  coiiatu  ac  studio  en  ipsa  obxcrvari  curent  a  sitigrdis  et  unii'ersis 
qui  quoqiKmiodo  ad  eorum  curnm  et  regimen  spectant ;  nee  colore,  causa,  occnsione. 
sell  pr(vtcxtu  aliquo  huic  nostrce  ConstUutioni  ulla  in  parte  coutraire  axd  adrrrsari 
audcatd  rcl  pncsumant.  Prceterea  quoad  missionarios  regidarcscujuscumqucordinis 
congregationis. instituti.acSocictatisquoqucJcsu.sieiui.'i  eorum  (quod  Dew-s  arertat!) 
exactam  integram.  absolutam.  inviolnliUrtn.strictamque  obetiientiamdruegaverit  iU> 
quceauobis  pr(csenti.<i  huj>is  Const itutioui.tteuorc  statuuuturncprrccipiuutur.  eorum 
gupcrioribus  tam  provinciaUtnwfquam  generalibu.'i  iu  virtrde  snuctce  obedientiw  er- 
presse  maudamu.'^.  ut  homines  hujuimodi,  contumaces.  perditos,  ac  refraciarios  a  mis- 
sionibus  absquexdla  morcdimox^eant.  eosqxic  in  Kuropam  statim  re%^o.^ent.  ae  de  illis 
xiotitiam  nobis  exhibcant,  xdreog  pro  graxntate  criminv<  punire,  valcan}xts.  Quod  si 
prcedicti  superiores  provinciales  aid  generalcs  huic  xwstro  y/reecepto  minus  obtemper- 


686  STUDIES  EN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

subjoin  the  form  of  the  oath  which,  in  accordance  with  this 
Constitution  of  Pope  Benedict  XIV.,  each  missionarj;  in  China 
was  ordered  to  take,  ere  he  could  exercise  his  functions  : "  I, 
N.,  a  missionary  sent  to  China  by  the  Apostolic  See  or  by  my 
superiors  in  accordance  with  the  faculties  given  to  them  by  the 
same  Apostolic  See,  have  clearly  understood  and  shall  fully 
and  faithfully  obey  the  mandate  of  the  Holy  See  concerning 
the  Chinese  Rites,  which  is  contained  in  the  Constitution  of 
Pope  Clement  XI.  which  treats  of  that  matter,  and  which  is 
prescribed  in  the  formula  of  this  present  oath.  I  shall  ob- 
serve it  exactly,  absolutely,  and  inviolably  ;  fulfilling  its  in- 
junctions without  any  tergiversation  ;  and  I  shall  strive  with 
all  my  power  to  induce  the  same  obedience  on  the  part  of  all 
the  Chinese  Christians  whose  spiritual  direction  may  be  com- 
mitted to  my  care.  Furthermore,  if  I  can  prevent  them,  I 
shall  never  allow  the  Chinese  Christians  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  '  permissions '  which  were  accorded  at  Macao  on  Nov. 
4,  1721,  in  the  pastoral  letter  of  the  patriarch  of  Alexandria, 
and  which  have  been  condemned  by  our  Most  Holy  Pontiff, 
Pope  Benedict  XIV.  And  if  I  should  ever  fail  in  this  prom- 
ise (which  God  forbid !),  I  shall  proclaim  myself,  on  each 
occasion  of  such  failure,  as  subject  to  all  the  penalties  imposed 
in  the  aforesaid  Constitutions.  Thus  I  promise,  vow,  and 
swear  on  the  Gospels  of  God "  (1).  The  majority  of  the 
hitherto  refractory  Jesuits  now  yielded  to  the  exhortations 
and  menaces  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ ;  and  in  a  few  years  the 

averint,  aut  in  co  dcsides  fuerint,  nos  contra  ipsos  quoque  proccdere  non  rectisa- 
bimiis,  atque  inter  cmtera  mittendi  aliqucm  ex  ipsorum  ordine  in  earum  regionum 
missiones  privilegio  seu  facilitate  eos  pcrpetuo  jjj-ivabimws." 

(1)  "  Ego,  N.,  missionariits  ad  Sinan  (vel  ad  regnum  N.)  ,  a  Sede  ApostoUca  vel  a 
siiperinribus  meis  jiixta  facxdtates  eis  a  Sede  Apontnlica  concesaas missns  vel  destinatus 
prce^ceptn  ac  maudato  ApostoUco  stiper  ritibus  ac  ceremoniis  Sinensibiis  in  Constitu- 
tione  dementis  Papce  XL  hae  de  re  edita,  qua  pi-cBsentis  juramenti  formida 
prcescripta  est  cnntentf),  ac  mihi  perintegram  ejusdem  Constitutionislecttiram  ap- 
primenoto  plene  ac  fideliter  parebo ;  illudque  exacte,  absolute,  ac  inviolabiliter 
observabo,  et  absque  nlla  tergiversatione  adimplcbo;  atque  p^'o  virili  enitar  ut  a 
Christianis  Sinensibus,  quorum  spiritualem  directionem  quoquomodn  me  habere  con- 
tigerit.similis  obedientia  prcestetur.  Ac  iiisuper,  quantum  in  me  est,  miinquam  pat- 
iar  ut  ritus  et  ceremonice  Sinenses  in  Uteris  pastoralib^is  Patriarch rs  Alexandrini 
Macai  datis  die  IV.  Novembris,  1721,  permissce,  ac  a  San ctissi mo  Domino  Nostra 
Benedicto  Papa  XIV.  damiiatce,  ab  eisdem  Christianis  ad  praxim  dedricantrir.  Si 
autem  {quod  Deus  avertat)  quoquomodo  contravene7-im,  toties  quoties  id  evenerit^ 
pccnis  per  prcedictas  Constitutiones  impositis  me  subjectum  agnosco  et  declaro- 
Ita  tactis  Evangelils  promitto,  xmveo,  etjurn.  Sic  me  Detis  adjuvet,  et  hcecuanc- 
tissima  Dei  Evangelia.    Ego,  N.,  manu  propria.  " 


HETERODOXIES   OF    IJUSSIAX    "  OKTHODOXY."  OST 

Controversy  on  tlie  Cliinese  Rites  was  happilLv  relegated  to 
the  domain  of  Ecclesiastical  History. 


CHAPTER    XI, 

HETERODOXIES   OF   RUSSIAN   "ORTHODOXY." 

Many  misconceptions  concerning  the  Greek  Schism  and 
its  offshoots  have  found  lodgment  in  the  minds  of  Western 
people,  especially  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  of  North  America.  Until  recently  very  few  Russian 
or  other  Oriental  Schismatics  came  to  our  shores,  and  very 
few  even  of  our  more  educated  Americans  have  cared  to 
know  anything  about  their  sjiiritual  condition  and  religious 
history.  Then  we  have  been  accustomed  to  hear  that  the 
Russian  Church  "is  almost  Catholic;''  or  that  "it  is  Catholic 
in  everything,  save  the  Pope;"  or  the  real  truth  that  "it 
has  a  true  episcopate  and  a  true  priesthood,  the  Holy  Mass 
and  all  the  Seven  Sacraments;''  and  the  more  simple- 
minded  among  American  Catholics  have  come  to  believe 
implicitly,  certainly  not  explicitly,  that  perhaps  after  all 
the  poor  Schismatics  are  about  as  well  off  spiritually  as  is 
the  obedient  flock  of  him  to  whom  Our  Lord  and  Saviour 
said:  "Feed  my  sheep!"  Again,  comparatively  few  among 
us  have  had  anything  like  an  accurate  notion  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "Schism,"  unless  in  its  philological  sense; 
and  hence  it  seemed  quite  natural  to  think  of  a  Russian  as 
only  or  merely  a  Schismatic,  one  who  might  not  be  on  the 
straight  road  which  Christ  indicated  as  leading  to  heaven, 
but  who,  at  any  rate,  skirted  the  road,  and  who,  with  a 
little  care,  might  avoid  the  ditches  at  its  sides.  We  heard, 
now  and  then,  of  some  unfortunate  priest  who  disobeyed 
his  bishop,  and  who,  followed  by  some  poor  ignoramuses 
or  perhaps  by  some  problematical  Catholics,  set  up  a  little 
"(Catholic  Church"  of  his  own.  We  pitied  the  poor  schis- 
matics, and  in  time  we  saw  them  all  returning  to  the 
obedience  of  him  who  was  commissioned  by  the  Vicar  of 
Christ;  but  in  all  such  instances  we  failed  to  apprehend 
the  deep  significance  of  the  terra  "Schismatic"  in  the  sense 


GS8  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTOEY. 

in  which  it  is  applied  to,  and  deserved  by,  thf  'separated 
churches  of  the  East."  The  great  raiser j  of  all  the  Oriental 
Schismatic  churche*';  including  the  Russian,  the  principal 
oiie,  is  found  in  the  stubborn  fact  that  each  of  them  is  his- 
torically and  theologically  heretical.  The  poor  man,  or  set 
of  men,  who  simply  refuse  to  obey  the  authority  divinely 
established  in  the  Church,  may  be  merely  schismatical;  but 
they  who  absolutely  deny  the  supremacy  of  the  successors 
of  Peter  are  heretics  purely  and  simply,  since  they  deny  an 
article  of  Catholic  faith.  Again,  the  "Orthodox"  Russian 
Church  is  heretical  because  it  denies  the  Catholic  dogmas 
of  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  Father  and 
from  the  Son;  of  the  existence  of  Purgatory;  of  the  Immacu- 
late Conception  of  Our  Lady;  and  of  the  Infallibility  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff.  The  time  was  when  there  was  no  great 
need  for  an  accurate  perception  of  this  truth  by  the  Catho- 
lics of  this  republic;  but  now  that  large  numbers  of  Rus- 
sian and  Greek  Schismatics  are  dwelling  among  us,  too  fre- 
quently mixing  with  our  Catholic  congregations,  and  not 
seldom  causing  dissension  among  them  (whether  as  emis- 
saries of  the  Holy  Synod  or  not,  we  are  unaware);  now,  we 
insist,  our  people  should  be  taught  the  wicked  absurdity  of 
which  they  would  be  guilty,  were  they  to  palliate  the  hei- 
nousness  of  rending  the  seamless  garment  of  Christ  by  the 
cherishing  of  such  a  thought  as  that  expressed  in  the  as- 
severation: "The  Russian  Church  is  merely  schismatical.'' 
Reflections  such  as  these  have  prompted  us  to  dilate  to  some 
extent  on  the  heterodoxies  of  which  Russian  "Orthodoxy" 
is  culpable,  and  upon  some  of  the  flagrant  inconsistencies 
into  which  its  heretical  blindness  and  obstinacy  have  led  it. 
One  of  the  principal  grievances  of  Russian  "Orthodoxy" 
against  the  Roman  Church  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
Mother  Church  administers  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism  by 
"infusion"  instead  of  by  "immersion."  For  the  Russian,  as 
well  as  the  Constantinopolitan  Schismatic  theology,  holds 
that  immersion  is  probably  of  the  very  essence  of  valid  bap- 
tism; and  therefore,  say  all  the  separatist  Eastern  Chris- 
tians, the  efficacy  of  the  Roman  rite  of  baptism  is  at  the 
best  problematical.     Thus,  in  the  reply  to  Gagarin's  Will 


HETERODOXIES  OF  IIUSSIAN    "  ()i;Tll()l)(»XY."  689 

Russia  Eccci::c  Catholic:'  written  l»v  Karatlieodori,  pb.vsiciau 
to  the  Sultiui  of  Turkey,  umler  the  title  of  Orthodoxy 
and  Popery,  we  are  told  that  "the  baptism  of  the  Latins 
is  not  a  true  baptism,"  althoujjfh,  accordinj?  to  the  medical 
theologian,  "it  may  be  adopted  in  case  of  urgent  necessity." 
( lagaiin,  one  of  the  most  learned  and  judicious  of  the  niodei-n 
converts  from  the  Russian  Establishment,  informs  us  that 
this  same  doctrine  is  inculcated  in  many  works  which 
have  received  the  ap]»robation  of  the  Hussian  Holy  Synod; 
and  we  know  that  after  the  rupture  of  the  reunion 
of  the  Eastei-n  Schismatics  with  the  Catholic  Church 
which  the  Council  of  Florence  had  effected  in  1480, 
and  after  the  deposition  of  Isidore,  the  Muscovite  patriarch 
w'ho  had  signed  the  Act  of  Reunion,  his  successor  decreed: 
"The  Russians  must  rebaptize  all  Roman  converts  to  their 
faith,  since  the  Westerns  baptize  only  by  infusion,  a  con- 
demnable  practice  which  renders  the  rite  null  and  void." 
But.  strange  to  say,  in  the  face  of  this  opinion  of  the  Holy 
"Orthodox"  Church,  and  despite  the  tremendous  importance 
of  Baptism  in  the  minds  of  Russian  theologians,  it  is  not  the 
custom  of  the  "Orthodox"  clergy  to  insist  on  a  rebaptism, 
even  on  a  conditional  one,  of  such  Catholics  and  Protestants 
as  embrace  the  Photian  Schism.  None  of  the  German  Prot- 
estant princesses  who  enter  the  imperial  Russian  family, 
not  even  the  one  who  becomes  Czarina,  is  asked  to  submit 
to  what  "Orthodoxy"  pronounces  essential  to  her  status  as 
a  Christian ;  she  is  simply  required  to  declare  her  adhesion 
to  the  Holy  "Orthodox"  Church  of  Russia,  even  though 
there  is  very  great  probability  that,  owing  to  the  not  un- 
common carelessness  of  Protestants  m  the  essentials  of  the 
baptismal  rite,  the  "converted"  lady  is  a  mere  Pagan.  The 
clergy  of  Holy  Russia  are  not  shaken  out  of  their  supine- 
ness  by  the  fact  that  some  day  the  possibly  Pagan  Czarina, 
like  that  Princess  of  Anhalt-Zerbst  who  became  the  in- 
famous Catharine  II.,  may  become  in  time  the  Russian  Pope 
as  su])reme  mistr(^ss  of  their  Holy  Synod.  They  know  that 
the  leckerous  "Semiramis  of  the  North"  was  not  rebaptized 
when  she  married  Peter  III. ;  and  the  fairly  well-read  among 
them  know  that  Catharine  avowed  to  the  sycophantic  philo- 


090  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

sophist,  Voltaire,  that  the  Russian  Church  does  not  rebap- 
tize  its  converts  from  Catholicism  or  from  Protestantism  (1). 
In  our  own  day  there  have  been  instances  of  wholesale  so- 
called  ''conversions"  to  the  Russian  Establishment  on  the 
part  of  Polish  Catholics,  thanks  to  the  knout,  the  bayonet, 
starvation,  fear  of  Siberia,  and,  above  all,  to  treachery  and 
chicanery  (2) ;  and  in  no  instance  were  these  "converts"  rebap- 
tized,  thanks  to  Pet?p  the  Great,  the  instituTor  of  the  Holy 
Synod,  who  by  virtue  of  his  autocratic  power  abrogated  the 
decree  of  tlie  Patriarch  Jonas,  thus  opening  to  many  a  per- 
haps unbaptized  Protestant  the  way  to  the  priesthood  and 
even  the  episcopate  in  the  Russian  Cliurch.  It  is  worthy 
of  remark  that  the  more  intellectual  among  the  "Orthodox" 
clergy  have  frequently  appreciated  the  significance  of  this 
inconsistency,  especially  when  they  reflected  on  the  more 
consistent  practice  of  the  clergy  of  the  Constantinopolitan 
Schismatic  Patriarchate,  from  which  they  pretend  to  derive 
their  origin,  and  with  which  they  communicate;  they  have 
endeavored  to  explain  away  the  contradiction  in  a  very 
curious  fashion.  Thus,  in  the  Causcric  Ecdcsiastique,  a  peri- 
odical published  by.  the  Ecclesiastical  Academy  of  St. 
Petersburg  under  the  very  ej^es  of  the  Holy  Synod,  we  read 
in  the  issue  of  September  17,  18G6:  "The  Greek  Church 
(Schismatic)  admits  willingly  the  validity  of  baptism  given 
by  infusion;  but  it  demands  from  converted  Latins  a  new 
baptism  in  order  that  it  may  draw  a  well-defined  line  of  de- 
marcation between  the  Greeks  and  the  Latins — in  fact,  the 
Greek  Church  so  dreads  a  possible  reconciliation  with  Rome 
that  it  has  thought  it  wise  to  make  the  Greeks  believe  that 
the  Latins  are  in  no  sense  Christians."  It  is  amusing  to 
note  that  the  famous  William  Palmer  (3),  while  still  involved 

(1)  On  December  27, 1773,  O.  S.  (  January  7,  21774  ),  Catharine  wrote  to  Voltaire,  who  had 
aUuded  to  his  impression  that  the  "  Orthodox  "  rebaptized  their  converts  from  other 
Christian  denominations  :  "  As  head  of  the  Russian  Church  I  cannot  allow  you  to  persist  in 
this  mlstalce.    We  do  not  rebaptize." 

(:i)See  our  Vol.  v.,  eh.  3. 

(;!)  William  Palmer,  one  of  the  luminaries  of  the  Oxford  Movement,  characterized  by  Dean 
Church  as  "  a  man  of  exact  and  scholastic  mind,  well  equipped  at  all  points  in  controversial 
theology,"  was  perhaps  most  famous  for  his  attempt  to  effect  a  union  between  the  Russian 
and  the  Anglican  Establishments.  His  efforts  resulted  only  In  his  being  told  by  the  Greco- 
Slavonic  heretics  that  he  should  be  reconciled  with  his  own  patriarch,  ere  he  extended  the 
olive-branch  to  the  sapanvtist  patriarchates  of  the  Orient.    He  became  a  Catholic  in  1856 


HETEItODOXIES    OF    IIUSSIAN    "  OHTHODOXY."  691 

in  the  mazes  of  the  English  Koyal  Establishnieut,  discovered 
that  if  he  wished  to  become  a  Constantiuopolitan  Schis- 
matic a  tiip  to  St.  Petersburg  would  disi»('nse  him  fiom  are- 
baptism.  "There  is  a  wa.v  out  of  the  ditlicult.v,"  he  opined, 
"a  trip  to  St.  Petersburg  will  settle  the  matter.  I  can  join 
Iho  Kussian  (MuhhIi  without  being  rebaptized;  then  I  can 
go  to  Constantinople,  and  since  the  'Orthodox'  and  the 
Greek  (Schismatic)  Churches  communicate,  I  can  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  sacraments  and  even  to  the  priesthood  at  the 
hands  of  His  Greek  (Ecumenicity"  (1). 

No  less  striking  than  that  in  reference  to  baptism  is  the 
inconsistency  of  the  Russian  "Orthodox"  Church  in  regard 
to  the  dissolubility  of  matrimony.  According  to  the  olden 
doctrine  of  that  Church,  just  as  according  to  that  of  its 
pretended  source,  the  Schismatic  Greek  Church,  a  consum- 
mated Christian  marriage  can  be  dissolved  only  because  of 
adultery;  but  in  practice  there  are  now  one  hundred  and 
ninety-five  cases  in  which  the  tie  of  marriage  may  be  nulli- 
fied. One  of  the  most  interesting  modern  instances  of  this 
flagrant  inconsistency  was  that  of  the  divorce  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Constantine,  brother  of  Alexander  I.,  from  his  wife, 
Anna  Feodorowna.  Not  a  soul  breathed  a  word  against 
the  matrimonial  fidelity  of  the  princess;  the  state  of  her 
health  compelled  her  to  live  apart  from  her  husband;  and 
he  had  fallen  in  love  with  the  Countess  Grudzinska.  On 
March  20  (April  2),  1820,  Alexander  I.  made  known  to  all 
his  subjects  that  the  Holy  Synod,  "relying  on  the  precise 
text  of  the  thirty-fifth  Canon  of  St.  Basil  the  Great,  declared 
that  the  marriage  of  the  Grand  Duke  and  Czarwitch,  Con- 
stantine Paulowitch,  with  the  Grand  Duchess,  Anna  Feo- 
dorowna, was  dissolved,  and  that  he  was  free  to  contract 
a  new  marriage."  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how 
many  members  of  this  Holy  Synod,  this  servile  creature  of 
the  autocrat,  were  acquainted  with  the  life  of  one  of  the 
glories  of  the  Greek  Church — St.  Theodore  Studita,  who 
flourished  at  a  period  when  the  Eastern  Churches  were  still 
devotedly  attached  to  the  communion  of  the  Apostolic  See. 
When  the  (xreek  emperor,  Constantine  VI.  (Porphyrogeni- 

(1);  See  Palmer's  Eastern  Question,  p.  10. 


692  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

lus),  having  discarded  his  wife  and  contracted  a  "marriage'' 
with  his  concubine,  Theodota,  was  upheld  by  a  concili- 
abulum  of  courtier  prelates  like  those  who  are  the  slaves  ot- 
the  Protasoffs,  etc.,  of  our  day,  Theodore  protested  against 
the  legalized  adultery;  and  from  his  dungeon  he  wrote  to 
the  Father  of  the  Faithful,  Pope  St.  Leo  III.:  "Since  Our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  confided  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  to  Peter,  and  afterward  conferred  on  him  the  dig- 
nity of  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  it  is  our  duty  to  make  known 
to  the  successor  of  Peter  such  innovations  as  are  introduced 
into  the  Church  of  God.  .  .  .  Oh  divine  superior  of  all 
superiors!  There  has  been  formed  here,  according  to  the 
expression  of  Jeremiah,  an  assembly  of  prevaricators  and 
a  meeting  of  adulterers."  But  the  members  of  the  Holy 
Sj-nod  were  then,  as  they  have  ever  been  and  still  are,  of 
calibre  diametrically  contrary  to  that  of  the  Studita;  as  for 
the  support  which  they  pretended  to  find  in  a  Canon  of  St. 
Basil,  it  is  evident  that  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  Grand 
Duke  there  was  no  question  of  adultery,  so  in  the  adduced 
canon  there  was  no  question  of  divorce,  but  simply  one  of  a 
more  or  less  grave  ecclesiastical  censure  to  be  visited  on 
spouses  who  separated  "from  bed  and  board"  (1).  But  in- 
stances like  this  of  Constantine  Paulowitch  are  insignificant 
when  compared  with  the  consequences  of  a  ukase  of  Nicho- 
las L  permitting  new  marriages  to  all  Catholic  wives  whose 
husbands  had  been  sent  or  would  be  sent  to  Siberia,  to 
prison,  or  to  forced  labor  in  the  mines — ^providing,  of  course, 
that  they  would  promise  to  raise  their  children,  future  and 
already  born,  in  the  Church  of  tht  State.  The  reader  who 
has  accompanied  us  in  our  investigations  into  the  martyrdom 

(1)  Cardinal  Pltra  ^ves  the  text  of  this  Canon  in  his  History  and  Monuments  of  the 
Ecclesiastical  Law  of  the  Greeks,  Vol.  i.  p.  692  : 

'Etti  6e  Tov  KaTa\ei()>eivTO<;  avSpo^vno  t^s  yvvaLKOiyrnv  aiTiav  XP»)  tTKOntiv  t^s  eyicaTaXen/fews- 
KOLV  <;>ar5  aK6yu><;  avaxuipricracra,  b  nev  cruyyi'co/u.T)?  earXv  agio's,  i)  Se  eiriTi/xi'ov  17  fie  a-vyyviafiri  toutm 
/rp"?  TO  KOivutreh'  Tr)  eicKArjcria  SoSijceTai. 

The  following  is  a  free  but  accurate  translation  :  "  If  a  man  has  been  abandoned  by  his 
wife,  the  reason  for  the  abandonment  must  be  Investiorated  ;  and  if  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  just  reason,  the  husband  will  deserve  indulgence,  while  the  wife  will  merit 
punishment,  the  indulgence  toward  the  husband  consisting  in  his  not  being  segregated 
from  the  communion  of  the  Church."  The  judicious  Oratorian,  Lescceur,  in  his  valuable 
work  entitled  The  Church  in  Poland  (Paris.  1876),  tells  us  that  he  compared  the  Greek 
text  with  the  Slavonic  of  the  Kniga  Pravil,  or  Book  of  Canons  of  the  Russian  Church, 
and  with  the  Kormtchaia  Kniga,  used  by  the  Holy  Synod  in  1830.  and  that  he  found 
the  three  versions  agreed. 


HETEUODOXIES     OF    UUSSLVN    "  OllTHODOXY."  693 

of  ruland  Irdiii  the  davs  of  Voltaire's  '*St.  Catharine"  to 
the  advent  of  the  present  Czar,  and  who  is  therefore  able 
to  appreciate  the  initpiities  of  the  j^reat  majority  of  the 
'•criminals"  who  have  laugnished  in  Knssian  penal  establish- 
ments, will  understand  how  widesi)read  wonld  have  been 
the  desolation  if  most  of  the  Polish  women  had  not  been 
worthy  of  their  (\itholic  ancestors  (1).  We  wonld  merely  note 
that  by  the  provisions  of  his  matrimonial  ukase  Nicholas  I. 
simply  enforced  the  principles  of  modern  Liberalism  re- 
g:ardin<j  the  compeiency  of  the  State,  and  the  incompetency 
of  the  Church,  in  mat^'imonial  causes — principles  which  an 
American  i)roconsul  has  recently  actuated  in  Cuba,  in  illus- 
tration of  the  beauties  of  a  new  "civilization,"  and  which 
were  interpreted  for  the  benefit  of  Pope  Gregory  XVI.  by 
Count  Gourieff,  Russian  Ambassador  at  the  Vatican,  when 
in  a  memorial  ad  hoc  presented  to  the  Pontiff  in  Maj',  1833, 
he  impudently  asserted  that  "the  pretensions  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church  in  regard  to  matrimony  constitute  an  attack  on 
the  prerogatives  of  the  State,  and  that  the  efforts  of  the 
Roman  Court  in  behalf  of  those  pretensions  are  mere  at- 
tempts to  actuate  certain  enactments  of  ancient  Councils 
7i'hich  have  riozv  fallen  into  desuetude."'  Such  inanities  as  these 
of  the  little  diplomat  call  for  no  attention.  Let  us  rather 
use  some  of  our  limited  space  for  a  few  observations  on  the 
manner  in  which  the  Canon  Law  of  "Orthodoxy"  came  to 
recognize  the  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  causes  for  disso- 
lution of  matrimony  which  are  unknown  to  the  Divine  and 
to  the  original  Russian  Ecclesiastical  Law.  In  every  age  of 
the  Christian  era,  just  as  in  the  days  of  the  Old  Law  and 
of  Gentile  Paganism,  the  conflict  between  the  ecclesiastical 
and  the  civil  power  has  been  perennial ;  and  such  it  will  be 
until  the  end  of  time,  since  the  average  human  ruler  will 
ever  refuse  to  act  as  though  he  recognized  that  between  him 
and  his  subjects  there  is  always  extended  the  ordaining  and 
guiding  hand  of  God.  Rulers  like  Charlemagne,  St.  Ed- 
ward, St.  Louis  IX.  and  Garcia  Moreno  are  seldom  granted, 
even  to  Christian  peoples.  Thus  the  Eastern  Emperors, 
even  while  the  Eastern  Patriarchates  were  still  devotedly 

n)5eeour  Vol.  v.,  ch.3. 


694  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

bound  to  the  Chair  of  Peter  in  ecclesiastical  and  filial  com- 
munion, frequently  pretended  to  a  right  to  arrange  matri- 
monial causes  according  to  their  momentary  whims,  Jus- 
tinian, by  his  Novella  117,  admitted  six  reasons  for  divorce 
in  favor  of  a  husband  and  five  in  favor  of  a  wife,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  even  the  Eastern  Church,  when  it  mistakenly 
relied  on  a  false  interpretation  of  certain  verses  of  St.  Mat- 
thew, allowed  divorce  only  in  the  case  of  adultery.  Then, 
just  as  in  later  days  in  the  case  of  the  United  Greeks,  the 
Holy  See  could  only  protest,  and  exclaim:  ^^Ipsi  viderintr 
But  the  condemnation  was  launched  against  this  violation 
of  the  law  of  God,  and  the  obstinate  and  puerile  Orientals 
could  enjoy  such  satisfaction  as  may  be  derived  from  con- 
tinuing a  practice  which  is  reprobated  by  the  Vicar  of 
Christ.  In  time  the  sins  of  the  Lower  Empire  merited  for 
it  the  usurpation  of  Photius,  the  imperial  sword-bearer;  and 
when  governmental  brute  force  had  detached  the  Constan- 
tinopolitan  Patriarchate  from  the  communion  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church,  the  intruder  compiled  a  new  code  of  Canon  Law 
which  he  designated  as  a  Nomocanon,  and  in  which  he  in- 
corporated all  the  Novcllae  of  Justinian.  From  that  day  the 
canonists  of  the  Constantinopolitan  Schism,  and  those  of  all 
the  derivatives  of  that  Schism,  have  accorded  a  place,  aye, 
even  the  first  place,  to  the  matrimonial  ordinances  of  a  civil 
government.  Nor  should  we  forget  that  Photius  augmented 
the  matrimonial  consequences  of  the  Justinian  Novella  by 
the  addition  of  three  new  causes  for  divorce;  for  that  mat- 
ter, the  Canon  Law  of  the  Walachian  Greek  Schismatics 
admits  three  others.  And  we  must  note  that  the  most  re- 
cent Collection  of  Canon  Law  received  by  the  Schismatic 
Greeks,  the  one  compiled  by  Bhalli,  the  president  of  the 
Athenian  Areopagus,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Holy  Synod 
of  the  governmental  Hellenic  Church  (1856),  opens  with  the 
Nomocanon  of  the  disreputable  Photius,  and  eulogizes  the 
reprobate  in  most  extravagant  terms.  From  these  obseiTa- 
tions  the  reader  will  understand  the  readiness  with  which 
the  Holy  Synod  recognized  the  Nicholaite  one  hundred  and 
ninety-five  causes  for  the  dissolution  of  the  matrimonial 
tie,  when  it  failed  to  breathe  a  word  of  disapproval  of  them. 


HETEUODOXIES  OF   RUSSIAN    •'ORTHODOXY."  005 

and  allowed  the  "Orthodox"  clergy  to  bless  the  unions 
which  were  contracted  in  accordance  with  the  imperial  dis- 
pensations. It  is  true  that  these  priWleges  of  Satan  were 
ostensibly  granted  to  the  Poles  alone;  but  we  fail  to  compre- 
hend how  an  autocrat  can  possess  religious  jurisdiction  over 
one  portion  of  his  "thrice  blessed  subjects,"  and  not  over  all 
of  them.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  the  case  of  the  hundred 
and  ninetj-five  dissolving  causes  was  a  matter  of  the  civil 
law.  In  Russia  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  law  emanate 
from  the  same  source;  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  autocrat 
cannot  be  supposed  to  regard  his  civil  and  his  ecclesiastical 
enactments  as  mutually  destructive;  and  when  the  "Ortho- 
dox" priests  perform  a  religious  rite  with  the  consent  of  the 
Holy  Synod,  that  tribunal  must  be  supposed  to  approve  the 
act  (1).  However,  we  cannot  drop  this  subject  of  Russian 
Caesarian  usurpation  in  matters  of  matrimony  without  an 
admission  that  in  our  day  there  have  been  many  abuses  by 
Polish  Catholics  in  the  matter  of  divorce;  there  have  been 
adduced  nullifying  reasons  which  had  been  deliberately  ig- 
nored by  the  contracting  parties  at  the  time  of  the  marriages. 
But  we  must  remember  that  in  the  premises  there  is  one 
great  difference  between  the  conduct  of  the  "Orthodox" 
Schismatics  and  that  of  the  Catholic  Church,  namely,  the 
protestation  which  the  latter,  when  suffering  because  of 
human  passions,  never  fails  to  emit.  The  Catholic  Church 
is  never  derelict  in  this  matter,  even  though  the  blood  of 
her  bishops  and  priests  must  necessarily  flow  in  conse- 
quence of  her  steadfastness.  In  1830,  when  Poland  still  had 
a  semblance  of  a  National  Diet,  that  assembly  heard  the 
courageous  protests  of  the  Polish  bishops  against  the  fre- 
quent violations  of  tlie  Ecclesiastical  Canons  in  matrimonial 
causes,  and  it  was  in  spite  of  those  protests  that  supposedly 
nullifying  reasons  were  relegated  to  tlie  consideration  of  the 
civil  tribunals,  and  that  the  apostolic  zeal  of  Gutkowski, 
Bishop  of  Podlachia,  and  of  Skorkowski,  Bishop  of  Cracow, 
entailed  upon  them  dismissal  trom  the  capital  before  the 
dissolution  of  the  Diet. 

0.)  For  details  ooncerninR  the  matter  of  imperial  Interference  in  matriraonlal  causes  In 
the  days  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  the  reader  may  profitably  consult  Perrone's  Christian 
Matrimouij,  Vol.  iii  ,  p.  397,  (tscf/q.    Rome,  1858. 


696  STUDIES   IN  CHUllCH  HISTORY. 

The  great  "reformer''  of  the  Muscovite  Church,  and  also 
its  greatest  robber,  was  the  Czar,  Ivan  the  Terrible;  and  ac- 
cording to  him  the  foulest  error  of  the  "Western  heretics" 
was  the  shaving  of  the  beard.  In  an  edict  which  this  Head 
of  the  "Orthodox"  Church  issued  in  1551,  being  unaware 
that  another  Kussian  Supreme  Pontiff,  the  "great"  Peter, 
would  one  day  enact  the  contrary,  he  proclaimed  that  "the 
effusion  of  a  martyr's  blood  would  not  atone  for  this  crime." 
However,  with  all  due  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  terrible 
Ivan,  the  modern  clergy  of  Holy  Russia  agree  with  their 
cousins  of  the  Schismatic  Constantinopolitan  Patriarchate 
and  with  the  derivative  Churches  of  that  separatist  organ- 
ization, in  the  declaration  that  the  prime  justification  of  the 
Photian  rebellion  must  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
Roman  Pontiffs  had  confirmed  the  "heretical"  teaching  ac- 
cording to  which  the  Holy  G^host  proceeds  from  the  Father 
and  from  the  Son.  In  fact,  the  doctrine  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
proceeds  from  the  Father  alone  is  the  cardinal  dogma  ot 
the  "Orthodox"  belief.  And  nevertheless,  in  the  most  im- 
portant official  act  which  the  Russian  Establishment  has 
performed  in  modern  times,  namely,  the  declaration  of  the 
Holy  Synod  dated  March  25, 1839,  whereby  certain  apostates 
from  Catholicism,  a  few  United  Greek  bishops  of  Lithu- 
ania, were  received  into  the  communion  of  the  Russian  Es- 
tablishment, no  recantation  of  "the  most  damnable  Latin 
heresy"  was  demanded  from  the  "converts."  The  sole  re- 
quisite for  an  admission  to  the  yearning  embrace  of  Holy 
Russia  was  a  renunciation  of  obedience  to  the  Pope  of  Rome. 
Listen  to  the  text  of  the  Synodal  declaration:  "Their  solemn 
j)rofession  that  Our  Lord  and  God,  Jesus  Christ,  is  alone 
the  veritable  Head  of  the  One  and  True  Church,  and  their 
promise  to  persevere  in  unity  with  the  holy  orthodox  pa- 
triarchs of  the  East  and  with  this  Holy  Synod,  leave  nothingi 
for  us  to  demand  from  these  members  of  the  United  Greek" 
Chuch  in  order  to  effect  their  true  and  essential  union  in  the 
faith;  and  therefore  nothing  prohibits  their  hierarchical 
reunion  with  us.  Therefore  the  Holy  Synod,  by  virtue  of 
the  grace  and  power  given  to  it  by  God  the  Father,  hy  Our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  has  resolved 


HETERODOXIES  OF  RUSSLiN  "  ORTHODOXY."        697 

aud  detret'd,"  etc.  And  tlien  the  Holy  Synod  warns  the 
"converted"  prelates  not  to  trouble  their  flocks,  whom  they 
hoped  to  dra{;  with  themselves  into  the  vortex  of  the  schism, 
with  (|iiesti()ns  of  merely  "local  si^nilicance,"  things  which 
"involve  neither  dogma  nor  sacraments."  Can  it  be  that  the 
Holy  S\nod  would  have  asked  the  innocent  and  ignorant  to 
believe  that  an  exterior  and  public  manifestation  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  belief  in  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
a  mere  matter  of  "local  significance,  which  involved  no 
dogma?"  Truly  this  act  of  the  Holy  Synod  was  both 
cowardly  and  (according  to  its  faith,  if  it  had  any)  sacri- 
legious; and  when  the  brigandage  of  Chelm,  which  we  have 
elsewhere  described,  almost  destroyed  the  remnants  of  the 
United  Greek  Church  in  Russia,  there  was  observed  what 
the  powers  of  darkness  must  have  regarded  as  the  same 
"prudent  silence."  How  different  this  course  from  that  pur- 
sued by  the  Holy,  Roman,  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church, 
which  receives  no  convert  into  its  pale,  let  the  person  be 
ever  so  humble  or  ever  so  exalted,  until  he  or  she  has  ab- 
jured not  only  every  dogmatic  error  in  general,  but  also  the 
specific  errors  of  the  forsaken  creed! 

Plato,  metropolitan  of  Moscow,  probably  the  most  illus- 
trious churchman  whom  Russian  "Orthodoxy"  has  produced 
during  the  nineteenth  century,  was  once  asked  by  a  Western 
concerning  the  teaching  of  his  Church  on  Purgatory;  and 
the  prelate  replied-.  "We  reject  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory 
as  a  modern  invention,  excogitated  probably  for  the  sake 
of  money"  (1).  And  this  assertion,  a  delectable  morsel  for  the 
average  Protestant,  is  dinned  into  the  ears  of  every  "Ortho- 
dox" student,  despite  the  notorious  fact  that  almost  the 
principal  revenue  of  the  Russian  priests  is  derived  from 
prayers  for  the  dead,  and  although  the  Russian  Particular 
Catechism,  the  work  of  Philarete,  metropolitan  of  Moscow, 
inculcates  the  propriety  and  even  the  necessity  of  that  prac- 
tice. 

Not  the  least  strange  among  the  inconsistencies  of  Rus- 
sian "Orthodoxy"  is  the  hostility  which  it  manifested  toward 
the  definition  of  the  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception 

(1)  LESCffXR  :    Tlic  Church  in  I'olamh  Vol.  ii..  p.  504. 


698  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

of  Our  Lady;  it  is  strange  indeed,  since  the  principal  monu- 
ments of  the  Eastern  Church  are  so  redolent  of  testimonies 
in  favor  of  the  doctrine,  that  it  may  well  be  said  that  if 
Pius  IX.  had  proclaimed  its  contrary,  the  Holy  Synod 
would  have  denounced  him  as  a  heretic  ex  aliv  capitc.  How- 
ever, the  author  of  '^Orthodoxy  and  Popery"  avers  that  in 
the  dogmatic  definition  of  Mary's  great  prerogative,  the 
Eoman  Church  '^manifested  its  unbridled  love  of  change, 
of  movement,  and  of  innovations  in  the  domain  of  a  faith 
which  is  eternally  unchangeable  by  its  very  nature."  And, 
nevertheless,  this  author  tells  us  that  according  to  the 
Eastern  Church  the  Blessed  Virgin  "was  exempt  from  the 
effects  of  original  sin" — an  avowal  which  is  so  true,  that 
any  reader  of  the  Bull  Iiicffabilis  Deiis  will  perceive  that  His 
Holiness  relies  chiefly  on  the  testimony  of  the  Eastern 
Fathers  for  the  establishment  of  his  thesis.  This  same 
"Orthodox"  author  knew  very  well  that  one  of  the  chief 
complaints  of  the  Russian  Starovere  heretics  against  the 
Holy  Synod  is  to  the  effect  that  this  would-be  authoritative 
tribunal  renounced,  in  1655,  the  ancient  belief  of  the  Chris- 
tian East  in  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the  Mother  of 
God.  The  same  author  must  have  remembered  that  in  the 
seventeenth  century  the  ecclesiastical  Academy  of  Kiev, 
speaking  through  Lazarus  Baranowitch,  Bishop  of  Tcher- 
nigow,  regarded  that  doctrine  as  indubitably  true  (1) ;  and  we 
can  scarcely  imagine  that  the  Academy  could  have  deemed 
otherwise  when  it  was  accustomed  to  hear,  among  other 
and  innumerable  evidences  furnished  by  the  Russian  Litur- 
gy, that  passage  of  the  Office  for  the  Nativity  of  the  Virgin: 
"We  proclaim  and  celebrate  thy  birth,  and  we  honor  thy 
Immaculate  Conception." 

We  shall  merely  touch  the  manner  with  which  the  "Or- 
thodox" Church  treats  the  secret  of  the  confessional.  The 
awfulness  of  the  subject,  and  the  notoriousness  of  the  sins 
of  "Orthodoxy"  in  this  regard,  excuse  us  from  dilation  on 
the  matter.  In  1854  Snagoano,  a  Greek  archimandrite,  who 
gloried  in  his  communion  with  "the  holy  patriarchs  of  the 
Orient,"  published  in  Paris  a  work  on    The   Religious   Qucs- 

(1)  Gararin  ;  The  Russian  Church  and  the  Immaculate  Conception.    Paris,  1876. 


HETERODOXIES  OF  RUSSIAN  "  ORTHODOXY."  699 

tio)i  in  the  FaisI,  from  which  we  cull  the  following;  pas- 
sages: "The  Kussian  Church  is  simply  a  schism,  because 
it  has  separated  from  the  great  Eastern  Church;  because  it 
does  not  recognize  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  as  its 
head;  because  it  does  not  receive  the  Holy  Unction  from 
Byzantium;  because  it  is  ruled  by  a  Synod,  over  which  the 
Czar  is  a  despot.  .  .  .  and  because  Confession,  instituted 
for  the  betterment  and  the  salvation  of  penitents,  has  become, 
througli  the  servility  of  the  Muscovite  clergy,  a  mere  instru- 
ment of  espionage  in  the  interest  of  Czarism."  That  this  ac- 
cusation is  well  founded  has  been  demonstrated  for  the  en- 
lightenment of  those  who  have  had  no  extensive  experience 
in  Russia,  by  Tondini  (1),  and  by  the  "Orthodox"  author  of 
The  Raskol  (2).  The  latter  writer  tells  us  that  "there  is  an 
ordinance  which  compels  each  priest  to  reveal  to  the  gov- 
ernment every  plot  against  it  which  may  come  to  his  knowl- 
edge in  the  confessional."  And  this  ordinance  is  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  ukase  issued  by  Peter  "the  Great"  on 
February  17,  1722,  enjoining  the  taking  of  the  following 
oath  upon  every  priest  of  the  "Orthodox"  Church:  "I  will 
denounce  and  reveal  (all  conspiracies)  with  entire  truthful- 
ness and  without  any  disguise  or  palliation,  having  in  my 
mind  the  fear  of  losing  my  honor  and  my  life."  Certainly 
the  term  "inconsistency"  is  too  mild  to  serve  as  a  qualifica- 
tion of  such  sacrilege  on  the  part  of  the  priests  of  a  Church 
which  holds,  at  least  theoretically,  the  same  views  concern- 
ing Sacramental  Confession  that  are  taught  by  the  Church 
of  Rome.  However,  this  abject  cowardice  and  diabolical 
treachery  is  but  natural  in  an  organization  in  which  the  civil 
power  takes  no  pains  to  disguise  its  tyranny  over  the  ec- 
clesiastical, and  in  which  the  clergy  manifest  no  shame  be- 
cause of  their  grovelling,  but  rather  consider  it  a  matter  of 
course  that  they  should  give  to  the  autocrat  the  blind  obedi- 
ence of  a  soldier. 

The  "Orthodox"  Church  claims  to  be  a  divinely  instituted 
organization,  empowered  to  labor  for  the  eternal  salvation 
of  men,  and  resolved  to  accomplish  its  task  iu  spite  Qt  the 

(1)  In  his  commentary  on  The  Ecclexiasticnl  Reuvlntuiu  nt  Peter  tllf  GfPffif.  Jf,  248. 
(?)  The  Rasknl ;  An  Esmy  on  the   neUai(iit'<  Sects  in  fiit-ssia,  p.  2:^6.    Paris.  ]«59. 


700  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

influence  of  earthlj'  power,  when  that  power  is  hostile  to  its 
objects.  Did  it  not  claim  such  origin,  endowment,  and  in- 
tention, it  could  not  present  itself  as  the  Church  of  God. 
We  pass,  for  the  present,  the  matter  of  the  origin  of  the 
Russian  Ecclesiastical  Establishment;  now  we  would  briefly 
consider  its  course  when  it  finds  Itself  confronted  by  the 
civil  power.  ''It  would  be  easy,"  remarks  LesccEur,  "and  it 
has  been  done  a  thousand  times,  to  multiply  proofs  of  the 
absolute  degradation  of  the  Russian  sacerdotal  order  in  its 
relations  with  the  government.  Were  we  to  examine  all 
the  grades  of  the  hierarchy,  from  the  pretended  Holy  Synod 
which  is  servile  when  it  is  silent,  and  more  servile  when  it 
speaks,  down  to  the  humblest  village  pope;  from  the  Uni- 
versities and  the  privileged  convents  where  are  trained  the 
few  distinguished  governmental  candidates  for  bishoprics, 
or  for  diplomatic  posts,  or  for  the  general  run  of  the  public 
oflices,  down  to  the  miserable  convents  of  men  or  of  women, 
in  which  there  languish  wretched  beings  without  piety  or 
charity,  and  which  are  inevitably  homes  of  ignorance  and 
vice;  everywhere  we  would  find  the  same  conditions  pro- 
duced by  the  same  cause — the  subordination,  or  rather  the 
absolute  effacement  of  the  religious  element,  absorbed  by 
the  civil  power"  (1).  Even  in  purely  theological  matters,  the 
"Orthodox"  episcopate  and  priesthood  have  seldom  or  never 
been  able,  if  willing  in  rare  instances,  to  withstand  the 
governmental  pressure.  When  Peter  "the  Great,"  following 
the  counsels  of  the  Genevan,  Lefort,  to  whom  he  owed  the 
invention  of  the  Holy  Synod,  tried  to  demi-Protestantize 
his  Church,  he  found  his  clergy,  his  seminarians,  and 
even  his  bishops,  so  subservient,  that  when  the  Lutheran, 
Frederick  Ltitiens,  dedicated  his  curious  book  (2)  to  the 
Grand  Duke  Peter  Feodorowitch  (afterward  Peter  HI.)  he 
felt  justified  in  congratulating  the  Prince  and  his  bride  (the 
future  Catharine  II.)  on  the  fact  that  "the  glorious  Peter  had 
so  restored  and  modified  the  modern  religion  of  the  Russians 
in  accordance  with  the  Scriptures  and  with  the  rules  of  the 
primitive  Church,  that  he  had  made  it  as  similar  as  possible 

(]i  L''C.  cit..  Vol.  ii..  p.  468. 

(2)  HiMorico-  Ecclesiastical  Essan  on  the  Present  Religious  Condition  nf  the  Rut  hen- 
i(ins.  1745. 


HETEIiODOXlKS  OF  IIUSSIAN  "ORTHODOXY."  701 

to  that  of  the  Evaujielico-Lutheraus"  (1).  And  the  Lutheran 
was  able  to  snppoii:  his  assertion  by  qiiotinjjj  the  text  of  the 
rateihisni  which  liad  been  compiled  b.v  the  ''Orthodox" 
bishop,  Theopaues  I'rocopowitcli,  the  prelate  whom  Peter 
'the  Great"  had  employed  to  formulate  his  Ecclesiastical 
Regulation.  In  this  Catechism,  declared  Liitiens,  "we 
find  the  purest  Evangelical  doctrine  on  the  forgiveness  of 
-sin,  on  justification,  and  on  the  eternal  salvation  which  is 
attained  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  alone"  (2).  And  when,  in 
1807,  the  court  of  t^t.  Petersburg  had  tired  of  its  playing 
with  Protestantism,  and  felt  the  necessity  of  resuming  its 
comparatively  closer  connection  with  the  primitive  Church, 
did  it  turn  to  its  bishops  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  re- 
storation? By  no  means.  The  imperial  "supreme  judge  of 
the  Holy  Synod"  api)ointed  a  mixed  commission  of  eccles- 
iastics and  laymen,  according  to  it  absolute  control  over  the 
curriculum  of  each  seminary;  and  in  this  commission  there 
were  numbered  merely  a  few  bishops,  and  they  were  all 
favorites  of  the  court.  But  the  Holy  Synod  perceived  no 
insult  to  itself,  no  usurpation  of  the  things  of  the  sanctuary, 
in  this  imperial  pretension;  it  was  as  ready  then  to  abrogate 
every  ecclesiastical  prerogative  as  it  was  in  1830,  when,  in 
order  to  aid  in  the  final  destruction  of  agonizing  Catholic 
Poland,  it  took  from  the  seminaries  20,000  seminarians,  de- 
clared them  forever  debarred  from  the  priesthood,  incor- 
porated them  into  the  army,  and  sent  them  to  evangelize 
the  Poles  in  the  fashion  which  we  have  seen  recommended 
and  adopted  by  Siemaszko  (3).  There  is  one  instance  of  ab- 
jection, however,  on  the  part  of  the  "Orthodox"  clergy, 
which  perhaps  speaks  more  eloquently  than  those  which 
we  have  indicated.  In  every  Russian  liturgical  service  at 
which  the  litanies  are  recited,  not  only  the  name  of  the 

(DFor  more  Information  on  this  subject,  see  the  alreariv  cited  work  of  Tondini,  as  well  as 
Gagariu's  Studies  in  T'.iahog\)  and  Uistoru,  Vol.  i.,  p.  56,  and  De  Maistre's  Four 
Unedited  Chapters  on  liunsia,  ch.  3.    Paris,  1859. 

(2)  See  Gagariu's  UiUisiun  Cleran,  p.  135. 

(3)  The  reader  nted  not  be  surprised  at  this  treatment  of  the  .seminarims  by  the  Holy 
Synod  ;  for  during  many  centuries  the  Russian  Church  has  not  known  the  meaning  of  the 
phrase  "  cccle>iasticnl  vocation."  In  Hnssia  the  priesthood  has  been  un'il  very  recently  as 
much  a  hereditary  caste  as  it  is  in  Hindustan  ;  but  with  this  difference.  o:)serves  Lesc(jeur, 
that  in  the  latter  country  the  priesthood  i.s  honon-d,  whereas  in  the  former,  to  be  called  a 
ion  of  a  pope  is  to  receive  a  mortal  affront.    Pee  Gagailn's  Russian  Clergy,  p.  iO. 


702  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

Czar,  but  that  of  the  last  little  baby  of  the  imperial  family, 
is  mentioned  before  the  existence  of  the  Holy  Synod  is 
recognized.  But  hearken  to  a  few  of  the  abject  phrases  used 
hj  the  Holy  Synod ;  we  cull  them  at  random  from  some  acts 
of  the  tribunal :  "Conformably  to  the  most  exalted  will  of 
His  Majesty,  the  Holy  Synod  has  undertaken  to  better  the 
condition  of  the  provincial  clergy — By  order  from  above, 
many  monasteries  have  been  deprived  of  their  rights  of 
lishing — The  bishop  of  Kursk  is  allowed  to  print  his  ser- 
mons— His  Majesty  has  found  it  wise  to  dissolve  the  Com- 
mission for  Ecclesiastical  Schools,  and  to  confide  their  di- 
rection to  the  Holy  Synod,  charging  the  supreme  procurator 
(always  a  layman,  and  generally  a  soldier)  with  the  execu- 
tion of  its  orders — By  a  decision  of  the  Imperial  Council, 

confirmed  by  His  Majesty,  the  marriage  of ,  a  Pagan, 

with  ,  a  Mussulman,  is  pronounced  valid,  provided 

that  the  latter  receives  Baptism — We  humbly  beg  Your 
Majesty  to  assure  the  salvation  of  the  United  Greeks  by 
allowing  them  to  join  the  Orthodox  Church  of  All  the  Rus- 
sias."  It  is  not  surprising  that  Voltaire,  after  feasting  on 
such  fulsomeuess  as  exhales  from  these  and  similar  phrases, 
should  write  to  his  "saint,"  the  Messalina  of  St.  Peters- 
burg: "As  for  me,  Madame,  I  am  faithful  to  the  Greek 
Church  (Voltaire  was  very  weak  in  historical  knowledge), 
and  so  much  the  more  since  in  a  certain  sense  your  beautiful 
hands  swing  its  thurible,  and  since  you  may  be  regarded  as 
the  Patriarch  of  All  the  Russias''  (1).  Nor  can  we  wonder  that 
among  the  many  millions  of  Russian  dissidents  who  to-day 
despise  the  authority  of  the  official  Church,  who  await  an 
opportunity  to  combat  it  a  roittra>ice,  and  who  hate  the 
Catholic  Church  with  a  venom  almost  equal  to  that  ex- 
pressed by  the  Holy  Synod,  by  far  the  greater  number  find 
the  sole  justification  of  their  revolt  in  the  really  unchris- 
tian dependence  of  "Orthodoxy"  on  an  earthly  power.  "For 
a  long  time,"  remarks  Gagarin,  "the  bosom  of  the  Russian 
(Jhurch  has  been  lacerated  by  dissident  sects,  but  the  de- 
velopment of  these  to-day  is  immense;  between  fifteen  and 
eighteen  millions  are  enrolled  under  their  standard"  (2).  The 

(1)  Letter  of  July  0,  1771. 

(2)  Studies  in  ITistury  a)id  Theology,  Vol.  ill.,  p.  483. 


HETERODOXIES  OF  KUSSIAN  '*  ORTHODOXY."        703 

"Orthodox"  aullior  of  llic  Raskol  says  that  the  obstinate  Ras- 
kolniks  "coiifouiul  the  temporal  sovorcijiii  with  the  head  of 
the  Chinch  (aud  why  not?),  and  therefore  they  are  in  a  state 
of  perpetual,  although  latent,  war  with  the  laws  of  the 
land.  They  excoininunieate  the  Czar;  they  style  him  An- 
tichrist." 

Now  for  a  few  reflections  concerning  the  Holy  Synod,  the 
presumed  authoritative  voice  of  Russian  "Orthodoxy;"  we 
shall  see  that  the  very  existence  of  this  tribunal  is  both  an 
inconsistency  and  a  heterodox}-.  We  have  noted  that  the 
author  of  Orthodoxy  aud  Popery  reprobates  the  Roman 
See  for  an  alleged  "insatiable  yearning  for  religious  inno- 
vations;" and  it  is  notorious  that  the  "Orthodox"  have  al- 
ways i)rided  themselves  on  the  immobility  of  their  Church, 
even  when  they  were  obliged  to  ignore  the  fact  that  with 
them  immutability  and  lethargy  are  generally  synonymous. 
But  can  the  "Orthodox"  show  us,  we  will  not  say  any  Scrip- 
tural foundation,  but  rather  any  Eastern  tradition — any 
Eastern  conciliar  or  patristic  warrant  for  the  existence  of 
this  Holy  Synod?  Is  it  not  a  matter  of  cold  history  that 
this  body  is  much  less  than  tw'o  centuries  old?  And  can  any 
student  deny  that  from  its  very  creation  it  has  been  the 
docile  instrument  of  innovations  at  once  anti-canonical  and 
scandalous?  Has  the  Roman  PontitT,  whose  alleged  ''om- 
nipotence" is  denounced  as  strenuously  by  the  "Orthodox" 
as  by  the  Anglicans  and  other  Protestant  sectarians,  ever 
attempted  to  change  the  essential  form  of  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment; has  he  ever  dared  to  suppress  anything  in  this 
line  that  the  Apostles  i)rescribed;  has  he  ever  presumed  to 
substitute  a  cardinalitial,  episcopal,  presbyteral,  or  civil 
governmental  regime  for  that  monarchical  primacy  of  Peter 
alone  which  all  his  predecessors  declared  to  be  of  divine 
institution?  But  this  most  fundamental  of  all  innovations 
the  Russian  Czarate  effected,  without  any  etticaeious  or  even 
serious  protest  on  the  part  of  the  "Orthodox"  hierarchy, 
when  it  instituted  the  Holy  Synod.  In  the  Particular 
Catechism  of  the  Russian  Church,  the  sublimity  of  impu- 
dence is  reached  when,  on  page  (KS,  to  the  question  as  to 
"what  ecclesiastical  authority  rules  the  principal  divisions 


704  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

of  the  Universal  Churdi,"  the  following  answer  is  given: 
'"The  orthodox  patriarchs  of  the  East  and  the  Synod  of  Rus- 
sia, the  order  of  hierarchical  precedence  being,  1st,  Constan- 
tinople; 2d,  Alexandria;  3rd,  Antioch;  4th,  Jerusalem;  5th, 
the  Patriarchate  or  Synod  of  Russia."  And  then  to  the 
question  as  to  the  rank  of  the  Holy  Synod,  the  reply  is: 
"The  Synod  has  the  rank  of  a  patriarch,  since  it  takes  the 
place  of  the  Patriarchate  of  Russia  which  was  abolished 
with  the  consent  of  the  other  ijatriarchs."  The  more  than 
implication  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  the  Patriarchate 
of  Rome;  that  the  Church  of  God  is  peculiarly  an  Oriental 
Church;  was  probably  \evj  acceptable  to  the  simple  "Or- 
thodox" who  received  as  Gospel  truth  the  lessons  in  history 
which  Nicholas  I.  gave  to  his  subjects  when  he  decreed  that 
in  all  the  educational  institutions  of  his  empire  the  quali- 
tication  of  "tyrant"  should  never  be  given  to  Nero,  Caligula, 
or  Ivan  the  Terrible;  that  no  teacher  should  dare  inform 
his  pupils  that  the  House  of  Romanoff  became  extinct  in 
1701  in  the  person  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  and  that  it 
was  the  foreign  family  of  Holstein-Gottorp  which  then  (as 
now)  held  the  czarate;  that  every  pedagogue  should  insist 
that  the  reigning  autocrat  descended  in  direct  line  from 
Rurick  of  Moscow;  and  that  the  reason  for  the  preference 
of  the  ancient  Romans  for  a  republic  is  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  they  had  not  the  good  fortune  of  being  acquainted 
with  the  blessings  which  are  entailed  by  the  rule  of  an  auto- 
crat (1).  As  for  the  implied  falsehood  that  the  consent  of  the 
Oriental  patriarchs  to  the  establishment  of  the  Holy  Synod 
was  both  seriously  asked  and  freely  accorded,  we  reply 
that  granted  this  seriousness  and  this  freedom,  the  prelates 
in  question  had  no  power  to  change  the  patriarchal  consti- 
tution of  their  churches;  and,  furthermore,  that  there  is 
good  reason  to  believe  that  at  least  the  pati-iarchate  of 
Constantinople  afterward  withdrew  its  consent.  This  we 
are  led  to  believe  from  the  words  of  the  well-informed 
(7 reek  archimandrite,  Snagoano,  who  added  to  the  already 
cited  anathema  against  "Orthodoxy"  the  following  indict- 
ment:    "Since  the  impieties  of  this  Synod  are  so  signal, 

(1)  T'.ie  Truth  Concerning  Russia,  hy  Prince  Dotgornukon\  p.  317.    Paris,  1860. 


HETERODOXIES  OF  RUSSIAN  "  ORTHODOXY."        705 

who  will  daio  to  assert  that  the  Russian  Church  is  not 
sehismatical?  It  is  rejected  by  the  Councils;  the  Canons 
forbid  its  rocojj;uition;  the  (^hurch  spurns  it,  and  all  who 
hold  the  faith  of  the  Church,  and  whom  the  Church  ac- 
knowledges as  her  children,  must  respect  her  decisions  and 
regard  the  Russian  Rite  as  sehismatical."  However,  even  if 
we  hold  that  the  Oriental  patriarchs  could  and  did  abolish 
the  Russian  patriarchate,  we  cannot  forget  that  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Holy  Synod  destroyed  the  episcopal  authonty, 
a  thing  of  divine  institution,  as  to  its  very  essence;  that  it 
left  the  Russian  bishops  that  episcopal  character  which  is 
God-given,  and  which  no  Synod  could  efface,  but  that  it 
left  them  no  more  authority  than  that  exercised  by  the  un- 
consecrated  Methodists,  Episcopalians,  Moravians  and  such 
like,  who  merely  parade  an  empty  episcopal  title.  But  what 
would  the  Greek  Fathers  have  thought  of  this  assembly, 
composed  of  nominees  of  an  emperor,  men  who  were  mov- 
able at  his  caprice?  (1).  Listen,  for  instance,  to  that  St.  John 
Damascene  whom  the  "Orthodox"  are  so  fond  of  quoting 
in  fancied  support  of  their  theory  concerning  the  Proces- 
sion: "The  emperors  have  no  right  to  give  laws  to  the 
Church.  Hearken  to  the  words  of  the  Apostle:  The  Lord 
has  established  Apostles,  prophets,  pastors  and  teachers. 
He  says  nothing  about  emperors"  (2).  And  what  would  St. 
Athanasius  say?  "If  the  bishops  so  decree,  why  do  you 
speak  of  the  emperor?  When  did  an  episcopal  decree  de- 
rive any  authority  from  an  emperor;  when  was  such  a 
decree  regarded  as  an  imperial  decree?  Long  before  our 
day  many  Synods  have  been  assembled  and  many  decrees 
have  been  published  by  the  Church;  but  the  Fathers  never 
consulted  the  emperors,  the  emperors  never  examined  into 
ecclesiastical  matters.  St.  Paul  had  friends  among  the 
familiars  of  Caesar;  but  he  never  admitted  them  into  his 
councils"  (3).  Bishops  of  the  calibre  of  Sts.  John  Damascene 
and  Athanasius  would  scarcely  have  submitted  the  results 

(1)  Only  three  bishops  sit  in  the  Synod  ex  offlcin—tbose  of  Moskow,  Kiev  and  St.  Peters- 
burg, and  of  course  these  can  be  removed  from  their  sees  at  the  imperial  pleasure. 
Vol.  XXV.,  Sip.  5. 

(2)  On  Images,  Art.  II.,  no.  12,  cited  by  Pope  Gregory  XVI.  In  bis  Brief  to  Msrr.  Lewlckt 
Archbishop  of  Leopolis,  Rufhenian  Rite,  July  17,  1841. 

(3)  History  of  the  AriOTis,  no.  52. 


706  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

of  their  deliberations  to  the  judgment  of  a  colonel  of  hus- 
sars, himself  the  creature  of  a  temporal  ruler.  But  this 
temporal  ruler  must  fain  talk  in  pontifical  fashion  when  he 
institutes  his  new  secretariate.  In  1720,  announcing  to  his 
subjects  the  great  blessings  about  to  accrue  to  them,  Peter 
"the  Great"  thus  perorated:  "Amid  the  innumerable  cares 
which  are  entailed  upon  us  by  the  supreme  power  which 
has  been  given  to  us  by  God,  we  have  cast  our  regards  on 
ecclesiastical  affairs  in  order  to  reform  our  people  and  the 
kingdoms  subject  to  our  empire;  and  we  have  discovered 
grave  disorders,  as  well  as  many  faults  of  administration. 
This  fact  filled  our  conscience  with  legitimate  fear  lest  we 
might  prove  ungrateful  to  the  Most  High,  if,  after  having 
effected,  through  His  aid,  such  happy  reforms  in  the  mili- 
tary and  civil  ordeirs,  we  neglected  (mark  the  logical  se- 
quence of  ideas)  to  exert  ourselves  to  the  utmost  in  order 
to  restore  sacred  affairs  to  their  highest  perfection  and 
their  greatest  glory.  Therefore,  following  the  example  of 
those  monarchs  of  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 
whose  piety  was  so  illustrious  (1),  we  have  determined  to  im- 
prove the  present  condition  of  sacred  things.''  And  observe 
the  eloquent  significance  of  the  oath  which  each  member 
of  the  Holy  Synod  takes  on  his  installation:  ''/  avoiv  and 
affirm  wider  oath  that  the  supreme  judge  of  this  Synod  is 
Qiir  monarch  the  Most  Clement  (listen,  spirits  of  Polish 
martyrs!)  Emperor  of  All  the  Russias"-  (o).  It  is  a  remarkable 
fact,  observes  Tondini,  that  this  avowal  of  dependence  on 
the  Czar — a  dependence  so  utterly  incompatible  with  the 
Gospel  and  so  repugnant  to  the  honest  student  of  eccles- 
iastical history — is  not  demanded  from  the    members    of 

(1)  What  one  of  these  pious  raonarchs  had  three  *'  wives  "  at  the  same  time  ?  Peter  had 
discarded  Eudoxia  Lapoukine  as  well  as  her  successor,  and  was  at  this  time,  while  both  of 
these  women  were  still  living.  '*  married  "  to  Catherine  (  afterward  Empress  as  Catharine 
I.),  the  wife  of  a  Swedish  soldier  who  had  been  made  prisoner  of  war.  Catherine  had  been 
the  mistress  of  two  Russian  nobles  before  Peter  "  married  "  her. 

(2)  The  journals  of  Russia  seem  to  consider  the  enslavement  of  both  the  Holy  Synod  and 
Its  subjects  as  a  matter  of  coarse.  On  February  2,  1860,  just  after  the  death  of  Colonej 
Protasoff,  the  late  procurator  of  the  Synod,  the  iVorr?  of  St.  Petersburg  said  :  "  He  was  in 
reality,  if  not  In  name,  the  head  of  the  Orthodox  Church  in  Russia.  With  his  Arm  and 
energetic  will  he  knew  how  to  conquer  the  retrograde  tendencies  of  the  (ilder  clergy.  By 
means  of  the  Synod  of  which  he  was  the  veritable  head,  he  distributed  mitres  among  the 
the  young  and  civilized  ecclesiastics."  In  our  dissertation  on  The  Sirufnile-  of  Russian 
"  Orthodoxy  "  with  Polixli  CathuUcitfi  (Vol.  v.),  we  have  shown  how  Diraitri  Tolstoy, 
although  a  mere  civilian,  was  a  flt  successor  of  this  Colonel  in  the  matter  of  civiUztng 
the  Russian  clergy. 


UETEIIODOXIES  OF  iil  ;SS1AN    "  OKTHODOXY."  707 

otlu'i'  Russian  {ribuiials.  "The  framer  of  tho  oath  knew 
what  he  wanted,"  savs  Tondini;  "he  wanted  doeih'  prelates, 
and  he  gained  his  point,  thus  proving,  as  he  himself  boasted, 
that  he  was  greater  than  Louis  XIV.'' 

l>efore  we  treat  of  the  prime  inconsistency  of  Russian 
"Orthodoxy,"  its  rejection  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Itoman 
Pontiff,  it  may  be  well  to  notice  another  inconsistency 
which  it  manifests  in  regard  to  the  instigator  of  the  Greek 
Schism.  IMince  Augustine  CJalitzin,  in  his  valuable  work 
on  the  "Orthodox"  Church  (1),  remarks  that  "the  origin  of  the 
Schism  was  so  disgraceful  that  it  dares  not  venerate  its 
founder,  whereas,  among  its  thous^ind  other  contradictions, 
it  joins  the  Universal  (Munch  on  October  2'^  in  celebrating 
the  Feast  of  St.  Ignatius  (patriarch  of  Constantinople),  the 
first  victim  of  Photius"  (2).  It  is  true  that  individual  writers 
of  the  Russian  Church  and  of  the  Schismatic  Constanti- 
nopolitan  Patriarchate  have  been  sulticiently  audacious  to 
describe  Photius  as  of  "happy  memory;''  and  some  have 
ventured  to  quote  his  letters  to  Pope  Nicholas  I.  as  models 
of  piety,  brazenly  ignoring  his  deposition  of  his  legitimate 
patriarch  and  his  violent  occupation  of  the  patriarchal 
throne  after  a  reception  of  Orders  per  saltum — of  all,  from 
tonsure  to  the  episcopacy,  in  the  space  of  six  days.  Sincerity 
could  not  have  been  characteristic  of  a  prelate  who,  when 
prepared  to  forswear  his  allegiance  to  the  Holy  See,  never- 
theless wrote  to  the  I'ontiff  in  the  following  strain  so  long 
as  he  conceived  it  pos.sible  that  Rome  might  countenance 
sacrilege  and  ecclesiastical  intrusion:  "My  predecessor  hav- 
ing resigned  his  dignity,  the  assembled  metropolitans,  the 
clergy,  and,  above  all,  the  emperor,  who  is  so  kind  to  others, 
but  so  cruel  to  me,  impelled  by  I  know  not  what  idea, 
turned  to  me,  and  paying  no  attention  to  my  prayers,  in- 
sisted that  I  should  assume  the  episcopate;  in  fact,  in  spite 
of  the  tears  of  my  despair,  they  seized  me  and  executed 
their  will  upon  me." 

As  is  well  observed  by  Lescoeur,  if  the  "Orthodox"  theo- 

(1)  Tiie  Grcco-Russian  Church.  Paris,  1851.  This  Galitzin  should  not  beconfounded  with 
anotherGulitziD,  also  a  convert,  and  the  author  of  Is  Rnsxia  Schufmaticf  Paris.  ia5'.». 
The  name  rf  the  latter  was  Nicholas  Borrissowitch. 

(2)  For  a  coni'ise  b'.it detailed  account  of  the  bepiunlngof  the  Greek  Schism,  and  therefore 
of  the  sufftrings  of  Ignatius,  sec  our  Vol.  11. 


708  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

logians  have  frequently  fluctuated  between  the  Church  and 
Protestantism,  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  es- 
pecially according  as  the  imperial  will  has  inclined  for  the  ' 
nonce,  there  is  one  doctnne  concerning  which    they    are 
frankly  Protestant.     ''When  one  hears  the  theologians  of 
the  Holy  Synod  declaiming  against  Popery,  he  might  be- 
lieve himself  in  London  or  in  Geneva ;  but  when  he  beholds 
the  measures,  sometimes  petty  and  often  barbarous,  with 
which  all  recourse  to  Rome  is  either  prevented  or  punished, 
he  recognizes  that  he  is  in  Russia.     The  Poles  know  full 
well  that  it  is  more  dangerous  to  be  a  Papist  frankly  in 
Warsaw  than  it  is  to  be  a  Raskolnik  in  Moscow."     And 
nevertheless — and  here  we  approach  the  chief,  the  most 
radical  inconsistency,  and  the  raison  d'etre  of  every  heresy 
which  afflicts  "Orthodoxy" — a  Russian  cannot  consult  the 
Liturgy  of  his  own  Church,  or  celebrate  the  feasts  which 
that  Liturgy  prescribes,  or  peruse  the  most  authoritative 
books  of  devotion  recommended  by  his  spiritual  advisers, 
without  being  confronted  in  bold  relief,  as  it  were,  by  St. 
Peter  proclaiming  his  prerogatives,  and  by  the  entire  body 
of  doctrine  which  the -Roman  See  teaches  to  the  world.  The 
cultivated  Russian  cannot  escape  the  knowledge  that  the 
Church  of  Constantinople,  from  which,  as  he  believes,  his 
ancestors  received  Christianity,  was  at  that  time  subject 
to  the  See  of  Rome,  or  was,  as  moderns  are  fond  of  saying, 
Roman  Catholic.    He  knows  that  originally  his  "Orthodox" 
Church  was  far  more  Roman  than  Greek;  that  his  Church 
was  not  Schismatic  Greek  in  its  origin,  and  that  it  is  not 
Gre€^k  in  its  language,  its  polity,  or  its  government.    His- 
tory tells  him  that  his  ancestors  were  converted  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  Apostolic  Church;  for  whether,  as  we  learn 
from  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus,  the  first  missionaries 
to  Russia  were  sent  by  the  Catholic  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, Ignatius,  in  8G7,  or,  as  Nestor  asserts,  by  the  Schis- 
matic intruder,  Photius,  in  866,  it  is  certain  that  no  real 
impression  was  made  upon  the  Russian  masses  before  the 
close  of  the  tenth  century  (1),  when  the  Grand  Duke  Vladi- 

(1)  About  the  year  945  Olga  or  Elga,  widow  of  a  grand  duke  of  Russia,  Journeyed  to  Con- 
stantinople, and  was  there  baptized.  Returning  to  Russia,  she  tried  in  vain  to  convert  her 
countrymen.  But  her  grandson.  Vladimir,  having  married'Anna,  a  sister  of  the  Greek 
Emperor,  Basil  II.,  was  baptized  inOOR,   and  in  a  few  years  nearly  all  the  Russians  received 


IIKTKUODOXIES  OF  IILSSIAN  "  OUTHODOXY."  709 

mar,  called  "the  Apostolic,"  embraced  Christianity — an 
epoch  at  which  the  (Jreeks  wei'e  in  communion  with  Home, 
for  the  properly  so-called  Photian  Schism  had  ended  with 
the  second  and  final  deposition  of  the  intruder  in  880,  and 
the  Constantinopolitan  Patriarchate  remained  subject 
thenceforward  to  the  Holy  See  until  the  definitive  actuation 
of  the  Greek  Schism  by  Cerularius  in  1054.  Our  cultivated 
Russian  knows  also  that  the  definitive  defection  of  the 
Greeks  did  not  much  alTect  the  relations  of  his  countrymen 
with  the  Papacy  until  the  twelfth  century;  that  only  then 
they  were  seduced  entirely  from  the  Roman  obedience;  that 
a  reaction  having  taken  i)lace,  by  the  time  that  the  Council 
of  Florence  was  held  (1480)  there  were  as  many  Catholics 
as  Schismatics  in  Russia  (1);  and  that  it  w-as  a  second  Pho- 
tius,  Archbishop  of  Kiev,  who  extended  the  Schism  through- 
out the  land  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  (2). 
Nor  will  our  well-informed  Russian  fail  to  I'ealize  that  his 
Church  is  not  Greek  in  its  liturgical  language;  that  this 
language  is  the  Slavonic,  and  not  the  vernacular,  but  the 
Old  Slavonic,  with  which  the  people  are  not  familiar  (3). 
Again,  this  unbiased  Russian  will  learn  from  the  monu- 
ments of  his  own  "Orthodox"  Church  that  the  Papal  su- 
premacy over  the  Constantinopolitan  Patriarchate,  or,  as 

(U  See  the  Bollandists,  at  aioutli  of  September,  No.  41. 

Cii)  Some  authors  hold  that  the  Schism  of  Cerularius  did  not  affect  the  entire  Greek 
Empire  in  the  eleventh  century.  It  is  certain  that  Pope  Alexander  II.  bad  an  agent,  an 
aijocrisiariua  (  not  a  legate  )  at  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Michael  Ducas,  in  the  person  ot 
Peter,  Bishop  of  Anagni  ;  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  this  representative  of  the  Papacy 
remained  as  such  in  Constantinople  for  a  year.  Pope  Pascal  II.  sent  Cbrysolanus  as  legate 
M  Ale-xis  Comnetius.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  Euthyraius  Zagabenus,  who  obeyed  the  order  of 
Alexis  Comnenus  to  collect  all  patristic  testimonies  against  each  and  every  heresy,  never 
speaks  of  the  Latins  as  heretics.  Even  in  the  twelfth  century  there  were  many  Greeks  in 
the  communion  of  Rome,  as  we  learn  from  many  narratives  of  the  Crusades,  from  the 
Alerias  of  Anna  Comnena,  from  the  Life  of  Mannurl,  by  Nycctas  C'honiates,  and 
from  the  letters  of  the  Venerable  Peter  of  Cluny  to  the  Emperor,  John  Comnenus,  and  to 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 

(3)  Protestants  should  note  this  fact  as  evidence  of  their  mistake  when  they  adduce  the 
example  of  the  Russian  Church  as  an  encouragement  for  their  own  use  of  the  vernacular 
in  their  Liturgy— when  they  have  one.  Not  one  of  the  ancient  Churches,  neither  the  Greek 
nor  the  Syrian,  nor  the  Coptic,  nor  the  Chaldean,  nor  the  Armenian,  nor  the  Nestorian, 
nor  the  Jacobite,  has  the  vernacular  of  the  people  for  the  medium  of  its  Liturgy.  The 
reason  is  evident ;  they  all  have  preserved  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  and  they  realize 
the  necessity  of  having  an  unchangeable  medium  for  the  expression  of  their  sentiments 
and  doctrines—:!  medium  which  is  furnished  by  the  now  unspoken  languages  in  which 
their  ancestors  learned  the  truths  of  Christianity.  For  information  on  this  point  consult 
Assemani's  Oriental  Library,  Vol.  Iv.,  eh.  7,  23.    Rome,  1719. 


710  STUDIES  IN  CHUKCH  HISTORY. 

it  was  at  that  time  not  improperly    termed,    the    Greek 
Church,  dates  from  the  first  day  of  that  patriarchate's  ex- 
istence.   He  must  feel  that  if  obedience  to  the  See  of  Peter 
had  not  been  part  of  the  faith  of  all  the  Oriental  Patriarch- 
ates when  Photius  started  the  Greek  Schism  on  its  first 
stage,   that   desperate  intruder  would  not  have  troubled 
himself  so  exceedingly  to  obtain  the  Pontifical  confirmation 
of  his  sacrilegious  and  all  but  murderous  seizure  of  the 
Constantinopolitan  crozier.     Quite  naturally  he  must  rea- 
son in  the  same  manner  when  he  thinks  of  Cerularius,  who 
separated  definitively  the  greater  number  of  the  Eastern 
Christians  from  the  communion  of  Rome.    He  must  ask  him- 
self how  it  is,  in  the  supposition  that  his  own  ''Orthodox" 
Church  was  not  Roman  in  its  origin,  that  his  Church  cele- 
brates so  many  feasts,  which  Rome  prescribes,  but  which 
the  Schismatic  Greeks  reject?    And  finally  he  must  wonder 
how  it  happens  that  if  the  Russian  Church  did  not  in  its 
early  days  proclaim  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff, 
nevertheless  the  ancient  ''Orthodox"  Liturgy  avows  that 
supremacy  in  terms  which  admit  of  no  exception  on  the 
part  of  a  Catholic  theologian.     For  instance,  St.  Peter  is 
termed  "the  sovereign  pastor  of  all  the  Apostles — pastyr 
vladytchnyi  vsich  ApostoIovJ'    Pope  St.  Sylvester  is  called  "the 
divine  head  of  the  holy  bishops"  (1).    We  read  of  Pope  St. 
Celestine  I.  that  "firm  in  his  speech  and  in  his  works,  and 
following  in  the  traces  of  the  Apostles,  he  showed  himself 
worthy  of  occupying  the  Holy  Chair  by  the  decree  with 
which  he  deposed  the  impious  Nestorius  (patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople)."   It  is  said  of  Pope  St.  Agapetus  that  "he  de- 
posed the  heretical  Anthimius  (another  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople), anathematized  him,  and  consecrating  Mennas, 
whose  doctrine  was  irreproachable,  placed  him  in  the  See 
of  Constantinople."     Similarly  we  hear  of  Pope  St.  Martin 
I.  that  he  "adorned  the  divine  throne  of  Peter,  and  holding 
the  Church  upright  on  this  rock  which  cannot  be  shaken, 
he  honored  his  name;"  and  this  praise  is  given  to  St.  Martin 

(1)  Gagarin  cites  the  quotations  which  we  give,  and  many  similar  ones,  in  tlie  Old  Slavonic 
text  in  his  Shulics  in  Theology,  Vol.  ii.,  and  Tondini  comments  on  them  most  judiciously  in 
bis  Primacy  of  St.  Peter  Proved  by  I'itles  Given  to  Him  in  the  Litx^ryy  of  the  Russian 
Church.     Paris,  1867. 


HETEIJOUUXIES  OF  IILSSIAN    "  OliTIIODOXV.'  711 

because  "he  segregated  Cvius  (patiiaicli  of  Alexaiidi-ia), 
SiM'gius  (another  patriarch  of  Coustantinople),  Pyrrhus,  and 
all  their  adherents,  from  the  rinireli."  Tojx'  St.  Leo  I,  is 
styled  ''the  siu-oessor  of  St.  Peter  on  the  highest  throne,  the 
heir  of  the  impregnable  rock."  Pope  St.  Leo  III.  is  thus  ad- 
dressed: "Chief  pastor  of  the  Church,  fill  the  place  of  Jesus 
Christ."  What  must  be  the  feelings  of  any  sacerdotally  sen- 
sitive member  of  the  enslaved  "Orthodox"  clergy,  when  he 
hears  his  Liturgy  teaching  how  a  Pope  ought  to  speak  to  a 
wicked  or  heretical  sovereign!  We  hear  I'ope  (Sregory  II. 
warning  Leo  the  Isaurian,  the  imperial  champion  of  the 
Iconoclasts:  "Endowed  as  we  are  with  the  power  and  sov- 
ereignty of  St.  Peter,  we  have  determined  to  prohibit  you," 
etc.  Nor  does  this  same  Liturgy  of  the  Russian  Church 
hesitate  to  admit  that  a  Roman  Pontiff  can  excommunicate 
emperors  as  well  as  patriarchs;  and  not  only  emperors  who 
belong  to  the  Roman  Patriarchate,  but  also  those  of  the 
Eastern.  In  a  fragment  of  a  Life  of  St.  John  Chrysostom 
this  Liturgy  tells  its  admirers  that  "Pope  Innocent  wrote 
more  than  once  to  Arcadius,  separating  him  and  his  wife, 
Eudoxia,  from  the  communion  of  the  Church,  and  pronounc- 
ing anathema  on  all  who  had  helped  in  driving  St.  John 
Chrysostom  from  his  See.  He  not  only  deprived  Theophilus 
(patriarch  of  Alexandria),  but  he  segregated  him  from  the 
Church.  Then  Arcadius  wrote  to  Pope  Innocent,  begging 
pardon  most  humbly,  and  assuring  the  Pope  of  his  repent- 
ance. The  emperor  wrote  also  to  his  brother  Honorius, 
asking  him  to  implore  the  Pontiff  to  lift  the  excommunica- 
tion, and  he  obtained  the  favor."  It  certainly  appears 
strange  that  during  so  many  centuries  the  leaders  of  the 
''Orthodox"  Russian  Church  have  not  found  some  means  of 
disembarrassing  themselves  of  these  and  many  similar  tes- 
timonies of  their  own  Liturgy  to  the  sui)remacy  of  the  Chair 
of  Peter;  but  at  least  they  have  endeavored  to  neutralize  the 
force  of  these  arguments  by  a  free  use  of  that  favorite 
weapon  of  all  heretics — calumny.  Prince  Nicholas  (xalitzin, 
writing  while  he  was  still  an  "Orthodox"  professor,  averred 
that  ''in  Russian  seminaries  it  is  taught  that  in  the  eyes  of 
Catholics  the  Pope  is  an  irresponsible  autocrat,  claiming 


712  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

to  be  impeccable"  (1).  And  that  medical  theologian,  Karatheo- 
dori,  whose  work,  by  the  way,  was  translated  into  French 
by  a  Russian  priest  formally  commissioned  to  the  task  by 
the  Russian  government,  dared  to  emit  the  following:  *To- 
pery  asks  us  to  recognize  in  this  mortal  (the  Pope)  all  the 
rights  and  all  the  authority  of  the  Universal  Church  .  .  . 
and  what  is  more,  it  asks  us  to  believe  that  by  ordinance  of 
(jrod  this  mortal  is  superior  to  all  the  Divine  Command- 
ments themselves,  and  that  he  enjoys  the  right  to  change 
them,  adding  to  them  or  subtracting  from  them  according 
to  his  OWL  will."  Having  read  this  barefaced  illustration  of 
"Orthodox"  mendacity,  we  are  prepared  for  the  Greek  phy- 
sician's assertion  that  men  of  the  stamp  of  "the  Jesuit 
Prince"  (Gagarin,  whose  writings  Karatheodori  affected  to 
refute)  are  "ever  ready  to  reject  the  clearest  truths,"  and 
that  they  prosecute  tlieir  ends  by  means  of  lies  and  the 
falsification  of  documents,  following  the  example  of  the 
''Council  of  Florence,  in  which  Cardinal  Julian  (Cesarini) 
adduced  forged  Acts  of  the  Seventh  General  Council."  Here 
the  Sultan's  physician  simply  imitated  the  time-serving 
Mark  of  Ephesus  in  his  too  successful  efforts  to  undo  the 
good  work  of  the  Florentine  synodals,  carefully  refraining, 
however,  from  any  mention  of  the  refutation  of  the  Ephe- 
sine  prelate's  charges  which  Bessarion,  the  most  eminent- 
Greek  Schismatic  of  any  day,  and  who  was  converted  by 
his  experience  at  this  same  Council  of  Florence,  adduced  in 
his  apposite  letter  to  Alexis  Lascaris.  The  reader  will 
scarcely  be  displeased,  if  we  here  repeat  the  words  of  Bes- 
sarion,  which  we  quoted  when  treating  of  the  Council  of 
Florence;  for  those  words  illustrate  the  position  assumed 
by  Karatheodori  and  others  of  that  ilk.  Mark  of  Ephesus 
had  accused  the  Latins  of  having  adduced  falsified  testi- 
monies of  the  Fathers  as  corroboratory  of  the  Catholic  doc- 
trine on  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  to  this 
calumny  Bessarion,  who  was  still  the  Schismatic  Arch- 
bishop of  Nicea,  thus  replied:  "Finally  they  (the  Latins) 
showed  us  testimonies  of  the  Fathers  which  evinced  most 
clearly  the  truth  of  their  teaching;  and  they  adduced  pas- 

(1)  fs  Russia  Schismatical  ?  p.  38. 


HETERODOXIES  OF  RUSSIAN  "  OKTIIODOXV.'  713 

sagL's  not  oiil^v  of  Western  Fathers,  against  which  we  could 
only  contend  that  they  had  been  corrupted  by  the  Latins, 
but  also  sayings  of  our  Epiphanius  which  declared  plainly 
that  the  Holy  CI  host  proceeds  from  the  Father  and  the  J^on, 
and  to  this  evidence  we  also  retorted  that  it  had  been  cor- 
rupted. Then  they  introduced  Cyprian  and  others,  and  we 
gave  the  same  answer;  finally  we  repeated  this  reply  when 
thej-  adduced  the  authority  of  Western  saints.  And  when 
we  (the  Schismatics)  had  debated  among  ourselves  for  many 
days  as  to  what  we  ought  to  say,  we  could  devise  no  other 
reply,  even  though  it  seemed  too  trivial  for  our  purpose. 
And  firstly,  the  doctrine  (of  the  Roman  riinrch)  appeared 
to  be  concordant  with  the  mind  of  the  saints;  secondly,  so 
many  and  so  ancient  we^e  the  volumes  containing  it,  that 
they  could  not  have  been  falsltieil  easily,  and  we  could  show 
neither  Latin  nor  Greek  copies  which  gave  the  quoted  pas- 
sages differently  from  the  version  of  the  Latins;  and  thirdly, 
we  were  unable  to  cite  any  doctors  who  contradicted  the 
Roman  doctrine.  Therefore  it  was  that  being  unable  to  find 
an  apposite  reply,  we  remained  silent  for  many  days,  hold- 
ing no  sessions  with  the  Latins''  (1). 

So  much  for  the  "Orthodox"  allegation  of  dishonesty  on 
the  part  of  that  (Ecumenical  Council  which  put  a  temporary 
end  to  the  Greek  Schism,  Such  charges  form  the  stock  in 
trade  for  such  of  the  ''Orthodox"  clergy  as  enjoy  some  smat- 
tering of  theological  education;  but  unfortunately  for  the 
prospects  of  conversion  of  the  majority  of  the  teachers  of 
"Orthodoxy,"  few  of  them  are  at  all  versed  in  the  essential 
elements  of  ecclesiastical  lore.  Were  the  "Orthodox"  clergy 
well  indoctrinated  even  with  profane  science,  of  course  not 

(1)  But  Bessarion  was  not  satisfied  with  repelling  the  Schismatical  charge  that  the  Roman 
theologians  were  falsifiers ;  he  retorted  the  charge  against  the  (ireeks.  Speaking  ot  a  pass- 
age from  St.  Basil  in  which  that  Father  says  that  "  the  Holy  Ghost  is  from  the  Son.  having 
His  'leiug  from  Him,  receiving  from  Him,  and  depending  entirely  from  that  Cause."  the 
Ari-bhishop  of  Nicea  declared  that  out  of  six  codices  of  St.  Basil's  works  brought  by  his 
tellow-schlsmatk's  to  Florence,  five  gave  the  passage  in  question  in  its  entirety,  while  the 
sixth  coUex  "  was  defective  in  some  parts,  and  presented  many  additions  which  had  been 
made  according  to  the  whims  of  the  transcriber."  When  he  returned  to  Constantinople  the 
Archbishop  searched  the  libraries,  and  he  discovered  indeed  some  codices  In  which  the 
questioned  passage  was  absent ;  but  those  codices  were  perfectly  new,  having  evidently 
been  written  after  the  termination  of  the  Council  of  Florence.  At  the  same  time  the  pre- 
late found  in  the  libraries  many  ancient  manuscripts  of  St.  Basil's  works  in  which  the 
passage  occurred. 


714  STUPU'S   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

with  the  German  materialism  which  alone  has  affected  some 
of  them,  they  would  come  to  realize  the  truth  of  those  words 
which  Lamorici^re  addressed  to  the  Pontifical  army  on  the 
eve  of  the  unsuccessful  but  glorious  campaign  of  Castel- 
fidardo:  ''Christianity  is  not  only  the  religion  of  the  civil- 
ized world.  It  is  the  moving  principle  and  the  very  life  of 
civilization,  and  the  Papacy  is  the  key-stone  in  the  arch  of 
Christianity.  To-day  all  Christian  nations  seem  to  have 
some  consciousness  of  these  truths,"  Gagarin  would  dis- 
cern Russia  among  the  nations  w'hose  perspicacity  appealed 
to  Lamorici^re.  ''Russia  does  not  yet  believe,"  reflected 
the  zealous  ex-Orthodox  polemic,  "that  the  Papacy  is  the 
key-stone  of  Christianity;  she  does  not  comprehend  the 
phrase,  but  already  she  seems  to  have  a  sort  of  conscious- 
ness of  its  truth,  and  in  her  pale  there  is  an  increasing 
number  of  souls  who  are  penetrated  by  that  truth,  and  who 
place  their  chief  hopes  in  it." 


DEO  OMNIPOTENTI, 

BEAT^  MARI.E  IMMACULATiE, 

BEATO  JOSEPHO,  ECCLESI^  PATRONO, 

AC  SANCTIS  APOSTOLIS  PETEO  ET  PAULO, 

ROMANS  SEDIS  FUNDATORIBUS, 

HOC  QUALECUMQUE  OPUS 

AUCTOR  HUMILLIMUS 

DICAVIT. 


i 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX. 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX. 


ABELARD.  Early  life,  II.,  227.  Marries  Heloise,  230.  The  catastrophe,  230. 
Founds  the  "Paraclete",  232.  False  sentimentality  in  regard  to  the 
famous  couple,  234.  The  "Letters  of  Heloise"  not  genuine,  235.  The 
tomb  at  Pfere-Lachalse,  236,  in  Note.  St.  Bernard  attacks  certain  doctrines 
of  Abelard,  and  they  are  conrlemned  by  the  Synod  of  Sens,  237.  Pope 
Innocent  II.  enjoins  perpetual  silence  on  Abelard,  240.  Reconciliation  with 
St.  Bernard,  and  retirement  to  Cluny,  241.    Abelard  was  never  a  heretic,  244. 

ABGAR,  King  of  Edessa.     His  alleged  correspondence  with  Our  Lord,  I.,  67. 

ACACIUS.     Schism  of,   I.,   341. 

ACTON,  LORD  JOHN.  His  comments  on  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholemew's 
Day,  III.,  414.     He  was  the  evil  genius  of  Dcellinger,   VI..   414. 

ADA.MNAN.     His   "Life  of  St.    Columbkille",   I.,   310. 

ADRIAN,  Rom.  Emp.     Persecutes  the  Christians,  I.,  47. 

ADRIAN  VI.,  POPE.     Early  career.   III.,   287. 

-EGIDIUS   OF  VITERBO.     III.,   287. 

^LFRIC  OF  CANTERBURY.     His  belief  in  the  Real  Presence.     I.,  401. 

^ONS.  The  Thirty  Intelligences,  male  and  female,  according  to  the  Valen- 
tinians,   I.,   34. 

AETIUS,  Leader  of  the  Anomcean  Arians,  I.,  230,  in  Note. 

AFFRE,   Archbishop  of  Paiis.     Death  at  the  barricades,   V.,   317,    in  Note. 

AGNES  SOREL.     Not  the  rival  of  Joan   of   Arc,   III.,   83. 

AILLY  (DB  ALLIACO)  CARD.  D'.  One  of  the  judges  of  John  Huss,  III.  3. 
His  opinion  of  the  Council  of  Pisa,   23. 

ALBANI,  JOHN  FRANCIS,  CARD.  His  rebuke  to  Cardinal  de  Bernis,  V.,  3, 
in  Note. 

ALBIGENSES.  History  and  doctrines,  II.,  350.  Their  disgusting  immoralities, 
352,   in   Note. 

ALBRET,  QUEEN  JEANNE  D'.  Her  violent  persecutions  of  Catholics,  III., 
372.     Not  poisoned  by  Catharine  dei  Medici,  394. 

ALCUIN.     On  the  Holy  Eucharist,   I.,  4C4. 

ALEMAN,   CARD.     His  conduct  at  the  Council  of  Basel,   III.,   108. 

ALEXANDER  SEVERUS,  Rom.  Emp.  Kind  to  Christians,  but  not  a  Christian, 
I.,   51. 

ALEXANDER  III,  POPE.  See  LOMBARD  LEAGUE. 

ALEXANDER  VI.,  POPE.  Authorities  on  whom  the  decriers  of  this  Pontiff 
necessarily  rely.  The  "Diary"  of  Burkhard  is  of  no  value  in  the  premises, 
III.,  203.  Guicciardini  is  unreMable  because  of  his  intense  enmity  lo  the 
Borgias,  206.  Jovius  was  venal,  and  a  self-confessed  liar  in  historical 
matters,  207.  Tomasi  was  interested  in  defaming  Alexander,  207.  The  often- 
adduced  manuscript  narratives  are  either  anonymous  or  mere  diatribes,  2uS. 
The  election  of  Alexander  was  not  simoniacal.  211.  His  conduct  toward 
Prince  Ziz;m,  215.  It  is  not  certa'n  that  Roderick  Borgia  was  the  father 
of  Cjesar,  Lucretia,  etc.,  222.  Course  of  the  Pontiff  in  the  matter  of 
Savonarola,   237,   239,   243,   217. 

ALEXANDER  I.,  Czar.     Probably  died  a  Catholic,  V.,  95. 

.ALEXANDER  II.,  Czar.     Persecutes  the  Catholics,  V.,   102. 

ALEXANDER  III.,  Czar.     Persecutes  the  Catholics,   V.,   139 

ALTARS.     Removed   from   all   English   sanctuaries,   III.,  469. 

717 


T18  STUDIES   IN   CHUKCH   HISTORY. 

A.MEDEO  VIII.,  of  Savoy.  Made  an  Anti-Pope  by  the  synodals  of  Basel,  III., 
116.     Submits  to  Pope  Eugtnius  IV.,  119. 

AMERICANISM,  So-called.  Condemned  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  VI.,  334.  Not  a 
mere  figment  of  the  pontifical  imagination,   342. 

ANACLETUS   II.,  Anti-Pope.     See  PETER  "LEONIS". 

ANARCHISM.  A  progeny  of  the  "International",  VI.,  383.  Bakunine  and 
Herzen  apostles  of  Pan-Slavism,  391. 

ANDORRA.    A  survival  of  the  many  happy  republics  of  the  Middle  Age,  VI.,  552. 

ANGLICAN  "ORDERS".  Invalid  from  a  historical  point  of  view.  III.,  492. 
Their  invalidity  reaffirmed  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  VI.,  230. 

ANGLO-SAXONS.     Their  conversion.  I.,  395.     Their  faith  thoroughly  Papal,  398. 

ANSELM,  ST.,  of  Canterbury.  Successfully  resists  Henry  I.  in  the  matter  of 
Investitures,  II.,  174. 

ANTIOCH,  COUNCIL  OF.     Did  not  reject  the  term  homoousios,  I.,  149. 

ANTIPODES.  Dispute  concerning  them  between  St.  Boniface  and  St.  Virgil, 
the  Irish  apostle  of  Carinthia,  I.,  527. 

ANTI-POPE,  The  first,  I.,  127. 

ANTONINUS  PIUS,   Rom.  Emp.     Persecutes  the  Christians,  I.,   49. 

APIARIUS.  Excommunicated  by  his  bishop  in  Africa,  appeals  to  Pope  Zosi- 
mus,  I.,  264. 

APPEALS  TO  THE  ROMAN  PONTIFF.  The  Council  of  Sardica  did  not  initiate 
the  right  of  appeal  to  the  Holy  See,  said  right  being  one  of  the  papal  pre- 
rogatives, and  history  evincing  its  exercise  at  as  early  a  date  as  142,  I.,  212. 

APPELLANTS.     See  UNIGENITUS. 

ARANDA,  Minister  of  Charle.s  III.  of  Spain.     His  character,   IV.,  468. 

ARCHETTI.     His  nunciature  to  Russia,  V.,  84. 

ARIUS.     His  heresy,  I.,  196.    Divisions  of  the  sect,  200.     Its  course  in  Gaul,  95. 

ARMENIANS.  Vicissitudes  of  their  Church,  II.,  343.  The  "New  Schism", 
VI.,  175. 

ARNAULD.  ANTHONY.  The  "Pope  of  the  Jansenists",  IV.,  115.  Character- 
istics  of   the  entire  Arnauld   family,  141.     See   JANSENISM. 

ARNOLD  (of  Rugby).  His  plan  for  the  salvation  of  English  Protestantism, 
v.,  435. 

ASKEW,  ANN.     Burnt  by  order  of  Cranmer,  III.,  471. 

ASTROLOGY.     In  the  Middle  Age,  VI.,  .529. 

AUBUSSON,  CARD.  D',  Grand-Master  of  the  Knights-Hospitalers,  VI.,  664. 

AUGSBURG.   CONFESSION  OF.     III.,   317. 

AUGUSTINE,  ST.  (of  Canterbury).  Sent  by  Pope  St.  Gregory  I.  to  convert  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  I.,  397.  Was  he  the  first  "papistical"  bishop  in  England, 
or  rather  a  thorough  Protestant?  398.  Did  he  massacre  the  monks  of 
Bangor?    417. 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.     Religious  conditions  in  our  day,  VI.,  239. 

AVIGNON,  The  Popes  at,  II.,  487. 

BABYLON.     Rome  thus  designated  by  many  ancient  writers,  I.,  4, 

BACON  OF  VERULAM.     Not  "the  restorer  of  science",   IV.,  82. 

BAIUS,  MICHAEL.     IV.,  110. 

BAPHOMET,   The  Gnostic  and  Templar  mystery,   II.,   459. 

BAPTISM.     Controversy  concerning  its   repetition,    I.,   132. 

BARBAROSSA  (Frederick  I.,  Holy  Rom.  Emp.).  Captures  Rome,  burns  St. 
Peter's,  and  is  crowned  by  his  anti-pope,  II.,  278.  Defeated  by  the  Lom- 
bard League  at  Legnano,  280.     Submits  to  Pope  Alexander  III.,  281. 

BASEL,  COUNCIL  OF.  Origin,  III.,  96.  Attacks  the  pontifical  prerogatives, 
107.  Its  pretended  deposition  of  Pope  Eugenius  IV.,  115.  Not  oecumeni- 
cal, 120. 

BASILIANS.    Their  origin,  V.,  145,  in  Note. 


GENERAL   TOPICAL  INDEX.  719 

SASILIDES.     His  heresy,  I.,  29. 

BAUTAIN.     His  doctrines  conQemned  by  Pope  Gregory  XVL,   V.,  255. 

HAZARD,   The  supreme  father  of  Saint-Slmonism,   V.,   380. 

BEATIFIC  VISION.     The  private  opinion  of  Pope  John  XXII.,   II.,  499. 

BECKET,  ST.  THOMAS  A.    Contest  with  Henry  II.  and  flnai  martyrdom,  II.,  291. 

BELGIUM.     Her  experience  with  Masonic  leglsiation,   VI.,   310. 

BELLARMINO.  Congregation  of  the  Index  condemns  his  theory  of  a  merely 
indiirct  divine  right  of  the  Pontiff  to  depose  monarchs,  II.,  204.  His 
treatise  against  the  "Test"  prescribed  by  James  I.  of  England,  IV.,  18. 
Certifies  that  Galileo  made  no  abjuration   at  the  first  trial,  61. 

BENEDICT  XIV.,  POPE.  Praises  the  Jesuits,  IV.,  444.  Condemns  the  Jesuit 
defenders  of  the  Ch'nese  Rites,  VI.,  684.  His  judgment  on  the  historical 
value  of  the  Lessons  in   the   Roman   Breviary,   519. 

BENEDICTINES.  Their  monasteries  both  workshops  and  houses  of  prayer. 
II.,  13,  in  Note. 

BERBNGARIUS.  Nature  of  his  error,  11.,  220.  His  chief  opponents,  222.  His 
retractations,  relapses,  and  probable  final  repentance,  223.  Not  a  disciple 
of  Ab61ard,  220,  in  Note. 

BERTRAM  OF  CORBIE.     See  RATRAMN. 

BESSARION.  Appeals  to  his  fellow-schismatics  to  submit  to  the  Holy  See,  III., 
129.     Nearly  elected  Pope,  150. 

BEZIER.  Fable  concerning  barbarities  of  a  papal  legate  during  the  storming 
of,  II.,  355. 

BIBLE.     Early  vernacular  versions.  III.,  310. 

BISMARCK,  German  Chancellor.  His  pretended  "War  for  Civilization",  VI.,  1. 
Not  a  German  patriot,  8,  in  Note.  Prevents  the  restoration  of  French 
royalty  in  1873,  112.     Conspires  to  dominate  the  Conclave  of  1878,  139. 

BLASPHEMERS.     Their  treatment  in  mediaeval  France,  VI.,  636,  in  Note. 

BOBBIO.    Its  celebrated  monastery,  I.,  324. 

BOCHER,   JOAN.     Burnt  by  order  of  Cranmer,   III.,   471. 

BODY  OF  CHRIST.  Basilides  teaches  that  Our  Lord  changed  bodies  with  the 
Cyrenian,   I.,   29. 

BOLINGBROKE  (Henry  St.  John).    Career  and  opinions,  IV.,  509,  in  Note. 

BOLIVAR,  Liberator  of  Peru,  Columbia,  etc.,  a  victim  of  Freemasonry,  VI.,  59. 

BOLOGNA,  UNIVERSITY  OF.     II..  14,  in  Note. 

BONAPARTE.   NAPOLEON.      See   NAPOLEON. 

BONAPARTE,   JEROME.     His  pretended  divorce,   V.,  65. 

BONAPARTE,  LUCIEN.  Refuses  to  discard  his  wife  at  the  command  of  his 
imperial  brother,  V.,  70. 

BONIFACE,  ST.  Apostle  of  the  Germanic  tribes.  His  dispute  with  St.  Vlr- 
gilius  (Ferghil)  concerning  the  "form"  of  Baptism,  I.,  306.  He  was  prob- 
ably an  Irishman,  520.  He  used  neither  force  nor  fraud  for  the  conversion 
of  the  German  barbarians,  526.  His  dispute  with  St.  Virgillus  in  the 
question  of  the  Antipodes,  527.  He  was  not  an  ignorant  man,  527.  Eulo- 
gized by   Cantii,   529,    in  Note. 

BONIFACE  VIII.,  POPE.  His  election,  II.,  412.  Contest  with  Philip  the  Fair, 
414.     The  crime  of  Anagni,  421.     His  calumniators   refuted,   424. 

BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  Its  origin.  III.,  465.  Not  approved  by  Pope 
Paul    IV.,    476. 

BORRI.  "The  Phcenix  of  Nature".     IV..  161. 

BORRUSSIANISM.     Foe   of  German   patriotism,   VI.,  7. 

POSSUET.  Controversy  with  Fenelon,  IV.,  310.  With  Leibnitz.  373.  The  author- 
ship of  the  "Defense  of  the  Declaration  of  the  Galilean  Clergy",  I.,  480; 
IV.,  269. 

tsOURBON,  CH.A.RLES  DE  (The  Constable).  Traitor  to  his  country.  III.,  341,  In 
Note.    Killed  at  the  walls  of  Rome.  344. 


720  STUDIES  IN   CHUECH   HISTORY. 

BRAZIL.     Ravages  of  Freemasonry,  VI.,  50. 

BREVIARY,  ROMAN.  Its  latest  revision  by  Pope  Urban  VIII.,  IV.,  49.  Its 
Lessons  in  the  Second  Nocturn  open  to  historical  criticism,  VI.,  519. 

BRITISH  CHURCH  (EARLY).  Its  foundation,  I.,  395.  The  Easter  Controversy 
no  argument  against  the  admission  of  Roman  Supremacy  by  the  early 
British  Christians,  114.     Proofs  of  this  admission,  418.     See  ENGLAND. 

BROTHERS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS.  Their  foundation  and  career, 
IV.,  180. 

BRUCKER.     Praised  cautiously  by  Tiraboschi,   I.,   389,    in   Note. 

BRUNO.  GIORDANO.  The  Roman  monument.  III.,  579.  Judgments  of  his 
biographers,  582.  His  early  career,  584.  Doffs  his  Dominican  habit,  586. 
His  wanderings  and  his  "New  Philosophy",  587.  The  Venetian  trial,  598. 
The  Roman  trial  and  the  catastrophe,  6C0. 

BRUTE,  Bishop  of  Vincennes.    His  correspondence  with  Lamennais,  V.,  278,  300. 

BUONAVENTURA,  ST.  He  presides  at  the  private  discussions  of  the  Four- 
teenth General  Council,  II.,  381,  in  Note. 

BURKE,  EDMUND.  His  speech  at  Bristol  on  the  Catholic  Question,  V.,  162,  176. 
Opposes  state-patronage   of  the   Catholic   clergy,   188. 

BURKHARD.     Worthlessness  of  his  "Diary",  HI.,  203. 

BYRON,  LORD.    Votes  for  Catholic  Emancipation,  V.,  194. 

CADALAO.    Anti-Pope  under  name  of  Honorius  II.,  II.,  168. 

CAGLIOSTRO   (Joseph   Balsamo).     Founds   the  Egyptian    Rite   of   Freemasonry, 

IV.,  419.     His  complicity  in  the  affair  of  the  Diamond  Necklace,  570. 
CAHENSLYISM,   So-called.     The  question  concerning  the  religious  progress  or 

defection  of   the   Catholic   Latin,   Teutonic,    and   other   immigrants   in   the 

United  States,   VI.,   326. 
CAJETAN,    CARD.      Early    career,    HI.,    288.      Meets    Luther,    306.      Too    partial 

to  the  League,  424. 
CALIXTINES.     A  branch  of  the  Hussites,  HI.,  11. 
CALIXTUS  III.,  POPE.    His  alleged  excommunication  of  a  comet,  HI.,  151.    His 

efforts  against  the  Turks,  154. 
CALVIN.     Early  career,  HI.,  358.     Affair  of  Servetus,  361.     His  spirit,  364.     His 

doctrines,  366. 
CAMISARDS.    Their  rebellion  and  atrocities,  IV.,  286. 

CAMPANELLA.     Not  a  "martyr  to  science",  and  not  a  victim  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, III.,  562.     He  was  an  exceedingly  intolerant  Catholic.   565. 
CAMPEGGI,   CARD.     At  the  Diet  of  Nuremberg,   III.,   314.     Course  in  England 

in  the  matter  of  Henry  VIII.  and  the  Boleyn,  355.    Calumniated  by  Burnet, 

366,  in  Note. 
CANNING,    GEORGE.     Espouses    the   cause    of   Catholic    Emancipation    in    the 

British   Dominions,    V.,   193. 
CANONESSES.     Meaning  of  this  term,  VL,   526. 
CANTU.     Prince  of  modern  historians,  VI.,  441.     His  judgment  on   Gioterti,  V., 

388.    His  experience  with  the  Congregation  of  the  Index,  III.,  189,  in  Note. 
CAPISTRANO,    ST.  JOHN.     Relieves  Belgrade,    III.,   154. 
CAPTIER,  FATHER  FCS.     Murdered  by  the  Communists  of  1871,  VI.,  98. 
CARBONARI.    Origin  and  meaning,  V.,  481.    Their  connection  with  Freemasonry. 

486.    Scheme  for  the  election  of  a  Carbonaro  Pope,  493.    Mazzini  dominates 

the  Alta  Vendita,  500. 
CARDUCCI.     Poet  of  Atheism.  VI.,  1.56,  in  Note. 
CARLISM.     In  Spain.     Its  origin  and  significance.  V.,  259. 
CAROLINIAN  BOOKS.   Not  written  by  an  Iconoclast,   I.,  484. 
CASTFLAR,  E.MILIO.     His  religious  sentiments,  VI.,  195. 
CASUISTRY.     Its  meaning,  IV.,  162,  in  Note. 
CATAPHRYGIANS.     Their  heresy,  I.,  36. 


GENEliAL   TOPICAL   INDEX.  I'll 

CATIIARI.     A  sect  of  the  Walrtenscs,   II.,   312. 

CATHAHINE  OK  SIENA,  ST.  Her  influence  on  Pope  Gregory  XI.  for  the 
termination  of  the  '•Captivity  of  Babylon",  II.,  493.  Her  conversation  with 
Pope  Urban  VI.  on  the  then  imminent  Schism,  527,   in  Note. 

CATHARINE  DEI  MEDICI.  Her  character,  HI.,  398.  Her  connection  with  the 
Mas.sacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  409. 

CATHARINE  II.,  Czarina.  Her  persecuting  career,  V.,  80.  Her  friendship 
with  Voltaire,  IV.,  nSB,  552,  554. 

CAVOUR,  CAMILLO  BENSO  DI.  Calumniates  the  Papal  government  at  the 
Congress  of  Paris,  V.,  525.  His  methods  of  annexation,  533,  in  Note.  De- 
clares in  parliament  that  it  was  only  by  favor  of  Napoleon  III.  that  Pied- 
mont annexed  the  Romagna,  534.  His  ostensibly  Christian  death,  543,  In 
Note.  He  adopts  from  Mcntalembert  the  formula  "A  Free  Church  In  A 
Free  State",   and   travesties  it,  552. 

CELESTIUS.     Chief  disciple  of  Peiagius,   I.,   254. 

CELIBACY,  CLERICAL.  Its  antiquity,  II.,  190.  Custom  of  the  Christians  of 
the  Oriental  Rites,  both  United  and  Schismatic,  192.  Objections  deduced 
from  Apostolic  usage,  194.  Opinion  of  Bacon  of  Verulam,  198,  in  Note. 
Many  dispensations  granted  in  this  matter  to  both  the  secular  and  regulai 
clergy,  199.  Laxity  of  the  Russian  "Orthodox"  Church  in  regard  to  its  own 
canons  concerning  this  subject,  192,  in  Note. 

CENCI,  BEATRICE.  The  tragedy.  III.,  568.  Justification  of  the  course  pur- 
sued by  Pope  Clement  VIII.,  576. 

CEREMO.XIES.  SACRED.  Not  copied  from  the  Pagans,  1.,  170.  Mistakes  of 
Gerson,  Petau,  and  some  other  Catholic  writers  in  this  matter,  there  not 
being  one  Catholic  rite  of  Pagan  origin,  174. 

CERULARIUS.     Revives  the  Photian  Schism,   II.,   123. 

CHALCEDON,  GEN.  COUNCIL  OF.  Not  convoked  by  the  emperor,  Marcion,  I., 
332.  The  synodals  did  not  examine  judicially  the  Dogmatic  Epistle  of  Pope 
St.  Leo  I.  to  Flavian,  I.,  337.  The  superiority  of  a  General  Council  over 
the  Pope  not  evinced  by  the  Acts  of  this   Council,   340. 

CHAPTERS,  THE  THREE.     The  controversy  on,  I.,  359. 

CHARLEMAGNE.  Significance  of  his  imperial  title,  II.,  26.  Meaning  of  his 
office  as  "Patrician  of  the  Romans",  36.  Falsity  of  the  assertion  that  he 
could  not  write,  17. 

CHARLES  IX.,  King  of  France.  His  connection  with  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's Day,  III.,  409.     Circumstances  of  his  death,  418. 

CHARLES  ALBERT.  King  of  Sardinia.     His  Carbonarism,  V.,  490. 

CHARLES  v.,  King  of  Spain  and  Holy  Rom.  Emp.  His  character.  III.,  293.  Sacks  tbff 
Eternal  City,  344. 

CHINA.  German  plot  against  the  French  protectorate  over  Chiiiese  Catholics,  VI.,  173. 
Controversy  on  the  "Chinese  Rites,  iJ7). 

CHRISTIANITY.     Its  rapid  propagation  a  proof  of  its  divine  origin,  I.,  59. 

CHRISTIANS  OF  ST.  THO.MAS,  So-called.    I.,  2S8. 

CHRISTINA,  Queen  of  Sweden.    Her  character  and  conversion,  IV.,  194,  in  Note. 

CHRYSOSTOM,  JOHN,  ST.     Appeals  to  Pope  St.  Innocent  I.,  I.,  246. 

CHRONICLERS,  MEDI.EVAL.    Their  zeal,  II.,  112. 

CIVILTA,  CATTOLICA,  Roman  Review.    Its  foundation  and  character,  VI.,  402. 

CLARENDON,  CONSTITUTIONS  OF.  Occasion  of  the  dissension  between  St.  Thomas  k 
Becket  and  Henry  II.,  II.,  294. 

CLAUDE  OF  TURIN.    Not  the  founder  of  the  Waldenses,  II.,  317. 

CLEMANGIS.     Value  of  his  anticlerical  declamations,  II.,  531. 

CLEMENT  I.,  POPE,  ST.    Shows  that  St.  Peter  came  to  Rome,  I.,  8.    Eis  writings,  72. 

CLEMENT  v.,  POPE.  His  election  not  the  result  of  a  barpain  with  Philip  the  Fair.  II., 49^ 
.I.istiflcation  of  his  suppre.ssi(m  of  the  Teinplars.  461. 


722  STUDIES  IN  CHUBCH    HISTORY. 

CLEMENT  VII.,  POPE.  Made  prisoner  by  the  emperor,  Charles  V.,  III.,  344. 
Efforts  for  a  Crusade,  352.  His  course  in  the  matter  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
the  Boleyn,  353. 

CLEMENT  VIII.,  POPE.  Protests  against  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from 
France  because  of  the  attempt  of  Chatel,  III.,  553.  Allows  all  Religious 
Orders  to  labor  in  Japan,  557.  Makes  Tasso  poet-laureate,  559.  Justification 
of  his  course  toward  the  Cenci,  568. 

CLEMENT  XIV.,  POPE.  His  election  not  simoniacal,  IV.,  477.  Suppresses  the 
Jesuits,  481.  Calumniated  by  Cr4tineau-JoIy,  443,  477.  Did  not  die  in- 
sane,  497. 

CLOTILDA,  ST.,  Queen  of  the  Franks.  Circumstances  of  her  marriage,  and 
her  alleged  cruelties,  VI.,  590. 

CLOVESHOE,  SYNOD  OF.  Shows  that  the  early  Anglo-Saxon  Church  acknowl- 
edged the  Papal  supremacy,  I.,  410. 

CLOVIS.    His  conversion,  VI.,  588.    His  alleged  post-baptismal  barbarities,  604. 

COLUMBANUS,  ST.     Work  of  his  monks  at  Bobbio,  I.,  324. 

COMET  OF  1456.     Its  alleged  excommunication.   III.,  151. 

COMMUNE  OF  PARIS  (1871).  The  massacre  of  the  "hostages",  VI.,  88.  Free- 
masonry responsible  for  these  horrors,  107.     Culpability  of  Thiers,  94. 

COMTE.  Styled  by  his  disciples  the  Father  of  Positivism.  His  doctrines,  V., 
384.     Positivism  destructive  of  all  human  grandeur,  385. 

CONCLAVE.     The  "right  of  exclusion",  VI.,  140. 

CONFESSION,  AURICULAR.     Not  condemned  by  the  fact  of  Nectarius,  I.,  166. 

CONSALVI,  CARD.  His  early  career,  V.,  10.  Arranges  the  Concordat  with 
Napoleon,  16.  His  reply  to  Napoleon's  demand  for  a  Papal  alliance  with 
France,  30.  His  negotiations  for  Catholic  Emancipation  in  the  British 
dominions,   208,   212. 

CONSTANCE,  COUNCIL  OF.  Its  history.  III.,  26.  Value  of  the  decrees  issued 
in  its  fourth  and  fifth  sessions,  42. 

CONSTANTINOPLE,  FIRST  GEN.  COUNCIL  OF.  CEcumenical  merely  because 
of  its  confirmation  by  the  Roman  Pontiff,  I.,  240. 

CONSTANTINE,  First  Christian  Roman  Emperor.  Historical  truth  of  his  vision 
of  the  Cross,' I.,  150.  His  baptism  near  Nicomedia,  151.  He  did  not  become 
an  Arian,   158. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  CHURCH  OF  FRANCE.  Origin  and  shameful  career, 
IV.,    605. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  GOVERNMENT.     It  is  of  mediaeval  origin,   II.,  4,   in  Note. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  OR  PUBLIC  LAW.     Its  meaning,   II.,  212,  in  Note. 

COPERNICUS.  Not  the  author  of  the  heliocentric  system,  IV.,  83.  His  teach- 
ings condemned  by  Luther  and  Melancthon  as  crazy  and  heretical,  84. 
Derided  by  Montaigne  and  Bacon,  and  doubted  by  Pascal,  86,  in  Note.  Hl» 
treatment  by  the  Congregation  of  the  Index,  89,  in  Note. 

COPRONYMUS,  CONSTANTINE.  Eastern  Emp.  Sustains  the  Iconoclasts,  I., 
469.     H's  bribes  spurned  by  King  Pepin,  471. 

COTTERELS,  Bands  of  Albigensian  cutthroats,  II.,  287. 

COUNCILS,  CECUMENICAL.  First;  at  Nice,  I.,  196.  Second;  First  of  Con- 
stantinople, 240.  Third;  at  Ephesus,  276.  Fourth;  at  Chalcedon,  329.  Fifth; 
Second  of  Constantinople,  359.  Sixth;  Third  of  Constantinople,  419.  Seventh; 
Second  of  Nice,  466.  Eighth;  Fourth  of  Constantinople,  II.,  55.  Ninth;  First 
of  the  Lateran,  265.  Tenth;  Second  of  the  Lateran,  268.  Eleventh;  Third 
of  the  Lateran,  284.  Twelfth;  Fourth  of  the  Lateran,  360.  Thirteenth; 
First  of  Lyons,  370.  Fourteenth;  Second  of  Lyons,  379.  Fifteenth;  at 
Vlenne  in  France  (Isfere),  446.  Sixteenth;  at  Florence,  III.,  123.  Seven- 
teenth; Fifth  of  the  Lateran,  265.  Eighteenth;  at  Trent.  511.  Nineteenth; 
at  the  Vatican,  V.,  571. 
COURTS  ECCLESIASTICAL,  In  England,  II.,  292,  in  Note. 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX.  723 

COUSIN,  VICTOR.     His  pliilosophy,  V..  376. 

CREED.    Addition  of  the  tilio<]Uf,  II.,  81. 

CRESCENS,  ST.     Preaches  in  Gaul  In  the  first  century,  I..  87. 

CRITICISM,  SCIENCE  OF.     Not  unknown  In  the  Middle  Age,   II.,  9.  in  Note. 

CROSS,  VENERATION  OF  THK.  Its  antiquity.  I.,  464.  Absurd  objection 
adduced  by  Claude  of  Turin,  165.  Dutch  Protestants  trample  on  the  Cross 
in   Japan,   III.,   558:   V.,   402. 

CROZIER.     Why  the  Roman  Pontiff  has  none,  I.,   88,  in  Note. 

CRUSADES.  Origin,  II.,  246.  Authors  worthy  of  consultation  on  this  subject, 
252.  Valuo  of  the  Holy  Wars,  253.  Their  alleged  folly  and  injustice,  254. 
Their  effects  on  art,  science,  and  literature,  257. 

CUMMIAN,  ST.,  THE  HERMIT.  Proclaims  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff,   I.,   301. 

CURCI,  CARLO.     His  vagaries,   condemnation,   and  retractation,   VI.,   400. 

CYPRIAN,  ST.  Asserts  the  Roman  Pontificate  of  St.  Peter,  I.,  24.  Appeals  to 
the  Holy  See  in  the  matter  of  the  "Fallen",  123.  Was  not  excommunicated 
by  Pope  St.  Stephen,  135.  He  regarded  the  ro-baptismal  question  as  on© 
of  mere  discipline,  138.  He  reverently  acknowledged  the  Papal  preroga- 
tives, 142. 


DAMASCENE,  ST.  JOHN.    His  doctrine  on  the  Real  Presence,  1.,  478. 
DAMIAN,  ST.  PETER.     His  "Dialogue"   in  defence  of  the  Papal  prerogatives, 
II.,  168. 

DANTE,  ALLEGED  HERESIES  OF.  His  accusers,  II.,  508.  Judgment  of  his 
contemporaries,  510.  His  Ghibelliuism  implied  no  hatred  of  the  tiara,  511. 
His  invectives  against  certain  Pontiffs  were  caused  by  devotion  to  the 
Chair  of  Peter,  512.  He  rnsists  ou  the  Papal  prerogatives,  513.  He  pro- 
claims his  belief  in  Good  Works  and  in  Free  Will,  515.  He  insists  on 
prayer  for  the  souls  in  Purgatory,  516.  Absurdity  of  the  theory  of  Rossetti 
and  Aroux,  according  to  which  the  "Divine  Comedy"  was  a  praise  of  the 
Vaudois,  but  disguised  in  order  to  outwit  the  Inquisition,  519. 

DARBOY,  Archbishop  of  Paris.  Rebuked  by  Pius  IX.  for  participation  in  the 
quasi-Masonic  funeral  of  Marshal  Magnau,  V.,  565,  in  Note.  His  arrest, 
imprisonment,  and  murder  by  the  Commune  of  Paris,  VI.,  88.  Respon- 
sibility  of   Thiers  for  this   crime,    94.  , 

DEACONESSES.     An  institution  of  the  primitive  Church,   VI.,   525.  1 

DECLARATION  OF  THE  FRENCH  CLERGY  IX  1662.  Its  history,  IV.,  229. 
Its  famous  "Defense"  was  probably  not  written  by  Bossuet,  I.,  480,  in  Note. 

DECRETALS  OF  ISIDORE  MERCATOR.  Their  origin,  II.,  90.  Not  approved 
by  Rome,  97.     Who  was  their  author?,  99.     Their  object,   103. 

DENIS  THE  AREOPAGITE.    His  works,  I.,  75.    He  was  not  Bishop  of  Paris,  85. 

DEPOSING  POWER  OF  THE  POPE.  Various  Catholic  systems  regarding  this 
right,  II.,  203.  Indisputable  existence  of  a  belief  in  it  until  very  modern 
times,  207.  Leibnitz  wished  for  its  recognition.  208.  The  Holy  Roman 
Empire  was,  in  a  sense,  a  fief  of  the  Holy  See,  209.  Oath  of  fidelity  to  the 
Pontiff  taken  by  the  emperor,  211.  The  deposing  power  was  recognized  by 
the  public  law  of  Spain,  213.  By  that  of  England.  214.  By  that  of  the 
Two  Sicilies,  214.  By  that  of  France,  as  early  as  the  sixth  century,  216. 
By  that  of  the  Holv  Roman  Empire,  217.  Advantages  of  the  power  ad- 
mitted by  such  Protestant  luminaries  as  Coquerel  and  Anc'llon,  and  even 
by  Voltaire,  219. 

DESCARTES.  His  system  on  certitude  apparently  favored  by  the  Council  of 
the  Vatican.  V.,  583. 

DIOCLETIAN.  His  persecution  of  the  Christians,  I.,  56.  His  presumed  con- 
nection with  the  alleged  idolatry  of  Pope  St.   Marcellinus,   VI.,   513. 


724,  STUDIES   IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

DIOSCORUS.  Why  his  cause  -^-as  treated  by  the  Chalcedonian  synodals,  even 
after  they  had  read  the  Dogmatic  Epistle  of  Pope  St.  Leo  I.,  I.,  340. 

DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  KINGS.     Not  a  Catholic,  but  a  Protestant  theory,  VI.,  617. 

DIVORCE  FOR  ADULTERY.  Practice  of  the  Greeks,  both  Catholic  and  Schis- 
matic, III.,  137;  v.,  65. 

DODWELL,  HENRY.  Tries  to  minimize  the  sufferings  of  the  persecuted  early 
Christians,   I.,   41,    61. 

DCELLINGER.  His  apostasy,  V.,  607.  His  faith  shipwrecked  ten  years  before 
the  Vatican  Council,  VI.,  413.  His  evil  genius  was  Lord  John  Acton,  414. 
His  tergiversations,  418.  His  volte-face  in  regard  to  the  Jews,  423.  His 
Rationalism,  424. 

DOGMATIC  EPISTLES  OF  THE  ROMAN  PONTIFFS.  Never  submitted  tu 
juridical  examination  in  a  General  Council,  I.,  284,  337,  4S0. 

DOMINICK,  ST.  His  mission  to  the  Albigenses,  II.,  354.  Not  the  founder  of 
the  Inquisition,  390. 

DOMINION  (PAPAL)  IN  THE  ROMAN  STATES.  Its  origin  antedates  the 
"donations"  of  the  French  monarchs,  I.,  502.  The  "donation"  of  Pepin, 
506.  Territorial  modifications  of  the  Papal  States,-  512.  Their  consolidation, 
517.  Absolutl.sm  in  their  government  a  very  modern  system,  517,  in  Note. 
Their  armed  defence  against  invasion  or  rebellion  a  right  and  duty  of  the 
Pope-King,  II.,  140;  III.,  262.  It  is  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  episcopate 
that  this  dominion  is,  in  the  present  state  of  society,  necessary  for  the 
freedom  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,   II.,  141,   in  Note. 

DOMINIS,  MARCANTONIO  DE.  His  apostasy,  recantation,  and  problematical 
sincerity  of  repentance,  III.,  457. 

DOMITIAN.     His  persecution  of  the  Christians,  I.,  45. 

DONATISTS.  Their  history,  I.,  187.  They  did  not  appeal  to  the  emperor  from 
the  decision  of  Pope  Melchiades.  193. 

DROSTE-VISCHERING,  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  V.,  254,  258. 

DUBOIS,  CARD.    His  character,  IV.,  361. 

DUPANLOUP.  Early  career-,  V.,  349.  His  controversy  on  the  classics  with 
Mgr.  Gaume,  354.  Champions  the  cause  of  the  Pope-King,  355.  His  atti- 
tude in  the  Council  of  the  Vatican,  338. 

DUTCH.  Trample  on  the  Cross  in  Japan,  III.,  558.  Vain  efforts  of  Protestant 
writers  to  justify  this  sacrilege,  V.,   402. 

EASTER  CONTROVERSY.  Its  origin,  I.,  105.  The  dispute  concerned  discipline 
alone,  108.    Terminated  by  the  Council  of  Nice,  112. 

EBION.    His  heresy,  I.,  80. 

EDICT  OF  NANTES.  Its  provisions  and  its  effects  on  France,  IV.,  271.  Its 
revocation,  275.  Popularity  of  the  revocation  in  France,  276.  Even  the 
"great"  Arnauld  favored  it,  277.  By  this  revocat'on  France  lost  less  than 
fifty  thousand  citizens,  277.  By  it  ?he  lost  no  considerable  amount  of 
wealth,  281.  By  it  she  lost  no  military  strength,  284.  The  rebellion  of 
the  Camisards,  286.  Mme.  de  Maintenon  did  not  procure  or  counsel  the 
revocation,  291.  The  bishops  of  France  were  not  consulted  in  the  matter, 
298.  The  provisions  of  the  revocation  were  conformable  to  that  Protestant 
invention,   the   Peace  of  Westphalia,    301. 

EDWARD,  ST.,  LAWS  OF.  Attest  the  right  of  the  Pope  to  depose  wicked  or 
heretical  rulers,  II.,  214. 

ELECTIONS.  PAPAL.  Their  history  down  to  the  days  of  Hildebrand,  II.,  162. 
Their  freedom  defended  by  St.  Gregory  VII.,  before  and  during  his  pon- 
tificate, 166. 

ELEVENTH  GEN.  COUNCIL.  Its  convocation,  II.,  284.  Provides  that  a  two- 
thirds'  vote  will  elect  a  Pope.  285.  Condemns  the  Waldenses,  2«6.  Invigo- 
rates discipline,  288.     Protects  the  clergy  from  episcopal   extortion   during 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX.  725 

visitations,  288.  Ordains  that  all  beque.sts  to  Religious  Orders  must  be 
shared  with  the  parish  churches,  289.  Prescribes  free  schools  for  the  poor 
in  the  neighborhood  of  all  catliedrals,  290. 

ELIZABETH,  Queen  of  England.  Undoes  the  work  of  Queen  Mary,  III.,  475 
Institutes  her  new  hierarchy,  granting  all  requisite  dispensations,  477. 

EMANCIPATION,   CATHOLIC.   In   (ho   English  dominions,   V..   159. 

EMERY.     Quotes  Dossuet  against  Napoleon.  V.,  40. 

EMPIRE,  HOLY  RO.MAN.  Its  foundation,  II.,  23.  It  was,  in  a  sense,  a  fief  of 
the  Holy  See,  209.  By  Us  creation,  did  Pope  St.  Leo  III.  benefit  the 
Church?  25.  Need  for  study  of  its  nature,  26.  The  Roman  Pontiff  wa? 
the  source  of  all  the  emperor's  authority,  28.  Meaning  of  the  title  "Patrician 
of  the  Romans",  borne  by  the  early  emperors,  36.  The  emperor  did  not  owe 
his  position  to  the  Senate  and  People  of  Rome,  39.  Condition  of  th« 
Empire  in  the  seventeenth  century,  IV.,  58.     In  the  eighteenth,  373. 

EMS,  CONGRESS  OF.     Quasi-schismatlcal,  IV.,  600. 

ENCYCLOPEDIA,  DIDEROT'S.     Judged  by  Its  own  founders,  IV.,  534. 

ENFANTIN,    "PERE".     Supreme  father  of   Salnt-Simonism,   V.,   380. 

ENGLAND.  Conversion,  I.,  395.  Transformation  of  the  phenomenally  barbarous 
Anglo-Saxons,  397.  The  early  English  Church  was  "papistical",  398.  Its 
belief  in  Transubstantiation,  400.  Its  constant  practice  of  Auricular  Con- 
fession, 405.  Its  belief  In  Purgatory,  406.  It  gloried  in  its  spiritual  sub- 
jection to  the  Roman  Pontiff,  408.  Its  clergy  were  celibitic,  414.  Its  Prot- 
estantizatlon,  HI.,  463.  Religious  Orders  still  illegal,  V.,  181,  in  Note. 
See  also   BRITISH   CHURCH. 

EPHESUS,  GEN.  COUNCIL  OF.  History,  I.,  2S0.  CEcumenical  because  Pope 
Celestine  consented  to  its  convocation,  presided  over  it  by  means  of  hii 
legates,  and  confirmed  it,  283.  The  synodals  did  not  examine  juridically 
the'  decrees  of  the  Pontiff,  284. 

EPIPHANIUS,   ST.     Shows  that  St.   Peter  founded   the   See  of  Rome,    I.,   12. 

EQUADOR.  Ravaged  by  the  Freemasons,  VI.,  64.  The  murder  of  President 
Garcia  Moreno,  71. 

ERASMUS.     His  career,   HI.,  334.     His  uncompromising  Catholicism,   337. 

ERRINGTON,  GEORGE.  His  "officious"  mission  from  the  English  government 
to  Pope  Leo  XIII.  in  the  matter  of  Irish  Home  Rule,  VI.,  220. 

EUCHARIST,  HOLY.  The  doctrine  on  the  Real  Presence  underwent  no  change 
in  the  tenth  century,  II..  107. 

EUGENIUS  IV,  POPE.  Rebukes  the  emperor,  Sigismund,  III.,  97.  His  pretended 
deposition,  115.  His  character,  119,  in  Note.  His  rejection  of  the  Baselean 
decrees  on  Conciliar  supremacy,  122. 

EUTYCHIANISM.     The  opposite  of  Nestorianism,  I.,  329. 

EXARCHS  OF  RAVENNA,  Exercised  very  little  influence  in  Rome,  I.,  504, 
In  Note. 

EXCLUSION,  RIGHT  OF,   In  the  Conclave.     Its  meaning  and  history,  VI.,  139. 

EXEGESIS,  THE  NEW.     Founded  by  Ernestl,  V.,  366. 

EXOTERIC  AND  ESOTERIC  DOCTRINES.  In  the  Discipline  of  the  Secret 
among  the  early  Christians,  I.,  99. 

FABER.  F.  W.     His  connection  with  the  Oxford  Movement,  V.,  450. 
FALSTAFF,  SHAKESPEARE'S.     Meant  to  represent  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  II.,  580. 
FEBRONIANISM.     History   and   significance,    IV.,   397.      Its   essential   difference 

from  Gallicanism,  400. 
KENELON.     Explains  the  power  of  the  Pope  to  depose  wicked  and   tyrannical 

rulers,  II.,  2C5.     His  controversy  with  Bossuet  in  the  matter  of  Quietism. 

IV.,    310.     His   alleged    duplicity    and   phi'.osophlsm,    326.      Meaning   of   hlg 

"Telemachus",  333. 
FELINSKI,  Archbishop  of  Warsaw.     Victim  of  "Holy  Russia",  V.,  107, 


726  STUDIES  IN  CHURCH   HISTORY. 

FERDINAND  OF  BULGARIA.  Delivers  his  infant  son  to  the  Photian  Schism 
VI.,  178. 

FERGHIL.     See  VIRGILIUS. 

FERRY  LAWS.     Their  origin,  meaning,  and  effects,   VI.,   114. 

FICHTE.     His  "philosophical"  aberrations,  V.,  370. 

FIFTH  GEN.  COUNCIL.  CEcumenical  because  confirmed  by  Pope  Vigil;us,  I., 
366.  Not  contrary  to  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  371.  Not  favorable  to  the 
superiority  of  a  General  Council  over  the  Pontiff,  378. 

FLACCIUS  ILLYRICUS.  Chief  of  the  Centuriators  of  Magdeburg,  II.,  27.  An 
illustration  of  his  calibre,  34. 

FLAMINIO,  MARCANTONIO.     His  orthodoxy.  III.,  4C0. 

FLBURY,  CLAUDE.     His  virulency  toward  Pope  Innocent  III.,  II.,  344. 

FLORENCE,  GEN.  COUNCIL  OF.  Its  first  sessions  at  Ferrara,  III.,  123.  Trans- 
ferred to  Florence,  127.  The  leaders  of  the  Photian  Schism  acltnowledge 
the  Papal  supremacy,  130.  The  Gallican  theory  concerning  the  oecumenicity 
of  this  Council,  132. 

FOURIER.     His  Phalansterian  system,  V.,  382. 

FOURTEENTH  GEN.  COUNCIL,  The  emperor  of  the  Greeks,  Michael  Paleol- 
ogus,  and  the  Constantinopolitan  patriarch  abjure  the  Photian  Schism  in 
the  name  of  their  compatriots,   II.,  3S1. 

FRANCE.  The  attempted  Protestantization  of,  HI.,  368.  Some  of  the  reasons 
for  its  failure,  392.  The  Third  French  Republic  as  a  persecutor  of  the 
Church,  VI.,  111. 

FRANCIS  I.,  King  of  France.  Reconciled  with  Pope  Leo  X.,  HI.,  283.  His 
candidature  for  the  crown  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  292.  His  character 
compared  with  that  of  the  emperor,  Charles  V.,  293. 

FRANCIS  II.,  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies.  His  weakness,  rectitude,  and  heroism, 
v.,  537. 

FRANKLIN,   BENJAMIN.     His  adoration  of  Voltaire,   IV.,   540,   542. 

FRANKS.     Their  conversion,  VI.,  585. 

FRATICELLI.     Franciscan  schismatics,  II.,  500. 

FREDERICK  II.,  Holy  Roman  Emperor.  His  excommunication,  II.,  372.  His 
probably  impenitent  death,  379. 

FREDERICK  II.,  King  of  Prussia.  His  relations  with  Voltaire,  IV.,  521.  His 
unnatural  immoralities,  523,  525;  551,  in  Note.  His  Political  Testament, 
562,   in  Note. 

FREE  CHURCH  IN  A  FREE  STATE.  As  differently  interpreted  by  Montalem- 
bert  and  by  Cavour,  V.,  552. 

FREEMASONRY.  Its  origin,  organization,  and  object,  IV.,  408.  Its  first  con- 
demnation by  the  Holy  See,  411.  How  can  it  be  studied?  412.  Its 
"Powers",  418.  Its  development  by  Cagliostro,  420.  By  Weisshaupt,  427. 
It  is  a  religion,  430.  Its  "Secret",  431.  Why  is  it  more  virulent  in  Catholic 
than  in  Protestant  countries?  437.  Has  it  one  directive  centre?  V.,  497. 
Its  connection  with  Socialism,  VT.,  359.  With  the  "International"  and 
Anarchism,  384.  Its  origin  in  Spain,  V.,  262,  in  Note.  In  Portugal,  266.  In 
Austria-Hungary,  VI.,  243,  in  Note.  In  Belgium,  312,  in  Note.  Its  ravages 
in  Brazil,  50.  In  Columbia,  59.  In  Equador,  64.  In  Argentina,  76.  In 
Venezuela,  78.  In  Chili,  77.  In  Peru,  81.  In  Mexico,  82.  The  Masonic 
Anti-Council  of  1869,  V.,  576.  The  projected  Universal  Congress  of  Masonry 
for  1882,  which  was  to  openly  proclaim  tlie  Masonic  denial  of  God  and  of 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  VI.,  160.  The  Lodges  prevent  a  monarchist 
restoration  in  France  in  1873,  112.  Reasons  for  which  Leo  XIII.  renewed 
the  condemnations  of  the  sect  launched  by  many  of  his  predecessors,  186. 

FREPPEL,  Bishop  of  Angers.  His  judgment  on  the  French  Revolution,  IV., 
617.  in  Note. 


I 


i 


GENERAL  TOPICAL   INDEX.  7'27 

FRERE-ORBAN.     Aids  the  Masonic  campaign    against    freedom    of  education  In 

Belgium,  VI.,  310. 
FROUDE,   J.   ANTHONY.     Blames    the  O.xford    .Movemeut   for   his   agnosticism, 

v..  477. 
FROUDE,    R.    HUliRELL.       Hl8  influence    on    the    Oxford    .Movement,    V.,    437, 

In  Note. 

GALILEO.  Restorer  of  science,  IV.,  81.  The  Church  and  the  heliocentric  sys- 
tem, 83.  First  trial  of  Galileo,  88.  The  second  trial,  95.  The  imprisonment 
of  the  scientist  was  merely  nominal,  and  there  was  no  torture,  96.  The 
alleged  protest  "And  yet  it  moves"  is  unauthentic  and  intrinsically  ab- 
surd, 98.  Various  conclusions  of  Catholic  polemics  who  have  treated  this 
matter,  102.  Galileo's  teachings  were  not  condemned  by  the  Church,  but 
by  the  Congregation  of  the  Holy  Office,  106. 

GALLICANISM.  Its  meaning,  IV.,  229.  The  Assembly  of  the  French  Clergy 
in  1682,  231.     Their  famous  "Declaration",  254. 

GANGANELLI.     See  CLEMENT  XIV. 

GARIBALDI,  JOSEPH.  His  murderous  career  during  the  Roman  Republic  of 
1848,  v.,  521.  His  opera-bouffe  "campaign"  in  the  Two  Sicilies,  535.  His 
defeat  at  Mentana,  546.  As  "the  first  Mason  of  Italy",  he  proclaims 
"reason"  as  his  "religion",  IV.,  435.  Elected  Grand-Master  of  Italian 
Masonry,  V.,  044. 

GARNET,  HENRY,  S.  J.  His  alleged  complicity  in  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  IV., 
41.     His  alleged  equivocations,  46. 

GAUME,  JOHN.     His  controversy  with  Dupanloup  on  the  classics,   V.,   354. 

GENTILE,  VALENTINO.  His  Unitarianism,  III.,  151.  Put  to  death  by  the 
Calvinists  of  Berne,  452. 

GEORGE  III.,  King  of  England.     Opposes  Catholic  Emancipation,  V.,  186. 

GEORGE  IV.,  King  of  England.  His  alleged  religious  scruples  in  regard  to 
Catholic  Emancipation,  V.,  215.     Curses  Daniel  O'Connell,  217,  in  Note. 

GERBET,  Bishop  of  Perpignan.     His  relations  with  Lamennais,  V.,  279,  286. 

GERDIL,  CARD.     His  learning  and  ability,  V.,   9,   in  Note. 

GERMAIN  OF  AUXERRE,  ST.  Preserves  the  early  British  Church  from  Pelag- 
ianism,  I.,  395. 

GERSON.  Value  of  his  assertion  that  Gregory  XI.  regretted  the  abandonment 
of  Avignon,  II.,  493.  Accuses  Huss,  III.,  3,  16.  His  course  concerning  the 
Council  of  Pisa,  19,  24.  He  would  have  given  to  the  laity  a  i-ight  to  vote 
in  General  Councils,  32.  His  treatise  on  the  removability  of  the  Pon- 
tiff,  II.,   533. 

GESTA   DEI   PER  FRANCOS.     VI.,   590,   608. 

GIBBON,   EDWARD.     Judged   by   Cantil,    II.,   6. 

GIBBONS,  CARD.     Defends  the  Knights  of  Labor,  VI.,  368. 

GILDAS.  Asserts  the  unbroken  submission  of  the  early  British  Church  to  the 
Holy  See,  1.,  418. 

GIOBERTI.  Calumniates  the  Jesuits.  IV.,  442;  503,  in  Note.  His  semi- 
rationalism,  v.,  388.  Effect  of  his  writings  on  many  of  the  younger 
Italian  clergy,  240.     ITis  polemics  with  Curci,  VI.,  400. 

GLADSTONE.  His  false  interpretation  of  Montalembert's  motto,  "Catholic 
above  all".  V.,  348.  Refuses  to  condemn  Ward  in  the  Oxford  Convocation 
of  1845,  465.  Refuses  to  protest  against  the  claim  of  the  Royal  Privy 
Council  to  define  the  faith  of  the  Church  of  England,  474.  His  influence 
on  Dosllinger,  VI.,   415,   in  Note. 

GLEICHEN,   The  alleged  two-wived   Count,   VI.,   666. 

GNOSTICS.  Meaning  of  the  term,  T..  28.  TTieir  doctrines,  31.  Their  wickedness 
imputed  by  the  Pagans  to  the  faithful,  32. 


728  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

GORDON  RIOTS.  Their  occasion,  V.,  175.  Their  chief  promoter  was  John 
Wesley.  178. 

GORHAM,  G.  C.  The  Royal  Privy  Council  defines  that  Gorham,  a  minister  of 
the  English  Establishment,  can  deny  the  doctrine  of  Baptismal  Regenera- 
tion and  still  exercise  his  ministry,   V.,   471. 

GRATIAN,  DECREE  OF.     Never  approved  by  the  Holy  See,  II.,  97. 

GRATRY.  His  opposition  to  the  doflnition  of  the  Dogma  or  Papal  Infallibility, 
and  his  final  submission,  V.,  592. 

GREGORY  NAZIANZEN,  ST.  Not  begotten  while  his  father  was  a  bishop, 
II.,  195. 

GREGORY  THE  GREAT,  ST.,  POPE.  Checks  the  ambition  of  the  Constan- 
tinopolitan  patriarch,  I.,  382.  Adds  to  the  Liturgy  and  institutes  his  Chant, 
383.  Resists  Mauritius,  384.  Exercises  civil  authority,  386.  His  alleged 
hostility  to  learning,  and  his  alleged  burning  of  the  Palatine  L:brary,  389. 
He  destroyed  no  monuments  of  Roman  grandeur,  392.  His  eulogy  by  St. 
Ildephousus,  .394. 

GREGORY  VII.,  ST.,  POPE  (HILDEBRAND).  The  Hildebrandine  Age,  II.,  144. 
His  election,  145.  His  decree  against  Investitures,  149.  Excommunicates 
the  emperor-elect,  Henry  IV.,  149.  Receives  the  submission  of  Henry  at 
Canossa,  150.  Renews  the  excommunication,  152.  He  never  rescinded  this 
second  decree,  154.  Judgments  on  this  Pontiff,  155.  His  spirit  illustrated 
by  his  Epistles,  158.     See  INVESTITURES. 

GREGORY  XL,  POPE.  Restores  the  papal  residence  to  its  legitimate  seat,  II., 
493.  His  alleged  regret  for  having  abandoned  Avignon,  494.  Absurd  sup- 
positions of  Maimbourg  in  support  of  this  allegation,  495. 

GREGORY  XVI.,  POPE.  His  election,  V.,  237.  The  revolt  in  the  Romagna,  242. 
Impudent  interference  of  the  powers,  244.  Condemnation  of  Hermesianism, 
251.  Condemnation  of  the  doctrines  of  Bautain,  255.  Resists  Prussia  in 
the  matter  of  civil  marriages,  256.  Recognizes  the  Isabellist  government  in 
Spain,  263.  Condemns  the  slave-trade,  268.  Rebukes  the  czar,  Nicholas  I., 
101.     Gives  an  audience  to  Lamennais,  289.     Condemns  the  Avenir,  291. 

GROTIUS,  HUGO.  Asserts  the  Roman  residence  of  St.  Peter.  I..  3.  Contends 
that  every  sovereign  has  a  right  to  prescribe  the  religion  which  his  sub- 
jects shall  profess,  IV.,  60,  in  Note. 

GUICCIARDINI.  His  authority  as  a  historian,  III.,  206;  209,  in  Note.  His 
judgment  on  Savonarola,  235. 

GUIDO  OF  AREZZO.     Determines  the  musical  scale.  II.,  7. 

GUISCARD.  ROBERT.  Makes  his  kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies  a  flef  of  the 
Holy  See,  II.,  139,  215. 

GUIZOT.     His  insult  to  the  Dominicans,  II.,  355. 

GUNPOWDER  PLOT.  The  condition  of  the  English  Catholics  of  tlie  time  ex- 
plains, though  it  does  not  justify  the  plot,  if  there  was  one,  IV.,  20.  The 
commonly  received  story,  25.  It  is  very  probable  that  Cecil  manipulated, 
if  he  did  not  indeed  concoct  the  plot.  29.  Cecil's  object  in  furthering  the 
plot,  39.     The  trial  of  Father  Garnet.  41.     His  alleged  equivocations,  46. 

GUNTHERITES.     Censured  by  Pius  IX.,   II.,   448. 

GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  King  of  Sweden.  A  foe  to  religious  liberty,  IV., 
69,   73.  75. 

GUYON.  MME.  JEANNE  MARIE.  Her  "Quietism"  frequently  blasphemous. 
IV.,  308.  She  persuades  Fenelon  of  her  sanctity,  310.  See  FENELON  and 
QUIETISM. 

HALLAM.     Historian.     His  calibre,  II.,  6;  7,  in  Note;  344. 

HAUGWITZ,  Prussian  statesman.     His  revelations  on  Masonry  at  the  Congress 

of  Verona,  VI.,  48. 
HEGEL.     His  "philosophical"  theories,  V.,  372. 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX.  721> 

HEGESIPPUS.    Asserts  the  Roman  residence  and  martyrdom  of  St.  Peter,  I.,  10. 

HELEN,   The  paramour  of  Simon   Magus,   I.,   27. 

HELOISE.     See  ABELARD. 

HENRY  IV.,  King  of  France.  His  abjuration  at  Saint-Denis,  III..  427.  Ab- 
solved by  Clement  VIII..  431.  Sincerity  of  his  conversion,  433.  Protects 
the  Jesuits  after  the  attempt  of  Chatei,   553. 

HENRY  VIII.,  King  of  England.  His  Defence  of  the  Seven  Sacraments  against 
Luther,  III.,  312.     The  affair  of  the  Boloyn,  353. 

HENRY  IV.     Holy  Rom,  Emp.     See  GREGORY  VII.  and  INVESTITURES. 

HENRY  V.     Holy  Rom.  Emp.     See  INVESTITURES. 

HENRY  VI.     Holy  Rom.  Emp.     His  brutality  and  perfidy,  II.,  320. 

HERMESIANISM.    A  pretended  leconciliation  of  Revelation  and  Reason,  V.,  251. 

HILARY,  ST.     His  so-called  "Fragments"  are  forgeries,   I.,   224. 

HILDUIN  OP-  SAINT-DENIS.     Deceived  in  the  matter  of  the  Areopagite,  I..  89. 

HIPPOL.YTUS,  ST.     Shows  the  Roman  Pontificate  of  St.  Peter,  I.,  13. 

HO.ME  RULE.  IN  IRELAND.     Action  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  VI.,  216. 

HONORIUS,  POPE.  His  alleged  heresy,  I.,  432.  The  incriminated  letters  were 
private  epistles,  not  pontifically  dogmatic.  436.  They  were  orthodox,  440. 
The  Sixth  Gen.  Council  did  not  condemn  him  as  a  heretic.  442.  His  defence 
by  St.  Maximus  Martyr,  447.     By  Anastatius  the  Librarian,  448. 

HOPITAL,  The  Chancellor  de  1'.  An  equivocal  Catholic,  III..  378.  This  so-called 
"apostle  of  religious  liberty"  denounces  the  Huguenots  as  "a  seditious 
rabble,  without  God",  379. 

HOSPITALERS,   KNIGHTS.     Their  heroism   at   Rhodes,   VI.,   662. 

HUGUENOTS.  Their  atrocities.  III.,  388.  See  the  MASSACRE  OF  ST.  BAR- 
THOLOMEWS DAY. 

HUME.     Historian.     Judged  by  Cantd,   11.,   6. 

HUNJADY.     III.,   142,   143,   154. 

HUSS,  JOHN.  His  career.  III.,  1.  Doctrines,  6.  Possibility  of  his  sincerity,  13. 
The  matter  of  the  safe-conduct,  14. 

HUTTEN,   ULRICH.     His  diatribes  on  Pope  Julius   II.,   III.,   258. 

HYACINTH.   FATHER  (Charles  Loyson).     His  apostasy,  V.,  623. 

IBAS  OF  EDESSA.  One  of  the  occasions  of  the  Controversy  on  the  Three 
Chapters,  1..  360. 

ICONOCLASM.  Originated  by  the  Arabic  Jews,  I.,  466.  Strengthened  by  Con- 
stantino Copronymus,  469.  Spurned  by  King  Pepin,  471.  Condemned  by 
the  Seventh  Gen.  Council,  472.  Resuscitated  by  the  emperor,  Leo  the 
Armenian,  493.  Adopted  by  Claude  of  Turin,  by  the  Albigenses,  and  by 
Luther,   499. 

IGNATIUS,  MARTYR,  ST.     His  Epistles.   I..  80. 

ILLUMINATI.  A  development  of  Freemasonry,  IV.,  427.  Many  German  priests 
join  the  sect,  428.     Conversion  of  Weisshaupt,  its  founder.  430. 

IMAGES.  SACRED.  Their  veneration  not  condemned  by  the  French  hierarchy 
in  825.  I.,  495.  Superstition  of  the  Greeks  of  that  time  in  this  matter,  497. 
See  ICONOCLASM. 

INGELBURGA.  Queen  of  Philip  Augustus.  Her  matrimonial  rights  protected 
by  Pope  Innocent   III.,   II.,   331. 

INNOCENT  III.,  POPE.  His  relations  with  his  temporal  subjects,  II.,  324. 
With  the  Empire  and  Sicily,  326.  Excommunicates  Othn  IV..  3.S0.  His 
relations  with  Philip  Augustus  of  France.  331.  In'erdiots  that  kingdom, 
332.  Submission  of  Philip  AuguPtu<!.  3''4.  R.-lstions  of  Tnnonent  w^h  Kinn 
John  of  England.  33G.  John  excommun>ate<1.  339.  John  yi-^H'^.  and  becomes 
a  vassal  of  the  Holy  See.  340,  349.  Re.ison  for  the  Pontiff's  condemnation 
of  the  revolted  English  barons,  364,  In  Note.  Innocent  not  blamable  for 
the   excesses    of    Simon    de    Montfort.    358.     His    efforts    to    terminate    the 


730  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTOllY. 

Greek  Schism,  341.  Armenia  and  Bulgaria  resume  their  unity  with  th» 
Church,  343.  Fleury's  insinuation  that  Innocent  narrowly  escaped  eternal 
damnation,  345.  Judgments  on  this  Pontiff,  346. 
INNOCENT  VIII.,  POPE.  Early  career,  III.,  195.  Insists  on  the  Papal 
suzerainty  over  the  Two  Sicilies,  197.  Condemns  certain  errors  of  Pico 
della  Mirandola,  200.  His  alleged  permission  to  dispense  with  wine  in 
the  consecration  of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  202. 

INQUISITION,  THE  HOLY.  Antiquity  of  the  Idea.  II.,  387.  St.  Augustine 
favors  it,  388,  389.  This  tribunal  was  founded  neither  by  Innocent  III.  nor 
by  St.  Dominick,  but  by  Gregory  IX.,  about  the  year  1229,  390.  It  is  not 
to  be  confounded  with  the  Venetian  "Inquisition  of  State",  a  purely 
political  institution,  392;  nor  with  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  a  royal  tribunal, 
397.  Creation  of  the  Roman  "Holy  Office"  in  1542,  392.  Its  general  mild- 
ness, 394.  The  falsehoods  of  Llorente,  Limborch,  and  Mme.  d'Aunoy  con- 
cerning the  Spanish  Inquisition,  397.     Its  code  of  procedure,   407. 

INTERNATIONAL,   The.     Its  connection  with   Freemasonry,   VI.,   384. 

INVESTITURES,  QUESTION  OF.  Its  significance,  II.,  170.  Abuses  of  In- 
vestitures, 171.  Gregory  VII.  struck  at  the  root  of  the  evil,  175.  Nearly  al! 
his  immediate  successois  imitated  his  firmness,  176.  Pope  Paschal  im- 
prisoned by  the  emperor,  Henry  V.,  181.  Paschal  allows  the  imperial 
claim,  but  afterward  revokes  his  "Privilege",  182.  The  imperial  preten- 
sions satisfied  by  the  Anti-Pope  Borodino,  183;  but  Pope  Calixtus  II.  re- 
asserts his  prerogative,  and  the  emperor  submits,  184.  Henry  resumes  the 
contest,  and  is  excommunicated,  185.  At  length  Henry  yields  definitively, 
and  the  struggle  is  practically  ended,  186.  The  contest  was  not  a  dispute 
about  nothing,  187. 

IRELAND.  Her  conversion,  'l.,  289.  Her  faith  always  that  of  Rome,  292.  Her 
share  in  the  Easter  Controversy,  114,  118.  Her  early  Christian  missions  to 
foreign  lands,  327.  Innumerable  Irish  saints  are  patrons  of  foreign  cities, 
327.  Irish  Home  Rule  in  the  mind  of  the  Holy  See,  VI.,  216.  The 
"officious"   mission  of  George  Errington   to  Leo  XIII.,   220. 

ISIDORE  MERCATOR.     See  DECRETALS. 

ISIDORE  OF  SEVILLE,  ST.     Not  the  author  of  the  False  Decretals,  II.,  99. 

ISLAM.  Its  doctrines,  I.,  455.  Their  chief  Christian  opponents,  458.  The  propa- 
gation of  Islam  contrasted  with  that  of  Christianity,  460.     Its  turpitude,  461. 

ITALY.  Attempts  to  effect  her  Protestantization,  III.,  441.  Apparent  wayward- 
ness of  certain  Italian  literati,  459.  Italy  lost  no  worldly  prosperity  by  her 
rejection  of  Protestantism,  461. 

JAMES  I.,  King  of  England.    Prescribes  a  Test  Oath  for  Catholics,  IV.,  15. 

JANISZEWSKI.  Auxiliary  Bishop  of  Posen.     VI.,  1,  6,  8,  19,  21. 

JANSENISM.  Its  history,  IV.,  108.  The  distinction  of  "fact"  and  "right", 
122.  The  Case  of  Conscience  on  "respectful  silence",  129.  The  pretended 
miracles  of  Jansenism,  132,  140.  Its  seditious  spirit,  133.  Judgments  of 
Cousin  and  Voltaire,  134.  Reasons  for  the  obstinacy  of  the  Jansenists,  138. 
Characters  of  the  chief  Jansenist  leaders,  113.  115,  141,  143.     See  PASCAL. 

JAPAN,  Christianity  in.  Origin,  V.,  390.  Persecutions,  392.  Dutch  Protestants 
trample  on  the  Cross  whenever  they  land  in  Japan  for  the  purpose  of 
trade.  III.,  558;  V.,  402.  Discovery  of  the  descendants  of  the  first  Japanese 
Christians,  V.,  408.  Indifference  of  the  Western  governments  toward 
Japanese  Christianity,  420.  The  native  priesthood  in  Japan,  424,  429. 
Statistics  of  the  Japanese  Church  in  1S95,  428.  The  religious  future  of 
Japan,  430. 

JE  FUMI.    The  formal  apostasy  of  Dutch  Protestants  in  Japan,  V.,  402,  403,  405. 

JERUSALEM.  An  Anglo-Prussian  endeavor  to  create  a  Lutherano-Anglieano- 
Calvinist  "bishop"  for  the  Holy  City,  V.,  458. 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX  731 

JESUITS.  Their  colonies  of  Indians  ("Reduttlons")  in  Paraguay,  IV.,  447.  Their 
iubors  in  Japan,  V.,  3y2.  Their  conduct  in  the  matter  or  the  Chinese  and 
Malabaric  Kites,  VI..  671.  The  preludes  tt.  their  suppression, -IV.,  439.  The 
inconsistent  allegations  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  440.  The  fable  of  the 
ilonita  ISiicru,  or  "Secret  Counsels"  of  the  Society,  441.  Persecution  and 
abolition  in  Portugal,  445.  Abolition  in  Krance,  406;  although  the  Jesuits 
of  the  Province  of  Paris  promise  that  they  will  henceforth  teach  Galllcan- 
ism,  459.  Persecution  and  abolition  in  Spain,  468.  Abolition  in  the  Two 
Sicilies  and  in  Parma,  471.  In  Austria,  476.  Final  and  total  abolition  of  the 
Society  by  Pope  Clement  XIV.,  472.  Explanation  of  the  continuance  of  the 
Jesuits  as  such  in  Russia  and  in  Prussia,  493.  Absurditiestand  wickedness 
of  Cr6tineau-Joly  when  he  treats  of  this  suppression,  443,  476,  491,  497. 
Restoration  of  the  Society  by  Pope  Pius  VII.,  V.,  51.  Made  a  victim  of 
Bismarck's  "War  for  Civilization",  VI.,  13.  Its  experience  of  the  Third 
French  Republic,  US,  119,  130. 

JESUITESSES.     Condemned  by  Pope   Urban  VIIL,   IV.,  54. 

JEW,  THE  WANDERING.  First  traces  and  probable  meaning  of  the  legend. 
VI.,   502. 

JEWS.  Their  condition  in  Poland  when  Poland  was  a  nation,  V.,  142.  la 
enslaved  Poland  and  in  Russia,  VI.,  290,  In  Note.  In  Austria-Hungary, 
265,  in  Note.     Doellinger's  opinion,  423. 

JOACHIM,  ABBOT.     His  errors  concerning  th€  Trinity,   II.,   362,   in  Note. 

JOAN  OF  ARC.  Her  account  of  her  visions.  III.,  .55.  Her  campaign,  61.  Her 
capture,  and  her  sale  to  the  English,  64.  Her  mock  trial,  66.  The  trick 
of  the  substituted  recantation,  72.  The  English  trap  for  the  ruin  of  the 
Maid,  73.  Her  accusation  of  Cauchon,  74.  The  catastrophe,  76.  The 
rehabilitation,  77.  Lingard's  English  prejudices  lead  him  to  calumniate 
the  Maid,  82.  Should  the  glory  of  Joan  be  given  to  the  royal  concubine, 
Agnes  Sorel?  83.  The  alleged  connection  of  the  Church  with  the  mur- 
der of  Joan,  83.  Prevalent  ignorance  concerning  the  Maid,  86.  The  super- 
natural evident  in  her  public  career,  89.  The  predictions  of  Merlin,  89. 
The  strange  ability  of  the  Maid  as  a  military  strategist,  90.  The  calumnies 
of  Voltaire,  92;  IV.,  530.  The  imminent  glory  of  the  sweet  child  of  Dom- 
remy.  III.,  93. 

JOAN,  THE  ALLEGED  POPESS.  Contrary  judgments  of  Protestant  writers, 
II.,  40.  Pretended  testimony  for  the  truth  of  the  fable,  41.  Intrinsic  marks 
of  its  own  falsity  presented  by  the  story,  44.  Refuted  by  chronologry,  48. 
Probable  origin  of  the  yarn,  52. 

JOHN  X.,  POPE.     His  character  and  his  murder,  II.,  161,  In  Note. 

JOHN  XII.,  POPE.     His  pretended  deposition  by  the  emperor,   Otho  I.,   II.,  114. 

JOHN  XXII.,  POPE.  His  private  opinion  concerning  the  Beatific  Vision,  II.,  498. 
He  condemns  the  Fraticelli,  500.  His  struggle  with  Louis  the  Bavarian, 
502.    Sismondian  and  other  Protestant  lies  concerning  his  character,  505. 

JOHN,   King  of  England.     See  INNOCENT  III. 

JOSEPH  11.,  Holy  Rom.  Emp.  His  boorishness  toward  the  General  of  the 
Jesuits,  IV.,  475.  His  quasi-schismatical  enterprises,  583.  He  Protestantizes 
the  children  of  mixed  marriages  in  Hungary.  VI.,  242.  His  experience  with 
the  Congregation  of  Rites,  454. 

JOSEPH,  FRIAR.    The  "alter  erjo"  of  Richelieu.    His  ability  and  sanctity,  IV..  64. 

JULIAN  THE?  APOSTATE.  His  career,  I.,  178.  Vain  attempt  of  incredulism  to 
ridicule  the  prodigy  which  attended  his  effort  to  rebuild  the  Temple  of 
Jerusalem,  183. 

JULIUS  II.,  POPE.  Variously  judged.  III.,  237.  He  was  not  a  mere  Mecaenas  in 
tiara,  261.    The  meaning  of  his  cry,  "Out  of  Italy  with  the  barbarians!",  282. 

KANT,   EMMANUEL.     His  philosophical  theories,  V.,   368. 


732  STUDIES   IN    CHURCH   HISTORY. 

KEBLE,  JOHN.     The  prime  author  of  the  Oxford  Movement,  V.,  436.     His  sei, 

mon  on  National  Apostasy,  439. 
KORAN.    Its  chief  doctrinal  points,  I.,  455.  Its  Innumerable  shameless  untruths. 

458.     Its  constant  redolence  of  gross  ignorance,  459. 

LABOR  QUESTION.     Teachings  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.,   VI.,   362. 

LACORDAIRE.  His  early  career,  V.,  272.  The  Avcnir,  285.  At  La  Chenaie,  292, 
Conferences  at  Notre  Dame,  294. 

LA  LUZERNE,  CARD.  Refutation  of  his  assertion  that  General  Councils  have 
examined  juridically  the  decrees  of  Roman  Pontiffs,  I.,  481. 

LAMENNAIS,  FELICIT^.  His  early  career,  V.,  280.  The  "Essay  on  Indiffer- 
ence", 281,  283.  The  Avenir,  285.  Lamennais  has  an  audience  with  Pops 
Gregory  XVI.,  289.  Papal  condemnation  of  the  Avenir,  291.  The  "Words 
of  a  Believer",  296.  The  catastrophe,  297.  Death  of  Lamennais,  298.  Hi? 
Satanic  pride,  SCO.     His  philosophy  Pantheistic,   302. 

LAMORICIERE.  His  campaign  of  Castelfldardo,  V.,  540.  Such  campaigns  do 
not  ill  become  the  servitors  of  the  Vicar  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  II.,  140. 

LANGTON,  STEPHEN,  CARD.  Consecrated  by  Innocent  III.  as  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  II.,  337.  Retaliations  by  King  John,  and  interdict  of  England, 
339.     John  submits,  and  becomes  a  vassal  of  the  Holy  See,  340. 

LAUNOY.  Styled  "the  un-nicher  of  the  saints".  He  denies  the  sanctity  of  Pope 
St.  Stephen  I.,  because  of  the  Pontiff's  action  in  the  case  of  St.  Cyprian,  I., 
140.  He  opines  that  according  to  the  Fourth  Lateran  Council  Easter  Con- 
fession must  be  made  to  one's  parish-priest,  II.,  369,  in  Note.  Launoy  was 
a  favorite  of  the  Protestant  polemics  of  his  day,  I.,  353,  in  Note. 

LAVALETTE,  ANTOINE,  S.  J.  Injures  the  Society  of  Jesus  by  hi?  unauthorized 
commercial  speculations  in  the  Antilles,  IV.,  457. 

LAVIGERIE,  CARD.,  Archbishop  of  Carthage.  He  "rallies"  to  the  French 
Republic  in  deference  to  the  sentiments  of  Leo  XIII.,  VI.,  207.  Hip  anti- 
slavery  apostolate,   301. 

LEABHAR  BREAC.    The  oldest  MS.  treating  of  Irish  Church  History,  I.,  316. 

LEAGUE,  THE  FRENCH.     Attitude  of  the  Holy  See  toward  it,  HI.,  386. 

LEDOCHOWSKI,  CARD.  A  victim  of  Bismarck's  "War  for  Civilization",  VI., 
20,  23,  33. 

LBGNANO,  BATTLE  OF.  One  of  the  great  decisive  battles  of  history,  11.,  280, 
in   Note. 

LEIBNITZ.    His  controversy  with  Bossuet,  IV.,  377.     His  real  belief,  393. 

LEO  I.,  ST.,  POPE.  His  Dogmatic  Epistle  to  Flavian  of  Constantinople  written 
because  of  the  appeal  of  Eutyches  to  the  Holy  See,  I.,  331.  This  letter  was 
not  examined  juridically  by  the  synodals  of  Chalcedon,  337. 

LEO  III.,  ST.,  POPE.  Founds  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  II.,  24.  Question  as  to 
the  utility  of  his  action,  25.     See  EMPIRE,  HOLY  ROMAN. 

LEO  IX.,  ST.,  POPE.  He  resists  the  Norman  invaders'  of  his  dominions,  II.,  137. 
Battle  of  Civitella,  139.    Civitella  compared  with  Castelfldardo,  140. 

LEO  X.,  POPE.  His  early  career,  275.  His  literary  and  artistic  merits,  279.  His 
treaty  with  Francis  I.,  283.  The  conspiracy  of  Cardinal  Petrucci,  285.  The 
Pontiff  tries  to  incite  a  Crusade,  289.  His  relations  with  the  emperor. 
Charles  V.,  294.  His  attitude  toward  Luther,  297.  He  was  not  a  "great 
Pope",  298.  False  charges  of  Ranke  against  him,  299.  His  rebuke  to  a 
transmuter  of  metals,  VI.,  531. 

LEO  XIII.,  POPE.  His  election,  VI.,  139.  His  early  life,  143.  His  nunciature  in 
Belgium,  148.  Declares  his  determination  to  uphold  the  temporal  sover- 
eignty of  the  Pope-King,  154.  His  mediation  in  the  affair  of  the  Caroline 
Islands,  167.  Institutes  a  hierarchy  in  Hindustan,  170.  The  matter  of  the 
nunciature  in  Pekin,  173.  The  "New  Schism"  among  the  Armenians,  175. 
The  so-called  "conversion"  of  the  baby  prince-royal  of  Bulgaria,  178.  The 
Encyclicals  of  this  Pontiff,  181.     His  reasons  for  his  renewal  of  the  con- 


{!l:nei;al  topical  inm-.x.  7^K^ 

demnatlons  of  Frei-masonry,  1S6.  His  admonitions  concerning  so-called 
"Liberalism",  188.  His  relations  with  tlie  Tiiird  French  Kepublic,  2(i3. 
His  attitude  toward  Home  Rule  in  Ireland,  21G.  His  reiteration  of  the 
olden  decision  on  tho  inva'ldity  of  Anglican  "Orders",  225.  His  course 
during  the  Masonlco-Juda'o-Calvinist  campaign  in  Austria-Hungary,  236. 
His  relations  with  Germany,  265.  The  phenomenal  boorishness  of  Prince 
Henry  of  Prussia  and  of  Herbert  von  Bismarck  in  the  Pontifical  apartments, 
273.  His  relations  with  Russia,  283.  His  attitude  toward  the  educational 
question  in  Belgium,  310.  His  encouragement  of  the  anti-slavery  Crusade 
of  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  290.  His  treatment  of  the  school-question  in  the 
United  States  of  America,  319.  His  condemnation  of  so-called  "Ameri- 
canism" not  fatuous  or  Quixotic,  334.  His  .attitude  toward  Socialism,  354. 
Toward  the  Knights  of  Labor,  3C7.     Judgments  on  this  Pontiff,  194. 

LEO  OF  OSTIA.     His  identity,   II.,   247.  in   Note. 

LEO  THE  ARMENIAN.     Resuscitates  Icouoclasm,   I.,   493. 

LEO  THE  ISAURIAN.     SUrts  the  Iconoclast  heresy,  I.,  466. 

LEPERS.     Their  lot  in  the  Middle  Age,   VI.,  566. 

LERINS,  MONKS  OF.  Most  of  them,  including  St.  Vincent,  were  Semipelagiana, 
I.,  263. 

LEROUX,  PETER.     His  philosophy,  V.,  381. 

LETI,  GREGORIO.     His  buffoonesque  "Life"  of  Sixtus  V.,   III.,  536. 

LIBERIAN  CATALOGUE  (Of  the  Popes).  Asserts  the  Roman  Pontificate  of  St. 
Peter,  I.,  14. 

LIBERIUS,  POPE.     Not  a  heretic,  I.,  220. 

LIBERTIES  OF  THE  GALLICAN  CHURCH.     Meaning  of  this  phrase,  IV.,  230. 

LITTRfi.     His  character  and  conversion,  V.,  354;  385,  in  Note. 

LOMBARDI,  GIACOMO.     His  false  mysticism,   IV.,  197. 

LOMBARD  LEAGUE.  Its  origin,  II.,  274.  Pope  Alexander  III.  not  blamable  for 
his  negotiation  for  a  separate  peace,  282. 

LOUIS  IX.,  ST.,  King  of  France.  His  character  and  reign,  VI.,  614.  He  was 
not  the  author  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  issued  by  Charles  VII.,  III.,  170. 
Refutation  of  the  calumnies  of  Michelet,  VI..  639. 

LOUIS  XI.,  King  of  France.  His  contest  with  Pope  Sixtus  IV.,  III.,  192.  His 
character,   VI..  624. 

LOUIS  XIV.,  King  of  France.  His  dissensions  with  the  Holy  See,  IV.,  200.  He 
believed  in  Papal  Infallibility,  209.  His  alleged  saying  "I  am  the  State" 
supposititious  and  baseless,  216,  in  Note.  The  French  bishops  chiefly 
blamable  for  the  king's  differences  with  Rome,  217,  223.  Just'fication  and 
consenuences  of  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  271.  The  influence 
of  Mme.  de  Maintenon,  291. 

LOUIS  OF  BAVARIA.     His  schism,  IT.,  502. 

LOURDES.     The  miraculous  nature  of  its  prodigies,  VI.,  455. 

LUKE,  ST..  EVANGELIST.  His  silence  regarding  the  Roman  Pontificate  of 
St.  Peter  no  argument  against  that  fact,   I.,  7. 

LUTHER.  Begins  his  agitation,  III.,  303.  The  95  Theses,  304.  Declares  his  sub- 
missiveness  to  the  Pontifical  authority,  305.  Excommunicated,  307.  His 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  a  vernacular  not  the  first,  by  many  centuries, 
310.  He  ridicules  Henry  VIII.,  312.  He  causes  the  Peasants'  War,  314.  He 
"marries"  Catharine  Bora,  315.  His  inconsistencies,  319.  He  sanctions 
polygamy,  320;  VI.,  666.  His  character,  III.,  325.  Reasons  for  his  success 
as  an  innovator,  326.  He  contributed  in  no  way  to  the  Renaissance,  328. 
He  condemned  the  Copernican  system,  IV.,  84. 

MAGH-LBNE,   SYNOD  OF.     Sentiments  of  St.    Cummlan   in   tha  matter   of  the 

Easter  Controversy,  I.,  115. 
MAGI,  THE  THREE.     Their  identity.  VI.,  497. 


734  STUDIES  IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

MAHOMET  II.    Takes  Constantinople,  III.,  144.    Writes  to  Pope  Nicholas  V.,  lift 

MAIMBOURG.  His  lamentations  over  the  end  of  the  "Babylonian  Captivity", 
II.,  495.     His  defence  of  the  Avignon  Idea,  541. 

MAINTENON,  Mme.  de.  She  did  not  procure  or  even  counsel  the  revocation  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  IV.,  291.  Her  career  and  character,  294.  Her  mar- 
riage to  Louis  XIV.,  296.     Dcellinger's  judgment,  VI.,  423. 

MAITLAND,  Historian.     Judged  by  Abp.  Martin  Spalding,  II.,  7,  in  Note. 

MALABARIC  RITES.  Question  of  their  toleration  by  the  Jesuits,  VI.,  675; 
in  Note. 

MALAGRIDA,  GABRIEL,  S.  J.     His  trial  and  execution,   IV.,   452. 

JIANICHEANS.     Origin  and  doctrines,   I.,   37. 

MANNING,  CARD.  His  conversion,  V.,  474.  His  Christian  Socialism,  VI..  364, 
in  Note. 

AIARCELLINUS,  POPE,  ST.     His  alleged  idolatry,  VI.,  510. 

MARCION.  His  heresy,  I.,  32.  His  reason  for  enjoining  absolute  continence  on 
all,  33,  in  Note. 

MARCUS  AURELIUS,  Rom.  Emp.     Persecutes  the  Christians,  I.,  49. 

MARGARET  OF  VALOIS;     Her  eroticism  and  Calvinism,   III.,  365,  371. 

MARIANUS   SCOTUS.     His  unreliability,   II.,   42. 

MARK  OF  EPHESUS.  Chief  champion  of  the  Greek  Schism  at  the  Council  of 
Florence.   III..   125,   127,  130,   131. 

MARONITES.   Never  Monothelites,    I.,   428,    in   Note. 

MAROZIA,  Duchess  of  Tuscany.  Procures  the  election  of  her  paramour  to  the 
Papacy,  II.,  162. 

MARTIAL,  ST.     His  mission  in  Gaul,  I.,  88. 

MARTIN  I.,  POPE,   ST.     Persecuted  by  Constans  II.,   I.,   423. 

MARY,   QUEEN.     Checks  the   Reformation   in   England,   III.,    474. 

MASSACRE  OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW'S  DAY.  It  was  not  prompted  by  religious 
zeal,  397.  Cardinals  Birague  and  De  Retz  had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  400. 
It  was  an  affair  of  worldly  policy,  403.  It  was  meant  to  be  restricted  to 
Paris,  405.  It  was  not  long  premeditated,  408.  The  number  of  its  victims 
grossly  exaggerated,  415.  The  popular  version  of  the  remorseful  death  of 
Charles  IX.  is  absolutely  false,  418. 

MATTHEW  (aliter  OF)  PARIS.     His  unreliability,  II.,  377,  in  Note. 

MAXIMIN,  Rom.  Emp.     Persecutes  the  Christians,   I.,  53. 

MAZZINI.  Founds  "Young  Italy"  and  dominates  the  Alta  Vendita,  V.,  500. 
Decrees  the  assassination  of  Count  Rossi,  515.  His  responsibility  for  the 
horrors  of  the  Roman  "Republic"  of  1849,  521.  He  forces  Victor  Emmanuel 
to  seize  Rome,   547.     Judged  by  Proudhon,  537. 

MELANCTHON.  Drafts  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  III.,  318.  Is  upbraided  by 
Luther  for  his  lukewarmness  in  the  Protestant  cause,  320.  He  condemns 
the  heliocentric  system,   IV.,  84. 

MELCHIADES,  ST.,  POPE.  Hip  decision  against  the  Donatists  was  regarded 
as   irrefragable,   I.,   192. 

MENANDER.    His  heresy,  I.,  28. 

MERLIN.    His  predictions  of  the  deeds  and  the  murder  of  Joan  of  Arc,  III.,  89 

METHODISM,  EARLY.     Its  persecuting  spirit,  V.,  180.     See  WESLEY. 

MEYENDORF.     Russian  ambassador.     Insults  Pope  Pius  IX.,  V.,  113. 

MICHAEL  THE  STUTTERER.  Greek  emp.  Testifies  to  the  superstitions  of 
the  Greeks  of  his  day,  I.,  498. 

MICHAEL  OF  CESENA.     A  leader  of  the  Franciscan  "Spirituals",  II.,  501. 

MICHELANGELO  BUONARROTI.     His  orthodoxy  beyond  suspicion.  III.,  460. 

MIDDLE  AGE.  Not  a  barbarous  epoch,  II.,  3.  Not  one  of  ignorance.  7.  Ser^ 
vices  of  the  medisRval  monastic  orders,  10.  Mediaeval  universities  and 
schools,  13.  The  mediseval  clergy  did  not  keep  learning  to  themselves,  15.  It 
is  untrue  that  the  medli'eval   nobles  were  generally  ignorant,   16.     Super- 


7 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX.  735 

stltlon  was  not  rampant  or  even  extraordinary,  19.     The  alleged  panic  ot 
the  year  1000,  20.     The  Middle  Age  wa.s  a  period  ot  gestation,  22.     It  was 
not   excessively    addicted    to    astrology,    alchemy,    and    sorcery,    VI.,    529. 
Trades-Unions    were    the    order    of    the    day,    537.      Business    features    of 
mediaeval  days,  545.     Let  the  modern  miner  reflect  on  the  condition  of  his 
mediaeval     brother,      550.       The     lot     of     the     medisevai     peasant,      551. 
Mediaeval  serfdom,   555.     Mediaeval  hospitals,  5G0.     Medi£eval    treatment    ot 
lepers,    566.     A   typical    mediteval    bishop,    571.     Media>val    legends    ot    the 
saints,  579. 
MIGUEL.  DOM.     King  of  Pcrtugal.     Story  of  his  dethronement,  V.,  264. 
MILL,    JOHN    STUART.      Detested    the    royal    supervision    of   English    Protest- 
antism, v.,  435. 
MILNER,   JOHN.     Chief  champion  of  English  Catholic  Emancipation,   V.,   191, 
198,   201. 

MINSK,  NUNS  OF.     Their  martyrdom  under  Nicholas  I.,   V.,  145. 

MIOLLIS,  Bishop  of  Digne.  Travestied  by  Victor  Hugo  in  the  character  o< 
"Myriel"  in  Lcs  Misrrohh's,  V.,  32,  42,  in  Notes. 

MIRACLES.    Their,  place  in  History,  VI.,  448.    Those  of  Lourdes,  454. 

MOHAMMED.  His  hatred  of  learning,  I.,  459.  He  never  pretended  to  have 
miraculous  power,  461. 

MOLIERE.  His  "Tartuffe"  was  probably  directed  against  the  Jansenists,  not 
against  the  Jesuits,  IV.,  165,  in  Note. 

MOLINOS.    Apostle  of  Quietism,  IV.,  305. 

MOMMSEN,  THEODORE,  German  epigraph:st.  His  boorishness  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  VI.,  274. 

MONOTHELITES.  Tlieir  doctrines,  I.,  419.  They  did  not  vitiate  the  Acts  ot 
the  Sixth  Gen.    Council,   428. 

MONTAIGNE.     Rejects  the  Copernican  .system,   IV.,   86,   in  Note. 

MONTALEMBERT.  His  early  career,  V.,  320.  Combats  the  University  monopoly, 
323.  Defends  the  Jesuits  in  the  Chamber,  333.  His  attitude  toward 
Napoleon  III.,  337.  His  invention  ind  proper  conception  of  the  formula, 
"A  Free  Church  in  a  Free  State",  340.  His  attitude  toward  the  proposed 
definition  of  the  Dogma  of  Papal  Infallibility,  342.  His  writings,  Zio.  His 
endeavor  to  convert  Father  Hyacinth,  346.  Meaning  of  his  saying,  "Catholic 
above  all",  348. 

MONTANUS.     His  heresy,  I.,  35. 

MONTI  DI  PIETA.  "Mountains  of  Charity",  or  Christian  pawnbroking-shops. 
Their  institution,  III.,  271. 

MORENO,  GARCIA.  President  of  Equador,  the  "Modern  St.  Louis",  and  victim 
of  Freemasonry,  VI.,   64. 

MORTARA.  His  withdrawal  from  his  Jewish  parents'  custody  by  order  of 
Pius  IX.,  v.,  607,  in  Note. 

MOST  CHRISTIAN  KING.  Proudest  title  of  the  French  monarchs.  Its  an- 
tiquity, III.,  369,  in  Note. 

MOURAWIEFF.   MICHAEL.     His  atrocities  in  Poland,  V.,  109. 

MUN,  ALBERT  DE.  His  combat  for  political  unity  among  French  Catholics, 
VI.,  206. 

MURATORI.  His  works  condemned  by  the  Spanish  Inqu'sition,  and  Pope  Bene- 
dict XIV.  condemns  the  Grand-Inquisitor's  action.  III.,  188,  in  Note. 

MYSTICS,  FALSE.     Of  the  seventeenth  century,  IV.,  196,  304. 

NaPOLEON.  Tries  to  dominate  the  Conclave  of  1800,  V.,  3.  He  himself  did  not 
restore,  but  he  contributed  to  the  restoration  of  religion  in  France,  14.  His 
Concordat  with  Pius  VII.,  15.  His  rupture  with  the  Holy  See,  30.  He  is 
excommunicated,  although  not  by  name,  33,  36.  He  did  not  strike  the 
Pontiff.  45.    His  pretended  divorce,  5*5.    He  founds  the  University  of  France 


736  STUDIES    IN   CHURCH    HISTORY. 

on   the  ruins  of  the  University  of  Paris,   324.     His   connection  with  Free- 
masonry, 480. 
NAPOLEON   III.     Ke  deserves  no  credit  for  the   restoration  of  the  Pope-King 

in  1849,    v.,    521.     His   interview   with   the   assassin,    Orsini,    530,    in   Note.  , 

Tells  Cialdini  to  "act  quickly"  in  the  matter  of  the  invasion  of  the  Papal 

States,   540.     He   betrays   Lamoriciere,    541.     His   fatuousness   in    "making 

Italy",  547,  in  Note. 
NEANDER.     Asserts  the  Roman  residence  of  St.  Peter,   I.,  3. 
XECTARIUS  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.     His  abolition  of  "public  confession"  no 

comfort  to  Protestants,  I.,  166. 
NERO,  Rom.  Emp,     His  persecution  of  the  Christians,  I.,  43. 
NBSTORIUS.     His  errors,   I.,   277.     Condemned   at   Ephesus,   280.     Doctrines   of 

the    modern    Nestorians,    286.      Their    false    appreciation    by    Protestant 

polemics,  287.    The  "Christians  of  St.  Thomas",  288. 
NEWMAN,  CARD.     Joins  Keble  and  Hurrell  Froude  in  the  Oxford  Movement, 

v.,    436.      Starts   the    "Tracts    for    the    Times",    443.      His    sermons    at   St. 

Mary's,  447.    His  motive  in  writing  "Tract  90",  455.     His  conversion,  468. 
NICE.     First  Gen.  Council.     Its  convocation,  not  by  Constantine,   but  by  Pope 

St.   Sylvester,  I.,  201.     The  Pontiff  presided,  by  means  of  his  legates,   202. 

Papal  supremacy  not  subverted  by  the  Sixth  Nicene  Canon,  205. 
NICHOLAS  v.,  POPE.     Early  career,  III.,  140.     His  efforts  against  the  Turks, 

142.    The  conspiracy  of  Porearo,  147.    Literary  merits  of  this  Pontiff,  149. 
NICHOLAS  THE  DEACON.     His  heresy,   I.,  30. 
NICHOLAS  I.,  Czar.     His  virulent  persecution  of  Catholics,  V.,  93.     Scathingly 

rebuked  by  Pope  Gregory  XVI.,  101. 
NICHOLAS  II.,  Czar.     Persecutes  the  Catholics,  V.,  143. 
NINTH   GEN.   COUNCIL,    FIRST   LATERAN.     First  (Ecumenical   Council  held 

in   the   West,    II.,    266.     The   Prefect   of    Rome    partially   relegated    to    his 

proper  place,  267.    Monks  forbidden  to  administer  the  Last  Sacraments,  and 

ordered  to  contribute  thejr  share  to  the  support  of  Church  and  State,  268. 
NOAILLES,    LOUIS-ANTOINE,    CARD.      Archbishop    of    Paris.      His    weakness 

and  tergiversations  in  the  matter  of  the  Bull  "Unigenitus",  347.     Finally 

accepts  the  Bull,  366. 
NOVATIAN.    First  Anti-Pope,  I.,  127. 
NOVATUS.     Instigates   the   Novatian    Schism,   I.,   128. 
NUNCIO,  PAPAL.     His  powers  not  simply  diplomatical,  VI.,  166. 
NUNS.     See  VIRGINS. 

OAKLEY,  CANON.     Judged  by  Newman,  V.,  450. 

OCCAM,  WILLIAM,   A  leader  of  the  Franciscan   "Spirituals",   II.,   501. 

OCHINO  (TOMMASINI)  O.  M.  Cap.    His  apostasy  and  theological  vagaries.  III., 

443.    Denounced  as  a  lying  and  lustful  wretch  by  Bullinger  and  Beza,  446. 
O'CONNELL,  DANIEL.     Thanks  Milner  for  his  opposition  to  the  Veto  Bill,  V., 

201.     Takes  the  lead  in  Irish  Catholic  politics,  206.     Unjustly  censured  for 

ordinary  courtesy  to  George  IV.,  217.     The   Clare  election,   228.     Absurdly 

charged  with  Freemasonry,  235.     Judged  by  Ventura,  Lacordaire,   Veuillot, 

and  Cantil,  236. 
"OLD  CATHOLICS".     Origin  and  history,  V.,   607.     See  DCELLINGER. 
OLIER  DE  VERNEUIL.     Founder  of  the  Society  of  Saint-Sulp'ce.     His  career 

and  character,  IV.,  169.     Judged  by  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  179. 
OLIVA,  PETER  JOHN,   0.   S.  F.     Condemnation  of  his  errors  by  the  Fifteenth 

Gen.   Council.  II.,  447. 
OLIVAINT,  PETER,  o.  J.    Murdered  by  the  Paris  Communists  of  1871,  VI.,  102. 
ORDEALS.     Never  authorized  or  approved  by  the  Church,  III.,  241,  in  Note. 
ORDIBARII.    A  sect  of  the  Waldenses.     Their  peculiar  errors,  II.,  311. 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX.  7o7 

ORGANIC  ARTICLES.  Surreptitiously  added  by  Napoleon  to  his  Concordat 
with  Pius  VII..  v.,  23.     Abrogated  by  Louis  XVIII.,  25. 

ORIGE.X.     His  heterodoxy  problematical,   I.,  379. 

ORTLIBENSES.     A  sect  of  Uie  Waldt-uses.     Peculiar  errors,  II..  311. 

OTHO  OF  FRISENGEN.  His  judgment  on  the  tenure  of  the  Holy  Rom.  i 
Emperors,   II..   29. 

OTHO  IV.     Holy  Rom.  Emp.     See  INNOCENT   III. 

OXFORD  MOVEMENT.  Origin  and  history,  V.,  434.  Anglican  judgments  con- 
cerning its  importance,  475. 

OZANA.M.  Founds  the  Conferences  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  V.,  308.  His  course 
at  the  University,  312.    Value  of  his  writings,  319. 

PALATINE  LIBRARY.     Not  burned  by  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  I.,  3S9. 
PALEOLOGUS,  MICHAEL.    Gk.  Emp.    Abjures  the  Photlan  Schism,  II.,  381. 
PALMARIS  SYNOD.     Refuses  to  judge  Pope  Symmachus,  I.,  351. 
PALMER,  WILLIAM.     His  calibre,  and  his  conversion,  V.,  440,  in  Note. 
PALMEKSTON.     His  tapudenco  to  Pope  Gregory  XVI.,  243.     His  revolutionary 

role  as  "Grand  Orient  of  the  Orients",  511.     He  was  the  eflScient  cause  of 

Garibaldi's  Marsala  expedition,  535. 
PANIC  OF  A.  D.  1000.     A  mere  myth,   II.,  20. 

PAN-SLAVISM.    Its  mission,  V.,  109,  in  Note.    Socialism  its  tool,  VI.,  391. 
PARAGUAY,   "REDUCTIONS"  OF.     Colonies  of  Indians,   formed  and  protected 

b5»  the  Jesuits,  IV.,  448. 
PARKER,  MATTHEW.     Elizabethan  incumbent  of  the  See  of  Canterbury,   III., 

477.    Invalidity  of  his  "consecration",  from  a  historical  point  of  view,  499. 

Invalidity,   from  the  theological  standpoint,  VI.,  230. 
PARRIS,  A  Dutch  Unitarian,   burnt  by  order  of  Cranmer,   III.,  472. 
PASCAL.    His  early  career,  IV.,  144.    His  scientific  attainments,  151.    His  alleged 

skepticism,   152.     His  alleged   eroticism,   157.     His   "Provincial    Letters"    a 

tissue  of  immortal   lies  and  of  sublime  forgeries,  159. 
PASCHASIUS.     His  explanation   of  the  Real  Presence,   II.,   108. 
PASSAGINI.  Their  heresies,  II.,  313. 

PATARINES.    A  sect  of  the  Waldenses.     Their  peculiar  errors,  II.,  311. 
PATRICIAN  OF  ROME.     Meaning  of  the  title,  as  given  by  the  Popes  to  Pepin 

and  Charlemagne,  I.,  508;  II.,  36. 
PATRICK,  ST.,  APOSTLE  OF  IRELAND.     His  apostolate,  I..  289.     His  doctrine 

was  thoroughly   "papistical",   293. 
PAUL,    ST.,    APOSTLE.     He   had   no   joint   jurisdiction   with    St.    Peter   in    the 

Bishopric  of  Rome,  much  less  was  he  sole  Bishop  of  Rome,  I.,  20. 
PAUL  OF  THE  CROSS,  ST.     His  esteem  for  the  Society  of  Jesus,  IV.,   4S3. 
PAUL  II.,  POPE.     He  was  not  a  foe  to  learning.  III.,  176. 
PAUL   IV.,    POPE.     He    did    not    approve    the    Protestant   "Book   of    Common 

Prayer",   HI.,   476,   in  Note. 
PAULICIANS.     Their  Manicheism,   I.,   4C3.     Their  opposition   to   the   veneration 

of  the  Cross  was  an  innovation,  464. 
PAZZI,  CONSPIRACY  OF  THE.     The  extent  of  the  participation  of  Pope  Sixtus 

IV.,  III.,  187. 
PEACE,  LETTERS  OF.     Given  by  the  early  martyrs.    Their  meaning,  I.,  122. 
PEARSON.     Anglican  incumbent  of  Chester.     Asserts  the  Roman  residence  of 

St.  Peter,  I.,  9,  in  Note. 
PEASANTS'  WAR.    Luther's  connection  with  it,  III.,  314. 
PEDRO  I.,  Emperor  of  Brazil.     Grand-Master  of  Brazilian  Masonry,  VI..  50. 
PEDRO  II.,  Emperor  of  Brazil.    A  tool  of  Freemasonry  in  its  persecution  of  the 

Brazilian  Church.  VI..  52. 
PEEL.  ROBERT.     Abandons  the  claim  to  a  right  of  veto  on  Catholic  episcopal 

nominations.  V.,  202.    He  introduces  a  Bill  for  Catholic  Emancipation,  23L 


f'SS  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

PELAGIaNIcM.  Its  doctriues,  I.,  254.  Condemned  by  Pope  Innocent  I.,  257. 
This  pontiflcal,  action  shows  that  Papal  definitions  in  matters  of  faith  were 
then   regarded  as  irreformable,  259. 

PENANCE,  PUBLIC.  Its  nature  among  the  early  Christians,  I.,  160.  The  sys- 
tem obtained  for  twelve  centuries,  164.  Public,  not  private  and  Sacra- 
mental Confession,  prohibited  by  Nectarius  of  Constantinople,  166. 

PEONS,  MEXICAN.  Their  lot  far  happier  than  that  of  laborers  in  other 
countries,  VI.,  3S2,  in  Note. 

PEPIN  THE  SHORT,  King  of  the  Franks.  Spurns  the  bribes  of  Copronymus  in 
the  matter  of  Iconoclasm,  I.,  471.  His  so-called  "donation"  to  the  Holy 
See,  507.     It  was  rather  a  restitution,  511,  in  Note. 

PERSECUTIONS,  EARLY  CHRISTIAN.  Vain  endeavors  of  Voltaire,  Gibbon, 
Basnage,  Dodwell,  etc.,  to  belittle  their  woes,  and  to  excuse  their  authors, 
I.,  45,  49,  53,  .57. 

PETER,  ST.,  ROMAN  PONTIFICATE  OF.  Position  of  its  deniers,  I.,  1.  It  is 
proved  by  the  testimony  of  St.  Paul,  5.  By  that  of  Pope  St.  Clement  I.,  8. 
By  that  of  St.  Irenseus,  9.  By  that  of  Tertullian,  Hegesippus,  and  Diony- 
sius  of  Corinth,  10.  By  that  of  Sts.  Cyprian,  Jerome,  and  Augustine,  11. 
By  that  of  the  later  Fathers,  12.  By  the  ancient  "Catalogues  of  the 
Pontiffs",  13.  By  the  vivid  and  absolute  tradition  of  the  Roman  people,  14. 
A  belief  in  it  could  not  have  arisen  from  the  ambition  of  the  Roman 
Pontiffs,  16.  The  question  of  chronology,  17.  Sts.  Peter  and  Paul  were  not 
co-bishops  of  Rome,  19. 

PETER  "LEONIS".    Usurper  of  the  Papal  throne,  II.,  269,  in  Note. 

PETER  OF  VAUX-CERNAY,  Summarizes  the  errors  of  the  Albigenses,  II.,  351. 

PETER  OP  CASTELNAU.     Papal  legate,  murdered  by  the  Albigenses,  II.,  354. 

PETER  MARTYR  (of  Verona)  ST.    Martyred  by  the  Patarines,  III.,  446,  in  Note. 

PETER  MARTYR  VERMIGLIO.  Apostatises,  and  Cranmer  gives  him  a  chair 
of  theology  in  Oxford,  III.,  446.  After  consultation  with  Calvin,  he  allows 
a  married  apostate  to  talie  a  second  "wife",  because  the  legitimate  spouse 
remains  a  Catholic,  448. 

PETIT,  JOHN.  H:s  defence  of  the  doctrine  justifying  tyrannicide  is  condemned 
by  the  Council  of  Constance,  III.,  39. 

PETRUCCI,  CARD.    Executed  for  his  attempted  murder  or  Pope  Leo  X.,  III.,  285. 

PHILIP  AUGUSTUS,   King  of  France.     Sec  INNOCENT  III. 

PHILOSOPHUMENA.  Of  Mt.  Athos,  not  written  by  St.  Hippolytus,  I.,  13. 
in  Note. 

PHOTIUS.     See   SCHISM,    GREEK. 

PICO  DELLA  MIRANDOLA.  Sincerely  orthodox  at  heart,  praised  by  Innocent 
VIII.,  but  expresses  views  which  are  condemned  by  the  Holy  See,  III.,  200. 
His  sanctity,    201. 

PIETISTS.  German  Protestant  false  mysticists,  V.,  363.  The  Jansenists  of 
Protestantism,  365. 

PIFRES  (PATRINS).     A  sect  of  the  Albigenses,  II.,  350,  in  Note. 

PIMODAN,  GEN.  DE.     Assassinated  at  Castelfidardo,  V.,  534. 

PISA,  COUNCIL  OF.  Assembled  for  a  termination  of  the  Great  Western 
Schism,  III.,  18.  Deposes  the  rival  Pontiffs,  Gregory  XII.  and  Benedict 
XIII.,  21.  Election  of  Balthassar  Cossa,  22.  Arguments  for  and  against 
the  oecumeniclty  of  this  Council,  24. 

PISTOJA.  Pseudo-Synod,  IV.,  592.  Pius  VI.  condemns  its  Jansenistic  and 
Josephist  doctrines,  597. 

PITT,  The  Younger.  His  course  in  regard  to  English  Catholic  Emancipation, 
v.,  159.  188,  192. 

PIUS  II.,  POPE.  Early  career,  III..  160.  Urges  a  Crusade,  161.  His  Bull  of 
Retractations,  and  his  condemnation  of  all  appeals  from  a  Papal  decision, 
167.    His  condemnation  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Charles  VII.,  170. 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX.  7o9 

PIUS  VI.,  POPE,  His  character  and  election,  IV.,  562.  His  dissensions  with  the 
court  of  Naples,  567.  His  imprisonment  by  the  French  Directory,  and  his 
death,  575.  His  resistance  to  the  quasi-schismatic  enterprises  of  Joseph 
II.,  oSS,  600.  His  condemnation  of  the  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy  in 
France,   610. 

PIUS  VII.,  POPE.  Tricks  of  Bonaparte  and  of  the  German  emperor  In  reference 
to  the  Conclave  of  ISOO,  V.,  2.  Early  career  of  Gregorio  Chiaramonti,  10. 
Pettiness  and  boorishness  of  the  German  emperor  toward  the  new  Pontiff, 
13.  The  Concordat  with  France,  14.  The  "Organic  Articles"  surreptitiously 
added  to  the  Concordat  by  Xapoleon,  23.  The  consecration  of  Napoleon  as 
emperor,  27.  The  imprisonment  of  the  Pontiff,  33.  The  extorted  Concordat, 
and  the  firmness  of  Consalvi,  45.  The  Pontiff  is  restored  to  his  capital,  47. 
His  hospitality  to  the  Bonaparte  family,  50,  243.  His  cnaracter,  53.  His 
course  in  the  matter  of  the  pretended  divorce  of  Napoleon,  58.  H!s  refusal 
to  nullify  the  Jerome  Bonaparte-Patterson  marriage,  65.  His  decision  in 
the  Question  of  the  English  royal  veto  on  episcopal  nominations,   208. 

PIUS  VIII.,  POPE.  Condemns  the  Prussian  law  which  forbade  the  exaction  of 
a  promise  of  fidelity  to  Catholic  conditions  from  a  Protestant  party  to  a 
mixed  marriage,   V.,  257. 

PIUS  IX.,  POPE.  His  early  career,  V.,  505.  His  election,  509.  Grants  a  Con- 
stitution to  his  subjects,  512.  The  assassination  of  his  prime-minister. 
Count  Rossi,  514.  The  flight  to  Gaeta,  518.  The  restoration,  520.  Cavour 
shows  his  hand  at  the  Congress  of  Paris,  525.  The  campaign  of  Castel- 
fidardo,  540.  The  Pontiff  gives  Che  lie  to  an  envoy  from  His  Sardinian 
Majesty,  548.  The  seizure  of  Rome  by  the  Piedmontese,  549.  Pius  IX. 
refuses  a  pension  from  the  usurpers,  .=;51.  The  definition  of  the  dogma  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception,  558.  The  "Syllabus",  561.  The  alleged  Free- 
masonry of  Pius  IX.,  5C4.  His  death,  569.  His  remains  outraged  by  the 
Italian  Unitarians,  VI.,  155. 

PLATINA.     His  declamations   against  Pope  Paul  II.,    III.,   176. 

PLETHO.  His  schismatic  ef.'rontery  in  reference  to  the  Council  of  Florence, 
HI.,   126,    139. 

PLINY  THE  YOUNGER.     Testifies  to  the  rapid  spread  of  Christianity,  I.,  59. 

POBEDONOSTZEF.  Procurator  of  the  Russian  Holy  Synod,  and  prime  instiga- 
tor of  the  persecution  of  Catholics,  V.,  140,  143. 

POLAND.  Her  conversion,  V.,  73.  Catholicism  and  patriotism  are  synonymous 
in  Poland,  75.  Origin  and  significance  of  the  United  Greek  Rite  among 
the  Catholics  of  Polard,  78.  Sufferings  of  the  Polish  Catholics  under  the 
infamous  Catharine  II.,  80.  The  practical  apostasy  of  Siestrzencewicz,  82. 
Falsehoods  and  absurdities  of  Dimitri  Tolstoy,  procurator  of  the  Holy- 
Synod  under  Alexander  I,  in  the  matter  of  Polish  Catholicism,  88.  89,  94, 
95,  115,  116,  129,  136.  Paul  I.  and  Alexander  I.  comparatively  tolerant,  92. 
■Nicholas  I.  rivals  Catharine  II.  as  a  persecutor,  93.  The  betrayal  of  the 
United  Greeks  by  Siemaszko,  94.  The  crueities  of  Nicholas  I.  revealed  to 
the  Western  world  by  Pope  Gregory  XVI.,  100.  The  meeting  of  the  Pontiff 
and  the  autocrat,  101.  The  persecution  under  the  "gentle"  Alexander  II., 
103.  Ferocity  of  Michael  Mourawieff,  109.  The  protests  of  Pius  IX.,  and 
the  insult  offered  him  by  the  Russian  ambassador,  Meyendorf.  112.  "Russi- 
fication"  not  justified  by  the  "Polonization"  of  the  olden  time,  122.  The 
Uniates  of  Galicia  frefjuently  accomplices  of  the  destroyers  of  the  Unlates 
of  Russian  Poland,  127.  The  Russifying  enterprises  of  Kuziemski  and 
Marcellus  Popiel,  128.  Alexander  III.  at  first  tolerant,  but  yields  to  the 
influence  of  Pobedonostzef,  and  nearly  rivals  Nicholas  I.  as  a  persecutor, 
139.  The  massacre  of  Kroze,  141.  Nicholas  11.  begins  his  reign  with  a 
•wholesale  deportation  and  exile  of  Polish  priests,  but  there  are  hopes  of 
amelioration,  143. 


740  STUDIES   IN   CHUECH   HISTORY. 

POLYCARP,  ST.    His  Epistle  to  the  Pliilippians,  I.,  74. 

POLYCRATES  OF  EPHESUS.  Obeys  Pope  St.  Victor  I.  in  the  matter  of  the 
Easter  Controversy,  I.,  24. 

POMBAL,  SEBASTIAN  CARVALHO,  Marquis  of.  His  character.  IV.,  445.  De- 
nounces the  pretended  crimes  of  the  Jesuits  to  Pope  Benedict  XIV.,  446. 
His  accusations  refuted  by  the  history  of  tlie  "Reductions"  of  Paraguay, 
448.  Resolves  to  imitate  Henry  VIII.  if  otherwise  he  cannot  destroy  the 
Jesuits,  451.  Banishes  the  Jesuits,  452.  Executes  Father  Malagrida,  454. 
His  rupture  with  Pope  Clement  XIII.,  who  supports  the  Society,  455. 

POMPONAZIO.  Contends  that  the  immortality  of  the  soul  cannot  be  proved  by 
reason,  but  afterward  retracts  this  view,   III.,  300. 

POMPONIO  LETO.  Leader  of  the  Italian  Humanists.  Eccentric,  but  orthodox, 
III.,  178,  in  Note. 

PONTIFICAL  BOOK.     "Diary  of  the  Popes".     Its  value,  I.,  226. 

POOR  MEN  OF  LYONS.     The  original  Waldenses,  and  irreprehensible,  II.,  30S 

POPE-SS.    See  JOAN. 

PORT-ROYAL  (of  Paris  and  Les  Champs).  Jansenist  shrine  and  headquarters, 
IV.,  115,  in  Note.     Its  spirit,  116,  133,  141,  160,  166. 

POSITIVISM.  Not  originated  by  Comte,  but  as  old  as  Enesidemus  and  Sextus 
the  Empiric,  V.,  3S5.  The  Positivism  of  Littre,  385,  in  Note.  That  of 
Proudhon,  of  certain  Liberal  clerics,  of  some  would-be  scientists,  and  of 
some  would-be  artists,  386. 

PRAGMATIC  SANCTION.  Meaning,  III.,  170.  The  Sanction  ascribed  to  St. 
Louis  of  France  was  never  issued  by  him,   171. 

PROPERTY,  RIGHTS  OF.  Theory  of  Proudhon,  VI.,  357.  Of  Robert  Owen, 
356.     Of  Fourier,  V.,  382.     Teachings  of  Leo  XIII.,  VI.,  362. 

PROTESTANTISM.  Its  birth.  III.,  304.  Its  propagation,  very  differently  from 
that  of  the  Church,  was  assisted  by  the  spirit  of  the  world,  326,  333.  It 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  "rebirth"  of  learning,  328.  Philosophy  owes  it 
nothing,  330.  It  did  not  even  give  to  men  a  new  freedom  to  discuss  the 
doings  of  churchmen,  331;  Its  triumph  in  England,  4C3.  Its  efforts  to 
intrench  itself  in  France,  368.  Its  attempts  to  seduce  Italy,  441.  Its  re- 
jection entailed  on  Italy  no  loss  of  worldly  prosperity,  461.     See  LUTHER. 

PRUSSIANS.  Originally  a  Slavic,  not  a  Teutonic  tribe,  IV.,  374,  in  Note.  Not 
converted  from  barbarism  and  paganism  until  the  thirteenth  century,  II., 
10,   in  Note. 

PULCHERIA,  ST.  Roman  Empress.  Her  influence  over  Theodosius  II.,  I.,  280, 
in   Note. 

PURGATORY.  Formed  an  article  of  faith  for  the  early  Anglo-Saxon  Church, 
I.,   406. 

PUSEYISM.     See  OXFORD  MOVEMENT. 

QUESNEL,  PASQUIER.  His  "Moral  Reflections"  the  occasion  of  the  Bull 
"Unigenitus",  IV.,  346.  Condemnation  of  101  of  his  propositions,  351. 
See  "UNIGENITUS". 

QUIETISM.  A  legacy  from  the  Origenistic  mystics  of  the  fourth  century,  IV., 
304.  Vagaries  of  Molinos,  305.  His  theories  condemned  by  Innocent  XL, 
306.  The  super-exaltation  of  Mme.  Guyon,  308.  Her  erotic  blasphemies, 
309.  She  is  unmasked  by  Bossuet,  314.  This  Question  not  one  of  mere 
words  on  unintelligible  matters,  323. 

RANKE.  His  injustices  toward  Pope  Leo  X.,  III.,  299.  His  foolish  observations 
on  the  Council  of  Trent,  532.  Value  of  his  "unearthed  documents"  con- 
cerning this  Council.  534. 

RATIONALISM.  Its  path  opened  hy  the  Protestant  "Pietists",  V.,  363.  Aided 
by  the  Wolflan  "philosophy".  365.     The  New  Exegesis,  366.     Champions  of 


(GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX.  741 

Kixtjonallsm,    36S.      French    Rationalism    more    baneful    than    the    German, 
te^vuse  more  logical,   375.     Semi-Rationalism  of  Globerti,   3S8. 
RA  ;/SBON\E,    THE    BROTHERS.      Their    conversion    from    Judaism,    V..    255, 
in  Note. 

RATRAMX  OF  CORBIE.    His  triple  distinction  as  to  the  Body  of  Christ,  I.,  402. 

RATTAZZI.     His  judgment  on  Leo  XHI.,  VI.,  153. 

RAYMOND  VI.  Count  of  Toulouse.  Protects  the  Albigenses,  and  Is  deposed 
by  Pope  Innocent  III.,   II.,  352. 

REFORMATION.     See  PROTESTANTISM. 

REGALIA,  QUESTION  OF.  For  its  German  phase,  see  INVESTITURES.  Its 
meaning  in  French  history,  II.,  38G,  in  Note;  iV.,  211.  The  question  was  not 
merely  one  or  money,  IV.,  213.  The  mistake  of  Louis  XIV.  due  to  the 
subserviency  oi"  tne  French  bishops,  217.  Justification  of  the  course  pur- 
sued by  Pope  Innocent  XI.  in  this  matter,  21S.  The  Concordat  between 
Pope  Leo  X.  and  Francis  I.  responsible  for  much  of  this  trouble,  220. 

REINKENS.     His  consecration  as  bishop  of  the  "O'.d  Catholics",  V.,  C14. 

RELATIONS  OF  VENETIAN  AMBASSADORS.     Their  value.  III.,  206,  in  Note. 

RELIGIOUS  ORDERS  IN  ENGLAND.     Still  prohibited  by  law,  V.,  181,  in  Note. 

RENAISSANCE.     Its  pagan  tendencies.   III.,  2C2.     Chief  lights,  329,   in   Note. 

REVOLUTION,  FRENCH,  OF  17S9.     Judged  by  Mgr.   Freppel,  IV.,  617,  in  Note. 

RHODES,  SIEGES  OF.  The  Knights-Hospitalers,  VI.,  6-46.  D'Aubusson  elected 
Grand-Master,  648.  Repulse  of  Mesis  Vizir,  651.  L'lle-Adam  Grand-Master, 
657.     Besieged  by  Soliman,  660.     Rhodes  capitulates,  664. 

RICCI,  LORENZO.     General  of  the  Jesuits.     His  dying  protest,  IV.,  488. 

RICCI,  SCIPIO.  Bishop  of  Pistoja.  His  religious  innovations,  IV.,  592.  His 
Josephist  synod  at  Pistoja,  594.    His  submission  and  edifying  death,  599. 

RICHELIEU,  CARD.  His  eccleciastical  character  irreproachable,  IV.,  274,  In 
Note.  He  did  not  cause  the  fall  of  Wallenstein,  64.  His  object  In  aiding 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  70.  Withdraws  his  aid  when  the  Swede  refuses  to 
spare  the  Catholic  princes  of  Germany,  74.  Openly  wars  on  Austria,  77. 
His  attitude  during  the  Thirty  Years  War,  79. 

RICHER,   EDMOND.     His  errors,   IV.,  354. 

RIENZI.     His  career,   II.,  551.     His  character,   567. 

RIMINI,  COUNCIL  OF.     The  synodals  were  not  guilty  of  heresy,  I.,  235. 

ROBERTSON,  W.  As  a  historian  his  spirit  is  Voltairian,  III.,  293.  He  mis- 
represents grievously  the  work  of  the  Church  in  Latin  America,  V.,  270, 
in  Note.    Judged  by  Cantil,  II.,  6. 

ROHAN,  LOUIS  RENE  DE,  CARD.  His  connection  with  the  affair  of  Marie 
Antoinette's  diamond  necklace,  IV.,  570. 

ROSSI,  PELLEGRINO.  Accepts  the  invitation  of  Pius  IX.  to  "constitutionalizj" 
the  government  of  the  Papal  States,  V.,  514.     His  assassination,  51G. 

RUDOLPH  OF  HAPSBURG.    Conditions  on  which  he  becama  emperor,  II.,  380. 

RUFINUS.    A  forerunner  of  Pelagianism,  I.,  253. 

RUNCARII.     A  sect  of  the  Waldenses,   II.,  3n. 

RUSSIAN  "ORTHODOX"  CHURCH.  Not  synonymous  with  the  schismatic 
Greek  either  in  origin,  or  in  language,  or  in  polity,  or  in  government,  II., 
127.  Its  own  liturgical  books  admit  the  primacy  of  St.  Peter  and  his 
successors,  although  it  refuses  submission  to  that  primacy,  128,  in  Note. 
Its  lethargy  and  superstition,  lo4.  Reasons  which  militate  against  Its  sub- 
mission to  the  Papacy,  135.  Persecuting  spirit  of  its  Holy  Synod,  V.,  140, 
113.    Heterodoxies  of  "  Russian  Orthodoxy,"  VI.,  CS7.    See  POLAND. 

SABELLIUS.    Held  that  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost  are  not  subslstent  Persons, 

but  attributes  or  emanations  of  the  Father,  I.,  37. 
SACCHO,   REINERIUS.     A   converted  Waldensian    *lshop,    II.,    308. 


742  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

SAGASTA,  PRAXEDES.  Graud-Master  of  Spanish  Freemasonry,  proposes  to 
Judaize  Spain,  VI.,  46. 

SAINT-CYRAN  (John  du  Verger  de  Hauranne).  His  character  as  judged  by 
.  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  IV.,  113. 

SAINT-SIMON,  LOUIS  DE.     A  complete  expression  of  Jansenism,  IV.,  133. 

SAINT-SIMON,   CLAUDE   DE.     His  philosophistic   theories,   V.,   378. 

SALISBURY,  JOHN  OF.     His  authority,  I.,  391,  392,  in  Note. 

SAMOSATIANS.     Tlieir  doctrines  I.,  144.     See  ANTIOCH,   COUNCIL  OF. 

SANCTA  CLARA,  FRANCISCUS  DE,  O.S.F.  Grants  the  validity  of  Anglican 
"Orders",  and  afterward  denies  said  validity,   IV.,  53,   in  Note. 

SARDICA,  COUNCIL  OF.  General,  but  regarded  as  an  appendix  to  that  of 
Nice,  I.,  209.  This  Council  did  not  initiate  the  right  of  appeal  to  the 
Roman  Pontiff,  212.  Falsity  of  the  Febronian  interpretation  of  the  third, 
fourth,   and  seventh   Canons,   216. 

SARPI,  PAOLO.  His  "History  of  the  Council  of  Trent",  III.,  521.  His  course 
during  the  dissension  between  Pope  Paul  V.  and  Venice,  IV.,  9.  His  ortho- 
doxy problematical,  13.  His  judgment  on  the  alleged  Monita  Sccrcta  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  his  charges  against  the  Society,  441. 

SATURNINUS.     Disciple  of  Menander.     His  heresy,   I.,  28. 

SAVONAROLA.  His  rise.  III.,  230.  Proclaims  the  necessity  of  purifying  the 
sanctuary,  233.  Becomes  omnipotent  in  Florence,  235.  Disobeys  the  pon- 
tifical command  to  abstain  from  preaching,  237.  Excommunicated,  238. 
Loses  his  influence  in  Florence,  239.  The  fiasco  of  the  ordeal  by  fire,  240. 
The  Church  never  authorized  or  approved  such  ordeals,  241,  in  Note. 
Alexander  VI.  tries  to  save  the  friar,  243.  The  Christian  death  of  the 
agitator,  245.  He  was  not  a  precursor  of  Protestantism,  247.  His  intense 
and  orthodox  piety,  249.  He  is  praised  by  Saints  and  by  Popes,  253.  Rea- 
sons, justifiable  or  foolish,  for  sympathy  with  him,  255. 

SCANDERBEG  (George  Castriota).  Helps  the  Hungarians  to  save  Christendom 
from  the  Osmanlis,  III.,  142,  156. 

SCARAMPO,  CARD.  Pontifical  naval  commander,  protects  the  Mediterranean 
islands  from  Mahomet  II.,  III.,  156. 

SCHELLING,  FRED  W.  'Banishes  all  objective  existence  in  favor  of  the  Ego, 
v.,  371. 

SCHILLER.  His  "History  of  the  Thirty  Years  War"  a  platitudinous  effort, 
IV.,  58,  in  Note. 

SCHISM,  GREEK.  Its  first  stage  under  Photius,  II.,  55.  Its  revival  by  Ceru- 
larius.  123.  The  Schismatic  Greek  Church  differs  from  the  Russian 
"Orthodox"  in  origin,  language,  polity,  and  government,  127.  Attempts 
of  Protestants  to  communicate  with  the  Schismatic  Greeks,  130.  The 
enterprise  of  Cyril  Lucar.  J31.  The  submission  of  the  Schismatics  to  the 
Holy  See  does  not  mean  their  Latinization,  135,  136,  in  Note. 

yCHlSM,  GREAT  WESTERN.  Election  of  Bartholomew  Prignano  as  Pope 
Urban  VI.,  II.,  522.  Discontent  and  final  revolt  of  the  French  cardinals, 
525.  Joined  by  two  of  the  Italian  cardinals,  they  venture  to  "elect"  a 
new  Pontiff,  Robert  of  Geneva,  who  takes  the  name  of  Clement  VII.,  527. 
Christendom  soon  divided  into  two  "obediences",  528.  Some  apposite  re- 
flections on  the  nature  of  this  Schism,  529.  The  election  of  Urban  VI. 
was  free,  and  therefore  valid;  therefore  his  successors,  Boniface  IX., 
Innocent  VII.,  and  Gregory  XII.,  were  legitimate  Pontiffs,  532.  Argu- 
ments advanced  by  the  partisans  of  the  line  of  Robert  of  Geneva,  541. 
Termination  of  the  Schism,   548. 

SCISCIDENSES.    A  sect  of  the  Waldenses,  II.,  311. 

SHAFTESBURY  (Anthony  Ashley  Cooper).  Skeptic  and  indifferentist,  IV., 
391,  in  Note. 


GENERAL  TOPICAL  INDEX.  743 

SCOTIA.  The  ancient  name  of  Ireland,  the  laud  now  termed  Scotland  not 
having  been  so  styled  before  the  eleventh  century,   I.,   114. 

SCOTUS  ERIGEXA.  Not  the  author  of  the  treatise  on  the  Eucharist  which 
was  condemned  by  the  Synod  of  Vercelll  In  1049,  I.,  315.  Not  to  be  con- 
founded with  Duns  Scotus,  ibi,  in  Note.  Probably  a  layman,  II.,  108, 
In  Note. 

SECRET,  DISCIPLINE  OF  THE.  Its  nature,  I.,  96.  It  furnishes  a  proof  of  the 
early  Christian  belief  in  Transubstantiation,  103. 

SEDULIUS.  Vainly  cited  to  prove  the  "anti-papistical"  doctrines  of  the  early 
Irish  Church,  I.,  312. 

SBMIPELAGIAXS.  Held  many  errors,  but  they  wore  not  involved  in  the 
condemnation   of  Pelagianism,   I.,   263. 

SEPTIMirS  SEVERUS.    Rom.    Emp.     Persecutes   the   Christians,    I.,   50. 

SERFDOM,  .MEDL'EVAL.     It  was  a  mere  memory  and  a  name,  VI.,  551. 

SERVETUS.  Burnt  alive  as  a  heretic  by  order  of  Calvin,  III.,  361.  Melancthon 
justifies  the  deed,  362. 

SEVENTH  GEN.  COUNCIL,  SECOND  OF  NICE.  Condemns  Iconoclasm,  I.,  473. 
The  synodals  did  not  examine  juridically  the  Letters  of  Pope  Adrian  I.  to 
Tharasius  and  to  the  sovereigns  Irene  and  Constantine,  480. 

SIEMASZKO.  His  apostasy,  and  his  persecution  of  the  Ruthenlan  Uniates,  V., 
94.     His  atrocities  toward  the  Nuns  of  Minsk,  145. 

SIESTRZENCEWICZ.  Betrays  the  cause  of  the  United  Greeks  in  Russia,  and 
practically  apostatizes,  V.,  S2. 

SIMON  JULES.  Condemns  the  educational  laws  of  the  Third  French  Republic, 
VI.,   123,    129,    131. 

SIMON  MAGUS.     Rather  a  false  Messiah  than  a  heretic,  I.,  26. 

SINUESSA,  PRETENDED  SYNOD  OF.     Its  "Acts"  apocryphal,  VI.,  510. 

SIRMIUM,  THREE  FORMULAS  OF.  So-called,  but  only  the  first  was  issued 
by  the  Sirmian  synodals.  I.,  229.  If  Pope  L'.berius  signed  any  Sirmian 
formula,  he  signed  the  first,  which  was  perfectly  orthodox,  230.  The  word 
howoouHios  is  not  found  in  the  first  formula,  but  the  doctrine  presented 
implies  it,  231. 

SISTERS  OF  CHARITY.  Founded  by  St.  Vincent  de  Paul.  Their  prime  char- 
acteristics, IV.,  179. 

SIXTUS  IV.,  POPE.  His  character,  III.,  1S5.  His  connection  with  the  Con- 
spiracy of  the  Pazzi,  186.  The  severity  of  this  Pontiff  toward  Florence  was 
in  accordance  with  the  Canons,  192.  His  relations  with  Louis  XI.  of 
France,   193. 

SIXTUS  v.,  POPE.  Reliability  of  Gregorio  Leti,  the  apostate  writer  of  the 
buffoonesque  "Life"  of  this  Pontiff,  HI.,  536.  The  story  of  the  discarded 
crutches,  and  that  of  the  phenomenally  vigorous  expectoration,  are  im- 
possible yarns,  537.  The  zeal  of  Sixtus  V.  was  prudent,  and  his  severity 
■was  not  injustice,  541.  As  for  the  affairs  of  France,  the  influence  of 
Sixtus  over  the  League  counterbalanced  that  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  544. 
His  Bull  of  Deposition  against  Henry  IV.,  545.  His  reason  for  refusing 
the  customary  Papal  Mass  of  Requiem  in  the  case  of  Henry  HI.,  549. 

SLAVE-TRADE.  Always  condemned  by  the  Reman  Pontiffs,  V.,  268.  Apposite 
Bull  of  Gregory  XVI.,  270.  The  united  action  of  Leo  XIII.  and  Cardinal 
Lavigerie  against  the  traffic,  VI.,  291. 

SOCIALISM.  Meaning  and  history,  VI.,  354.  Difference  between  the  French  and 
German  theories,  357.  Connection  with  Freemasonry,  359.  Teachings  of 
Leo  XIII.,  362.  The  right  of  private  ownership  is  according  to  the 
Natural  Law,  363.    Iniquity  of  Statolatry,  364.     The  question  of  wages,  366. 

SOCINUS,  FAUSTUS.  His  notions  different  from  those  of  Arius,  and  frona 
those  of  many  other  Unitarians,   III.,  453. 

SOCRATES.    The  historian.    His  proneness  to  mendacity.  I.,  Ill,  in  Note. 


744  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

SOKOLSKI.     Bulgarian  archimandrite,  submits  to  the  Holy  See,  is  consecrated 

bishop,  and  then  apostatizes,   V.,  131,   in  Note. 
SORCERY,    MEDIEVAL..     Sorcery   not   peculiar   to    the   Middle    Age,    VI.,    534. 

Witchcraft   was    scarcely    known    until    nearly    the    close    of    the    Middle 

Age,    535. 
SPECIES,  HUMAN.     Three  of  them,  according  to  Valentinus,   I.,  34. 
SPENER,  PHILIP.     Founds  the  Protestant  school  of  Pf?tists,  V.,  363.     Refuses 

to    recognize    religious    teaching   authority    in    the    German    civil    govern- 
ments,  3G4. 
SPINOLA,    CRISTOFORO,    O.S.F.      Projects    a    reconciliation    of    the    German 

Lutherans   with   the  Holy   See,   IV.,   377. 
STRAUSS,  DAVID.    His  theory  of  myths  as  applied  to  the  life  of  Jesus,  V.,  372. 

Reply  of  Rousseau  to  the  assumption  that  miracles  are  impossible,  374. 
SULLY,    MAURICE    DE.      Bishop    of   Paris.      A    typical    bishop    of    the    Middle 

Age,  VI.,  571. 
SWEDEN.     Cause  of  its  Protestantization,  IV.,  68,   in  Note.     See  GUSTAVUS- 

ADOLPHUS. 
SYLLABUS.     Collection  of  eighty  errors  already  condemned  by  Pius  IX.,   but 

again  reprobated  in  1864,  V.,  561.     It  is  a  condemnation  of  the  intellectual, 

social,  and  religious  heresies  which  are  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  the 

world  at  the  present  time,  563. 
SYMMACHUS,   ST.,   POPE.     Not  judged  by  the  Palmaris   Synod,   I.,   352. 
SYNESIUS.     Bishop  of  Ptolemais.     Allowed  to   retain  his  wife,   II.,  192. 

TACITUS.  Testifies  to  the  large  number  of  Christians  in  the  empire  when 
Nero  mounted  the  throne,  I.,  59. 

TALLEYRAND.  His  lies  in  furtherance  of  Bonaparte's  interference  with  the 
Conclave  of  1800,   V.,  3. 

TASSO.     Made  laureate  by  Pope  Clement  VIII.,  HI.,  559.     His  last  days,  560. 

TATIAN.  His  heresy,  and  his  "Diatessaron",  I.,  35. 

TEMPLARS,  THEIR  SUPPRESSION.  Origin  of  the  order,  II.,  454.  Beginning 
of  its  corruption  even  in  the  time  of  St.  Bernard,  457.  Most  authoritative 
works  to  be  consulted  on  this  subject,  458,  in  Note.  Horrible  charges 
against  the  Knights,  459.  Nearly  all  the  members  of  the  preceptory  of 
Paris  admit  their  guilt,  460.  But  Pope  Clement  V.  disapproves  of  the 
high-handed  procedures  of  Philip  the  Fair,  and  calls  the  question  to  the 
Holy  See,  461.  At  the  pontifical  inquiry  the  cited  knights  avow  the  truth 
of  the  confessions  made  at  the  Parisian  investigation,  463.  The  same 
guilt  was  evinced  in  the  cases  of  the  Templars  of  Lombardy,  Tuscany, 
England,  and  Aragon,  465.  The  order  abolished  by  the  Roman  Pontiff,  466. 
The  supposed  value  of  the  arguments  deduced  from  Villani,  St.  Antonine 
of  Florence,  Dante,  Boccaccio,  etc.,  in  favor  of  the  Templars,  470.  The 
confessions  of  the  Templars  were  not  wrung  from  unwilling  lips  by 
torture,  479.  The  suppression  was  not  due  to  the  covetousness  of  Philip 
the  Fair,  482.  Much  of  modern  sympathy  with  the  Templars  is  due  to 
the  desire  of  Freemasonry  to  vindicate  for  itself  a  respectable  and 
romantic  origin,  484. 

TEMPORAL  POWER  OF  THE  POPES.  See  DEPOSING  POWER  and 
DOMINION,  PAPAL. 

TENTH  GEN.  COUNCIL,  SECOND  LATERAN.  Remedies  the  evils  caused  by 
the  schism  of  Peter  "Leonis",  condemns  the  errors  ol  Peter  de  Bruis  and 
of  Arnold  of  Brescia,  and  enforces  eccleciast:cal  discipline,  II..  268. 

TENTH  CENTURY.  Belied  by  Protestant  polemics  when  they  term  It  one  of 
intellectual  and  moral  darkness,  II.,  110. 

TERTULLIAN.  Asserts  the  Roman  Pontificate  of  St.  Peter,  I..  13.  Becomes 
a  Montanist,  36.    Shows  the  wide  spread  of  Christianity  !n  his  day,  60. 


I 


GENERAL  TOnCAL  INDEX.  745 

THEOBALD.    The  chosen  patron  of  the  Carbouari,  V.,  482. 

THEODORE  OF  MOPSUESTE.  Forerunner  of  Pelagius,  I.,  253.  Prime  cause 
of  the  Controversy  of  the  Three  Chapters,  359. 

THEODORET.  Asserts  the  Roman  Pontiflcaie  of  St.  Peter,  I.,  5.  Pronounced 
a  Catholic  by  the  synodals  of  Chalcodon,  but  his  writings  against  St.  Cyri, 
of  Alexandria  are  condemned  by  the  Fifth  Gen.  Council.  StJvi. 

THIERS.  Connives  at  the  destruction  ot  the  Archieplscopal  Library  of  Paris  In 
1831,  v.,  249.  Partly  responsible  for  the  murder  of  Archbishop  Darboy, 
VI.,  94.     His  inordinate  passion  for  power.  111. 

THIRTEENTH  GEN.  COUNCIL.  FIRST  OF  LYONS.  Preludes,  11.,  370.  Depo- 
sition of  the  emperor,  Frederick  II.,  375. 

THIRTY   YEARS  WAR.     See  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPhUS  and  RICHELIEU. 

THOMAS  OF  AQUINO,  ST.  Renaissance  of  his  philosophy  under  Leo  XIII., 
VI.,  181.    Absurdly  charged  with  skepticism  by  Michelet,  642. 

THOMAS  A  BECKET,  ST.  See  BECKET. 

TISZA,  KOLOMAN.  Hungapian  statesman.  Forces  civil  matrimony  on  the 
Hungarians,  VI.,  245. 

TOLSTOY,  DIMITRY.  Procurator  of  the  Russian  Holy  Synod,  V.,  78.  His 
value  as  a  historian,  79,  88,  94,  95,  115. 

TOURNON,  CARD.  DE.  His  sufferings  because  of  his  fidelity  to  the  Apostolic 
See  in  the  matter  of  the  Chinese  Rites.   VI.,   675. 

TRACTS  FOR  THE  TI.MES.    Their  origin  and  history,  V.,  443.    Tract  No.  90,  455. 

TRADES-UNIONS.  Their  universality,  perfect  organization,  and  influence  in 
the  Middle  Age,   VI.,  537. 

TRAJAN.  Rom.  Emp.  Persecutes  the  Christians,  although  he  issues  no  new 
decrees.  I.,  46.     The  yarn  about  his  alleged  release  from  hell.  391. 

TRANSFERS,  EPISCOPAL.  Discipline  in  the  first  centuries  of  Christianity, 
I.,  94. 

TRANSMARINE  APPEALS.  Not  prohibited  by  the  Second  Council  of  Carthage 
in  the  sense  of  an  exclusion  of  appeals  to  Rome,  I.,  267. 

TRENT,  COUNCIL  OF,  EIGHTEENTH  GENERAL.  Preludes,  III.,  511.  Its 
sessions,  513.  The  Canon  on  the  indissolubility  of  matrimony,  and  the 
practice  of  the  United  Greeks,  520.  Character  and  authority  of  the 
assembly,  524.  The  synodals  enjoyed  perfect  freedom  ot  discussion,  527. 
It  was  not  a  faMure,  529.  Reception  of  its  decrees,  530.  Criticisms  of 
Rauke,  532.  Reliability  of  Sarpi,  the  prized  authority  of  Protestant  critics 
of  this  Council,  as  gauged  even  by  Ranke.  535. 

TRIAVERDINS.    Albigensian   rapers   aud   pillagtMS,    II.,    2S7. 

TRUCE  OF  GOD.  Its  nature,  II.,  258.  It  was  not  a  usurpation  of  civil  govern- 
mental authority,  2C4. 

TRULLIAN  OR  "QUINISEXT"  SYNOD.  Not  regarded  as  oecumenical  by  the 
Holy  See,  I.,  449.     Reasons  for  its  respect  by  the  Greek  Schismatics.  451. 

TWELFTH  GEN.  COUNCIL,  FOURTH  LATERAN.  Condemns  the  errors  of 
the  Albigenses,  II.,  362.  Shows  no  regard  for  Otho  IV.,  and  recognizes 
Frederick  II.  as  King  of  the  Germans.  363.  Refutation  of  Mosheim's 
assertion  that  this  Council  introduced  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation, 
and  the  practice  of  Auricular  Confession,  369. 

"UNIGENITUS",  THE  BULL.  Issued  by  Clement  XI.  In  condemnation  of  the 
distinctive  doctrines  of  Qucsnel,  IV.,  350.  The  recalcitrant  Quesnellists 
supported  by  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  3,54.  The  aberrations  of  Petitpied,  360. 
Submission  of  the  cardinal,  366.  Course  of  the  Faculty  and  of  the  Par- 
liament of  Paris.  368.  Afflictions  entailed  on  the  Church  of  France  by 
the  appellants  from  the  Bull,  270. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  FRANCE.  Founded  by  Napoleon  on  the  ruins  of  the  Uni- 
versity  of  Paris,    V.,    324.     He   orders    that    its   provosts,    principals,    and 


746  STUDIES   IN   CHURCH   HISTORY. 

prefects  shall  be   celibates,   326.     The   combat   of   Montalembert  aud   other 

Catholic  champions  against  the  Universitarian  monopoly,  277,  327. 
URBAN  VI.,  POPE.     See  SCHISM,  GREAT  WESTERN. 
URBAN  VIII.,   POPE.     Revises  the  Roman   Breviary,   IV.,   49.     The  mission   of 

Fanzani  to  England,  51.     The  abolition  of  the  Jesuitesses,  54.     Attitude  of 

the  Pontiff  during  the  Thirty  Years  War,  79.     His  friendship  for  Galileo,  92. 

His  attitude  during  the  prosecution  of  Galileo,  93.     He  emitted  no  decision 

in  the  matter  of  the  heliocentric  system,  106. 
MARTYROLOGIES,    ROMAN.     Those  compiled   by  Usuard,    Ado,    Bede,   Floras, 

and  Notkerus,  I.,  88,  in  Note. 
UTRECHT,  JANSENIST  CHURCH  OF.     Its  birth,   IV.,   339 

VALDEZ.     First  emissary  of  the  Reformation  in  Naples,  III.,  442. 

VALiENTINIANS.     Their  heresies,   I.,  34. 

VALERIAN.     Rom.  Emp.     Persecutes  the  Christians,   I.,  54. 

VANINI.  Burnt  for  atheism  and  blasphemy  by  order  of  the  Parliament  of 
Toulouse,   III.,  4.55. 

VATICAN,  COUNCIL  OF  THE,  NINETEENTH  GENERAL.  Its  convocation, 
v.,  571.  Reciprocal  attitude  of  the  Pontiff  and  the  powers  in  the  matter, 
572.  Invitation  to  the  Oriental  Schismatics,  but  none  to  any  of  the 
Protestant  sects,  573.  Impotent  blasphemies  of  Freemasonry  excited  by  the 
Council,  575.  Regulations  for  the  guidance  of  the  synodals,  579.  The 
Pontifical  Dogmatic  Constitution,  Dei  Filius,  581.  Efforts  of  the  opponents 
of  the  definition  of  Papal  Infallibility,  584.  Popular  objections  against  the 
doctrine,  587.  Agitation  among  the  "Liberal"'  Catholics,  591.  Catholic 
declaration  of  Dupanloup,  593.  Reasons  adduced  by  the  inopportunists, 
593,  in  Note.  The  votes,  596.  The  Pontifical  Definition  of  the  Dogma  of 
Papal  Infallibility,  599.  Protestant  and  infidel  hysterics  after  the  defini- 
tion, 600.  The  argument  of  the  inopportunists  that  the  definition  would 
impede  the  work  of  conversion,  602.  The  sessions  or  the  Council  were 
calm  and  grave,  603.  The  Council  of  the  Vatican  was  a  supreme  remedy 
against  the  evils   of  pretended   "Liberalism",   605. 

VAUDOIS,  PIEDMONTESE.  Those  of  the  thirteenth  century  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  the  Waldenses,  and  their  belief  was  not  that  of  the  Vaudois 
of  to-day,  II.,  318. 

VENICE,  INTERDICT  OF.  Independent  Venice  firmly  Catholic  in  faith,  but 
addicted  to  Statolatry  in  matters  outside  the  body  of  doctrine,  IV.,  3.  The 
Most  Serene  violates  the  right  of  Ecclesiastical  Immunity,  and  the  Re- 
public is  interdicted,  5.  Effort  of  Bellarmine  to  restore  peace,  6.  England 
and  Holland  foment  the  difficulty,  8.  Sarpi  adds  fuel  to  the  flame,  9.  Henry 
IV.  refuses  to  countenance  them,  and  the  oligarchs  submit  to  Rome,  10. 
In  this  conflict  the  Venetians  did  not  even  question  the  indirect  power  of 
the  Pope  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  States,  12. 

VERGERIO.  He  offered  no  bribe  to  Luther  in  the  name  of  the  Pope,  III.,  449. 
His  innovations  in  his  diocese,  and  his  refusal  to  justify  himself  at  Rome, 
prevent  his  admission  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  450.  Plis  apostasy  and  his 
insubordination  to  Luther,  451. 

VERNACULAR,  IN  BIBLE  AND  LITURGY.  Pre-Reformatlon  vernacular  ver- 
sions of  the  Scriptures.  III.,  310.  The  Liturgical  languages  of  the  Eastern 
schismatics  are  not  vernacular,   II.,  128. 

VETO,  RIGHT  OF.     In  a  Conclave.     See  EXCLUSION. 

VEUILLOT,   LOUIS.   Life  and   principles,  VI.,  427. 

VICTOR,  ST.,  POPE.  Merely  threatened  to  excommunicate  the  Asiatic  bishops 
because  of  their  course  in  the  Eastern  Controversy,   I..  1^9. 

VICTOR  EMMANUEL  II.  King  of  Sardinia.  Annexes  the  Romagna.  Tuscany, 
Parma     and    Modena    to    Piedmont,    V.,    533,    in    Note.      Excommunicated, 


I 
I 


i 


GENERAL  TOPICAL   INDEX.  747 

although  not  by  name.  535.  Attacks  his  cousin.  Francis  II.  of  Naples,  with- 
out a  declaration  of  war;  embraces  Garibaldi;  and  proclaims  his  annexa- 
tion of  the  Two  Sicilies,  536.  In  coniormity  with  the  permission  of 
Napoleon  III.  to  "act  quiciily",  he  invades  Umbria  and  the  Marchos.  and 
annexes  them  to  his  kingdom,  540.  He  assumes  the  title  of  "King  of 
Italy",  542.  Openly  aids  the  attempt  of  Garibaldi  which  is  thwarted  at 
Mentana,  546.  Frightened  by  Freemasonry,  he  seizes  the  Eternal  City, 
and  installs  himself  in  the  Quirinai,  548.  Offers  a  pension  to  Pius  IX.,  but 
it  is  refused,  531.     His  death,  5GS. 

VILLANI,  JOHN.     Ilis  authority  as  a  historian,  II..   437. 

VIRGILIUS,  ST.  Disputes  with  St.  Douifaoe,  and  appeals  to  Rome,  I.,  305. 
See  BONIFACE,    ST. 

VIRGINS,  CONSECRATED.  Among  the  early  Christians,  VI.,  520.  Nunneries 
began  with  the  freedom  of  Christianity,  521.  Age  of  profession,  523. 
Blessing  of  the  veils,  w^hich  were  of  three  kinds,  524.  Duties  of  "deacon- 
esses", 525.     The   "canonesses"   of  mediaeval  times,  526. 

VOLTAIRE.  Value  of  the  "Lives  '  by  Condorcet  and  Duvernet,  the  sources  of 
nearly  all  Protestant  and  infidel  writings  on  Voltaire,  IV.,  505.  Frangois- 
Marie  Arouet  adopts  the  more  aristocratic  name  of  "M.  de  Voltaire",  508. 
His  relations  with  Bolingbroke,  509.  His  "Henriade",  511.  His  "Brutus", 
512.  His  apotheosis  of  the  infamous  Adrienne  Lecouvreur,  513.  His  best 
prose  work,  "Charles  XII",  514.  His  "Philosophical  Let:ers"  burnt  by  the 
public  executioner,  516.  Audaciously  dedicates  his  ".Mahomet"  to  Pope 
Benedict  XIV.,  518.  The  Pompadour  causes  his  appointment  as  historiog- 
rapher of  Francs,  519.  His  relations  witTi  Frederick  II.  of  Prussia,  as 
narrated  by  himself,  521.  His  "Age  of  Louis  XIV",  526.  His  rupture  with 
Frederick,  529.  His  lubricious  insults  to  "The  Maid",  530.  Becomes  the 
Sage  of  Fernoy,  and  first  pronounces  his  ecrafics  V  infSmc,  531.  His 
opinion  of  Diderot's  "Encyclopedia",  534.  His  "Essay  on  the  Morals  and 
Spirit  of  Nations",  535.  Tries  to  establish  a  philosophistic  "convent"  In 
order  to  wage  more  successful  war  on  "the  infamous  one",  536.  Ferney 
the  Mecca  of  philosophists,  538.  Returns  to  Paris,  where  he  is  idolized, 
540.  He  is  embraced  ecstatically  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  542.  The  Free- 
masonry of  Voltaire,  523,  in  Note;  542.  His  last  days,  and  the  sacrilegious 
comedy  of  his  retractation  and  confession,  543.  His  death  one  of  rage 
and  despair,  546.  The  remains  now  venerated  in  the  Paris  Pantheon  are 
probably  not  those  of  Voltaire,  but  those  of  an  unknown  monk,  548,  in 
Note.  Voltaire  was  no  friend  of  "the  people",  549.  His  contempt  for 
Rousseau,  550.  His  hatred  for  Poland,  and  his  veneration  of  his  "Saint", 
Catharine  II.,  551.  He  was  no  partisan  of  Liberty.  Equality,  and  Fra- 
ternity; and  he  despised  France,  533.  He  was  no  historian.  His  travesties 
and  falsifications  in  tiis  "Age  of  Louis  XIV.",  556.  His  justification  of 
mendacity,  560.  He  was  neither  a  genius  nor  a  philosopher,  561.  His 
calumny  on  Fenelon,  326. 

VORAGINE,  JACOBUS  DE.    Value  of  his  "Golden  Legend",  VI.,  579. 

WALDENSES.  Origin  and  doctrines,  II.,  308.  Their  divisions,  311.  They  were 
not  forerunners  of  the  Protestant  Reformation.  314.  Not  to  be  con- 
founded with  the  Vaudois  of  Piedmont,  318.  Justification  of  Pope  Innocent 
III.,  in  t)he  matter  of  his  treatment  of  the  Waldenses,  319. 

"WALLENSTEIN  (ALBERT  RALSKO).  His  origin  and  career,  IV.,  63.  in  Note. 
His  fall  not  due  to  Richelieu,  64.    Urges  the  emperor  to  sack  Rome,  80. 

"WARD,  WILLIAM  GEORGE.  His  connection  with  the  Oxford  Movement,  V., 
451,  459.  461.  His  "Ideal"  condemned  by  the  Oxford  Convocation,  465.  His 
conversion,   469. 


748  STUDIES   IN   CHUECH   HISTORY. 

WEISSHAUPT.    Founds  the  Illumlnati,  IV.,  427.    Corrupts  German  ecclesiastics^ 

428.     His   doctrines,   429.     His   conversion,   430. 
WELLINGTON.  Insists  on  Catiiolic  Emancipation  in  order  to  avert  civil  war, 

v.,   232. 
WESLEY,    JOHN.     Virulent  persecutor   of   Catholics,    and    chief  author   of    the 

Gordon  Riots,  V.,  179. 
WESTPHALIA,   PEACE   OF.     Simply   a   consecration   of   "accomplished   facts", 

IV.,  77.    Loss  It  entailed  on  Germany,  78.     Reason  for  its  reprobation  by 

Pope  Innocent  X.,  79. 
WHITE  FATHERS.     Instituted  by  Lavigerie,   VI.,   299. 
WILFRID,    ST.      His    history    a    proof    that    the    early    Anglo-Saxon    Church 

acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  I.,  412. 
WILLIAM  I.     German  Emperor.     His  duplicity,  VI.,  2,  30.     He  was  an  ardent 

Freemason,  10. 
WILLIAM  II.     German  Emperor.     His  visits  to  the  Vatican,  and  the  boorish- 

ness   of  his  brother   Henry,   VI.,    272. 
WILLIAM   HI.     King  of  England.     His  provision   "for  the  further  preventing 

the  growth  of  Popery",  V.,  161. 
WINDTHORST  (of  Meppen).    Parliamentary  champion  of  the  German  Catholics, 

VI.,  14,  28,  38,  141. 
WULSTAN,    ST.     Resigns   his    diocese    at   the    tomb    of    St.    Edward,    II.,    174, 

in  Note. 
WYCKLIFFE.     The  affair  of  Canterbury  Hall,  II.,  568.     Becomes  an  innovator, 

569.     His  condemned  propositions,   571.     He  was  neither  the  author  of  the- 

first  translation  of  the  Bible  into   the  English   language,   nor  the   author 

of    the    so-called    Wyckliffe's    Translation,    576.      Differences    between    the 

Wyckliffian    and    the    Protestant    tenets,    577.      Comparative    leniency    dis- 
played toward  the  Wyckliffltes,  579. 
XAVIER,  FRANCIS,  ST.     Founds  the  Jesuit  missions  in  Japan,  V.,  392. 
ZISKA.     Leader  of  the  THiaborite  Hussites.     His  character   and   exploits.    III., 

11,  in  Note. 
ZIZIM,   PRINCE.     Son   of  the  sultan,   Mahomet  II.     The  question   of  the  guilt 

of  PoT'e  Alexander  VI.   in  procuring  his  death.   III..   215,   in   Note. 
ZOSIMUS.  PT  .  POPE.    He  did  not  app'-ove  a  heresy  when  he  desienated  t'^e  bonlr 

of  Caelest'us  as  "Catholic",  I.,  261.     He  received  appeals  from  the  African 

dioceses,  264.    The  famous  "Transmarine"  Canon  was  not  directed  against 

appeals  to  the  Holy  See,  but  against  appeals  to  the  "Transmarine"  bishop* 

of  Milan  and  Aries,  272. 


4 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  VI. 

CENT.  XIX.-(PART  11.) 


Chapter  p^^^^ 

I.  Tlie  Bismarckian  So-CaUed  "War  For  Civilization." 1 

II.  Freemasonry  in  Latin  America.       Garcia  Moreno,  tlie  "  Modern 

St.  Louis." 44 

III.  The  Clerical  Victims  of  the  Commune  of  1871 S3 

IV.  The  Third  Frencli  Republic  as  a  Persecutor  of  the  Church Ill 

V.  A  Fighting  Clergy  and  tlie  Ecclesiastical  Canons 132 

VL  The  Pontificate  of  Leo  XIII 139 

VIL  Pope  Leo  XIIL  and  the  Third  French  Republic 203 

VIII.   Pope  Leo  XIIL  and  the  Home  Rule  Movement  in  Ireland 216 

IX.  Pope  Leo  XIIL  and   the   English  People.     The  Decision  on  Ang- 
lican "Orders." 225 

X.  Pope  Leo  XIIL  and  the  Austrian  Empire.      The   Questions   of 

Mixed  and  Civil  Marriages  in  Hungary 236 

XT.  Pope  Leo  XITL  and  the  German    Empire 265 

XII.  Pope  Leo  XIII.  and  the  Ru.«sian  Empire 283 

XIIL  Pope   Leo  XIIL  and  African  Slavery.     The  Apostolate  of   Car- 
dinal Lavigerie   291 

XIV.  Pope  Leo  XIII.  and  the  Educational  Question  in  Belgium 310 

XV.  Pope  Leo  XIIL  and  the  Cluu-ch  in -the   United  States  of   America; 
The  School  Question.     "  Cahenslyism."     The   Condemnation  of 

So-Called    "Americanism." 3^9 

XVI.  Pope  Leo  XIIL  and  Socialism.     The   Labor  Question 354 

XVII.  The  "  International  "  and  Anarchism 383 

X  VIIL  The  Vagaries  of  Father  Curci,  S.  J 400 


CONTENTS  or  VOLUME  VI. 

Chapter  Page 

XIX.  The  Apostasy  of   Dcellinger 413 

XX.  Louis  Veuillot 427 

XXI.  Cesare  Cantu,  Prince  of  Modern  Historians 441 

XXII.  The  Place  of  the  Miraculous  in  History.      The  Miracles  of  Lourdes.  448 

Appendix  :   Chronological  Tables,  showing  the  Roman  Pontiffs,    Principal 

Rulers,   Councils,  Ecclesiastical  "Writers,  and   Sectarians,  During 

Century  XIX 493 

SUPPLEMENT. 

I.  The  Identity  of  the  Three  "  Magi  "  or  Wise  Men  of  the  East 497 

II.  The  Legend  of  the  Wandering   Jew 502 

III.  The  Alleged  Idolatry  of  Pope  St.  Marcellinus 510 

IV.  Consecrated  Virgins  Among  the  Early  Christians 520 

V.  Some  Salient   Features  of  the   Middle  Age  (Complement  of   Chap. 

1,  Vol.  II.) 529 

VI.  The  Conversion  of  the  Franks.     The  Alleged  Cruelties   of   Clovis 

and  of  St.  Clotilda 585 

VII.  The   Reign  and   Character  of   St.    Louis  IX.     The   Calumnies   of 

Michelet  on  this  Monarch ' 614 

VIII.  The   Sieges  of   Rhodes  ;    Episodes  in  the  History  of  the   Soldier- 
Monks 646 

IX.  Tlie   Fable  of  the  Two-Wived  Count  of  Gleichen  663 

X.  Tiie  Controversy  on  the  Chinese  Rites . .  671 

XI.    Heterodoxies  of  Russian  "  Orthodoxy  " 687 

General  Topical  Index 717 


SvV->:2  .P2b\i.b 
Studies  in  church  history, 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00015  8446 


